After months of litigation, we are no longer under a legal order to retain consumer ChatGPT and API content indefinitely. Our obligations under the earlier order ended on September 26, 2025.

We’ve returned to our standard data retention practices⁠(opens in a new window):

The New York Times continues to demand that OpenAI keep a specific set of user data from April-September 2025. So while we’re no longer required to indefinitely retain new user data going forward or any conversations originating from the European Economic Area, Switzerland, or the United Kingdom, we will securely store limited historical April–September 2025 user data. It remains locked down, accessible only to a small, audited OpenAI legal and security team, and can’t be used for anything other than meeting legal obligations. This data will not be turned over to the New York Times, the Court, or anyone else at this time. We will continue to fight these overreaches by the New York Times and defend long-standing privacy norms.

As the New York Times’ own Editorial board wrote in 2020, users “should be able to control what happens to their personal data⁠(opens in a new window).”

We give you tools to control your data—including easy opt-outs and permanent removal of deleted ChatGPT chats⁠(opens in a new window) and API content from OpenAI’s systems within 30 days.

The New York Times and other plaintiffs have made a sweeping and unnecessary demand in their baseless lawsuit against us: retain consumer ChatGPT and API customer data indefinitely.