How to Delete ChatGPT History: Chats, Memory and More (2026)

To delete all of your ChatGPT history, open Settings, select Data controls, and choose Delete all chats. To delete one conversation, open the more options menu (•••) next to it in the sidebar and select Delete. Both are permanent: OpenAI removes deleted chats from your account immediately, schedules them for permanent deletion within 30 days, and cannot restore them, even through Support (OpenAI Help Center, October 2026).

Chats are only part of your ChatGPT history, though. Saved memories, files in Library, and shared links are stored separately, and OpenAI says deleting a chat does not necessarily remove them. This guide covers every place your history lives, in the order to clear it: chats, archived chats, memory, Library files, and shared links, plus how to stop new history from being saved and how to keep a copy of anything you want before you delete. Every menu path below comes from OpenAI's Help Center articles as read on October 10, 2026.

By Adi Leviim, Co-Founder at Infi Developments. 7+ years building AI productivity tools. Last reviewed October 2026.

What Counts as Your ChatGPT History

Your ChatGPT history is five separate things, and each one is deleted in its own place. Deleting chats is the part most people mean, but OpenAI's memory article warns that "deleting a chat alone does not necessarily delete a separate saved memory created from that chat," and its retention article says the same for files saved to Library (OpenAI Memory FAQ).

If you want to remove the account itself along with everything in it, that is a different action covered in the guide to deleting your ChatGPT account.

How to Delete All ChatGPT History at Once

Delete all chats in Data controls removes every conversation in your current account or workspace, including chats inside projects, and it cannot be undone. OpenAI's steps (Deleting and archiving chats in ChatGPT):

1. Open Settings. On the web, click your profile name or picture at the bottom of the sidebar. In the iPhone and Android apps, open the sidebar and tap your profile icon.
2. Select Data controls.
3. Select Delete all chats.
4. Review the confirmation message, then continue.

The same panel has Archive all chats right next to it, so read the button before you click. If you are signed in to a Business or Enterprise workspace, the action applies to that workspace, and your organization's retention policy can keep data for its compliance tools.

How to Delete One Chat or Your Archived Chats

A single chat is deleted from its own menu, and archived chats are deleted from the Archived chats list in Settings.

• One chat: in the sidebar, open the more options menu (•••) for the chat, select Delete, and confirm.
• Archived chats: open Settings, Data controls, then Archived chats or View archived chats, depending on your device. If Manage appears, select it, then select Delete on the chat. Archiving alone deletes nothing; archived chats stay saved and searchable. The guide to finding archived chats in ChatGPT shows the list.
• A whole project: deleting a project removes its chats, instructions, and the files stored only in that project. Files saved separately in Library stay (Projects in ChatGPT).

How to Delete Most of Your History but Keep Some Chats

ChatGPT itself has no way to select several chats and delete them together: it offers one chat at a time or every chat at once. That is a problem when you want to clear your history but keep a project, a few reference chats, or this month's work. People search for exactly this, phrased as "delete all chats except projects", and Delete all chats cannot do it because it includes project chats.

AI Toolbox's ChatGPT module adds a Manage Chats panel to the ChatGPT sidebar with a checkbox next to every conversation, chats inside projects grouped under their project, and a search box for titles. Tick the chats to remove, click Delete, and confirm. The free plan deletes up to 5 selected chats per action; Premium has no cap. The deletions run through your own signed-in session, so OpenAI's rules apply: they are permanent and purged within 30 days.

1. Install AI Toolbox from the Chrome Web Store. It works in Chrome, Edge, Brave, Opera, Arc and other Chromium browsers.
2. Open chatgpt.com and click Manage Chats in the sidebar.
3. Tick the chats you no longer need, leaving your projects and keepers unticked.
4. Click Delete and confirm.

The step-by-step version, with the free and Premium limits side by side, is in the guide to deleting multiple ChatGPT chats at once.

Want to clear your history without losing the chats that matter? AI Toolbox (formerly ChatGPT Toolbox) adds checkbox bulk delete, bulk export to TXT, Markdown, JSON or PDF, folders and full-text search to ChatGPT. 40,000+ users, 4.7/5 on the Chrome Web Store.

Add AI Toolbox to Chrome, free ->

How to Clear ChatGPT Memory

Saved memories are separate from chats, so clearing your chat history leaves them in place. To review and delete them, open Settings, select Personalization, then Memory (OpenAI Memory FAQ). Depending on your account, you will see the Memory summary, saved memories, or both.

• Delete one item from the memory summary or the saved-memory controls.
• Delete everything: on the memory summary, select Delete and turn off memory from the more options menu (•••). OpenAI says this deletes the remembered information shown in the summary and turns Memory off, but does not delete past chats.
• "Don't mention this again" only stops ChatGPT from bringing something up. It does not delete the source.

To remove a fact completely, OpenAI's advice is to delete the saved memory and the chat where you first shared it, plus any Library file or connected app that holds it. It also notes it "may retain logs of deleted saved memories for up to 30 days for safety and debugging purposes." The ChatGPT memory guide has screenshots of each screen.

