Does ChatGPT train on the notes I send it?

Whether OpenAI trains on your content depends entirely on which product you're using and which settings are enabled. Here's the 2026 reality.

ChatGPT free and Plus (consumer)

• Default: yes, your conversations are used for model training.
• To opt out: Settings → Data Controls → "Improve the model for everyone" → off.
• Effect of opt-out: your conversations are still stored for 30 days for abuse monitoring, then deleted. Not used for training.

ChatGPT Team and Enterprise

• Default: no, content is never used for training.
• Logging: conversations are stored for the user's history but excluded from training pipelines.

OpenAI API (the surface most apps use)

• Default since March 2023: API requests are NOT used for training.
• Retention: stored for 30 days for abuse monitoring, then deleted, UNLESS the developer has signed a "zero data retention" (ZDR) agreement with OpenAI, in which case requests are deleted immediately.
• Most apps using the API don't pay for ZDR — Notion, Mem, Reflect, etc. use standard API which has 30-day retention.

What this means for notes apps:

• Notion AI: powered by OpenAI API. Notion's privacy policy states they have a zero-retention agreement, so OpenAI doesn't keep your content. But Notion themselves can still read it because it passes through their servers unencrypted.
• Mem: similar — API-based, opted out of training, but Mem holds the data unencrypted.
• Apple Notes (with Apple Intelligence): Apple's on-device AI does not train on your content. Cloud-routed requests go through Apple's Private Cloud Compute, which Apple says doesn't store content beyond the request. No third-party AI provider involved.
• Némos: uses Apple's on-device Foundation Models exclusively. No content ever leaves your device for AI processing. No OpenAI involvement.

What about non-OpenAI providers?

• Anthropic (Claude): API not used for training by default. Consumer Claude.ai conversations not used for training by default since 2024.
• Google (Gemini): free Gemini consumer plan trains by default; can opt out. Workspace AI doesn't train.
• Microsoft Copilot: doesn't train on enterprise data; consumer terms vary.

The trust gap:

Even when policies say "we don't train," you're trusting:

• The provider's policy is accurate.
• The provider's policy doesn't change without notice.
• The provider's *employees* don't access the data (the technical capability often exists).
• The provider isn't compelled by law to hand it over.

For genuinely sensitive content (medical, legal, financial, journalistic sources), the only safe path in 2026 is on-device AI — Apple Foundation Models, local LLMs via Ollama or LM Studio, or apps explicitly designed around on-device processing.

Quick reference card:

If privacy is a deciding factor, the on-device options are the only ones that don't require trusting a third party.

## Why this question gets asked so often

The "does ChatGPT train on my data" question has been the single most-searched ChatGPT privacy query since November 2022 — when ChatGPT launched and OpenAI's privacy policy first became public scrutiny material. Search volume peaked in March 2024 during the EU AI Act final debate, when European regulators questioned OpenAI's default opt-in training. The question matters because most users who paste sensitive content into ChatGPT — code with API keys, customer support transcripts, personal therapy journals, business plans — have no idea what happens to it. OpenAI's policy changes have been frequent and confusing: training-by-default in 2022, opt-out introduced March 2023, ChatGPT Team/Enterprise no-training launched November 2023, "Improve the model for everyone" toggle renamed multiple times, ChatGPT Memory feature added separate retention rules in early 2024. Each change reset the user-knowledge baseline. r/ChatGPT and r/OpenAI threads on training behavior consistently get 1,000+ comments because nobody is sure what the current policy actually is at any given moment.

## The deeper story

The training-data debate in LLM ecosystems is more nuanced than "they train on your data, yes or no." OpenAI processes three distinct content streams: (1) consumer ChatGPT conversations (default-train, opt-out), (2) API requests (no-train by default since March 2023), and (3) red-team safety review (a sample of all conversations may be reviewed by humans for moderation, regardless of training preferences). The third stream is the under-discussed one — even with training disabled, human reviewers at OpenAI and their contractors (notably the Kenya-based moderation team profiled by Time Magazine in January 2023) may read sampled conversations. This is similar to how Apple Siri review worked before Apple paused it in 2019. Anthropic's Claude follows a similar pattern but with shorter retention. Google Gemini has the loosest consumer policy — defaults to training on Free conversations. The fundamental issue is that "we don't train" doesn't mean "we don't read." On-device AI eliminates both because nothing leaves the device.

## Edge cases and gotchas

• Memory feature: ChatGPT's Memory can be enabled separately from training. Memory stores user facts in your account and is not used for training, but doesn't follow the same retention rules.
• Custom GPTs: instructions and uploaded files for custom GPTs may be retained even with training disabled.
• File uploads: PDFs and images uploaded to ChatGPT are stored separately from conversation logs and have different retention.
• Voice mode: voice conversations are transcribed and the transcript follows conversation rules; the audio itself is deleted within 30 days.
• DALL-E image inputs: when you upload an image for editing, the image is stored to comply with copyright rules.
• Code Interpreter / Advanced Data Analysis: code executed in OpenAI's sandbox runs on their servers, with file uploads retained for the session.
• Plugin / GPT calls: any plugin or custom GPT that calls a third-party API exposes your prompt to that third party.
• Browse / web search: when ChatGPT browses, queries traverse Bing's infrastructure.

## What competitors say

Anthropic Claude doesn't train on consumer conversations by default since 2024; API requests excluded by default. Google Gemini trains by default on consumer Gemini Free, doesn't train on Workspace AI. Microsoft Copilot doesn't train on enterprise data; consumer terms vary. Apple Intelligence is on-device or Private Cloud Compute — no training, no human review. Mistral has European privacy defaults — no training on API data. Perplexity uses GPT-4/Claude under the hood; inherits provider behavior. Notion AI uses OpenAI API with ZDR — no training, no retention. Obsidian Smart Connections uses local LLMs by default. Némos doesn't use cloud LLMs at all — only Apple's on-device Foundation Models.

## The 2026 verdict

For content you'd be okay with reading aloud at a coffee shop, default ChatGPT settings are fine. For anything sensitive — work documents, personal health, financial details, legal questions — either: (1) disable "Improve the model for everyone" and limit Memory, (2) move to ChatGPT Team/Enterprise (no training), or (3) use on-device AI that doesn't share any content. The training question is being slowly settled by regulation (EU AI Act, California SB-1001) but voluntary user choice remains the dominant lever. The single highest-impact privacy change for ChatGPT users is the Data Controls opt-out — most users have never visited that setting.