ChatGPT User Guide: Privacy Settings Guide to Turn Off Chat History Training and Clear History

To use ChatGPT with more peace of mind, the key is privacy settings: whether chat history is used for training, how to enable temporary chats, and how to delete or bulk-clear history. The following ChatGPT tutorial lays out the steps clearly in the order of “where to find it — how to set it — how to wrap up.” Just click through a few times and you’re done—no extra tools needed.

Where to access ChatGPT privacy settings (web and mobile)

After opening ChatGPT on the web, first click your profile avatar/name area in the bottom-left corner, then go to “Settings.” In Settings, you can usually see “Data controls” or a similar option; this is where switches related to chat history and training are managed in one place.

In the mobile app, the entry is generally also under your avatar or “Settings” in the sidebar. If you can’t find “Data controls,” first confirm you’re logged into the same ChatGPT account and update the app to a newer version before trying again.

Turn off “chat history used for training”: keep new conversations from being used to improve the model

After entering “Data controls,” find the “Chat history & training” toggle. Once turned off, your new conversations in ChatGPT typically won’t be used for training improvements; at the same time, the way the history panel is displayed may also change—this is normal.

Note that turning off this toggle does not automatically delete your previous chat history; it’s more like “starting from now, switch to a different recording policy.” If you want to deal with existing content too, keep reading for the cleanup methods below, which are more reliable.

How to use Temporary Chat: finish chatting without leaving it in history

If you only occasionally ask sensitive questions and don’t want traces left behind, you can prioritize using ChatGPT’s “Temporary chat” mode. After enabling it, these conversations typically won’t appear in the left-side history list, keeping things cleaner once you’re done.

Temporary chats are suitable for one-off questions, such as polishing a resume, understanding contract clauses, or troubleshooting device issues. It’s recommended to confirm you’re in temporary mode before you start chatting, so you don’t realize only afterward that the conversation was saved in history.

Cleaning and managing history: delete individual items, bulk clear, and log out

In ChatGPT’s left-side history list, a single conversation usually supports deletion via “More/…”; if you just want to hide cluttered conversations, you can also choose to archive them first (if the interface provides this feature). When you need a thorough cleanup, it’s more efficient to go to “Settings” and look for “Clear all chats / clear chat history.”

After cleaning up, it’s recommended to also check whether you’re still logged into ChatGPT on a public computer or someone else’s device. The simplest approach is to log out directly on that device; if you’re not sure which devices have logged in, at least check the browser account/session status on your commonly used devices to avoid risks from leftover sessions.

Common snags: can’t find the toggle, or settings don’t take effect

If you can’t see the relevant toggles in ChatGPT, try refreshing the page, logging out and back in, or switching to an incognito window to rule out browser extension interference. On mobile, it’s recommended to update and restart the app, then go back to “Settings → Data controls” to check.

If you still see history after turning off training, these are two different things: the toggle controls “whether it’s used for training / whether it’s automatically saved to history,” while clearing history requires you to manually delete or clear it. Follow this ChatGPT tutorial to complete both steps—“turn off the toggle + clear history”—for privacy control to truly be in place.