How to Delete Files, Images and Shared Links

Library files and shared links outlive the chats they came from unless you delete them too.

• Library files: "Deleting a chat does not delete files saved separately in Library. Delete the files from Library if you also want to remove those saved copies" (Chat and file retention in ChatGPT). Images ChatGPT generated work differently, and the guide to deleting images from ChatGPT Library covers both cases.
• Shared links: open Settings, Data controls, and next to Shared links select Manage. Delete one with Delete shared link, or remove every link from More actions with Delete all shared links (Sharing conversations in ChatGPT).
• Copies other people saved: deleting a chat removes its shared link, but OpenAI notes that it "does not remove a conversation or task another person already saved."

Export Your ChatGPT History Before You Delete It

Deleted chats cannot be restored, so save anything you may need before you clear your history. OpenAI's own export, in Settings, Data controls, emails you a link to a ZIP of your whole account, and it is available to signed-in Free, Go, Plus and Pro users (Data controls in ChatGPT). It is all or nothing, though, and the chats arrive as one large file.

To keep only the chats worth keeping as readable files, AI Toolbox exports any chat to TXT for free, and selected chats, whole folders, or projects to TXT, Markdown, JSON or PDF on Premium. The ChatGPT export guide and the bulk export guide show both, and the ChatGPT backup guide compares every method.

How to Stop ChatGPT From Saving New History

Use Temporary Chat for conversations you do not want in your history, and turn off model training if your concern is how chats are used. These are different settings:

• Temporary Chat: open a new chat and select Temporary. It "stays out of your chat history and is not used to improve OpenAI models while it remains temporary," does not create or update memories, and OpenAI "may keep a copy of a temporary chat for up to 30 days for safety purposes" (Temporary chat in ChatGPT).
• Improve the model for everyone: turning it off in Settings, Data controls stops new conversations from being used for training, but OpenAI is explicit that it "does not delete or hide saved chats." Opting out and deleting are separate steps.
• Memory: turning Memory off stops new remembered information, but "does not delete your past chats."

The full picture of what OpenAI keeps, and for how long, is in our explainer on whether ChatGPT saves your chats.

Can You Recover Deleted ChatGPT History?

No. OpenAI says you "cannot restore a deleted chat in ChatGPT or through OpenAI Support," and that includes chats removed with Delete all chats. If a chat seems to have vanished but you never deleted it, it may be archived, in another account or workspace, or simply no longer shown in the sidebar. OpenAI notes that "an older chat that is no longer visible in the sidebar has not necessarily been deleted" (Finding your chats in ChatGPT). The ChatGPT history missing guide walks through every check.

Limitations

OpenAI documents these paths for the web; the iPhone and Android apps reach the same Data controls from the profile icon, but labels can differ by device. OpenAI does not say whether Delete all chats also removes archived chats, so check the Archived chats list afterwards. Deletion is subject to legal and security exceptions, and in Business and Enterprise workspaces your organization's retention policy applies. AI Toolbox runs on Chromium desktop browsers, not in the ChatGPT mobile or desktop apps, and it can delete only what your own ChatGPT account can delete.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I delete all my ChatGPT history at once?

Open Settings, select Data controls, and choose Delete all chats, then confirm. It removes every chat in your current account or workspace, including chats in projects, and cannot be undone. Saved memories, Library files and archived chats are managed separately, so clear those too if you want a clean slate.

Does deleting ChatGPT chats delete memory?

No. OpenAI says deleting a chat does not necessarily delete a saved memory created from it. Open Settings, Personalization, Memory to delete individual memories, or choose Delete and turn off memory from the memory summary menu. Turning Memory off alone does not delete past chats either.

Can I recover deleted ChatGPT history?

No. Deleted chats are removed from your account immediately and scheduled for permanent deletion within 30 days, and OpenAI cannot restore them through Support. Only a copy you exported before deleting, such as OpenAI's data export or an AI Toolbox export, can bring the content back.

How do I delete all ChatGPT chats except projects?

ChatGPT cannot do it, because Delete all chats includes chats in projects. Delete the other chats one at a time, or use AI Toolbox's Manage Chats panel, which groups project chats separately and lets you tick only the chats to remove: up to 5 per action free, no cap on Premium.

Does ChatGPT keep my chats after I delete them?

For up to 30 days. OpenAI schedules deleted chats for permanent deletion from its systems within 30 days, unless they were already de-identified or must be kept longer for security or legal obligations. In Business and Enterprise workspaces, the organization's retention policy can also apply.

How do I clear ChatGPT history on my phone?

In the ChatGPT app, open the sidebar, tap your profile icon to open Settings, and select Data controls. Delete all chats is there, along with Archived chats. To delete a single chat, open its options in the chat list and choose Delete. Labels can differ slightly between iPhone and Android.

Bottom Line

Delete all chats in Settings, Data controls clears your conversations, including project chats, permanently and within 30 days. A full clean-up also means deleting archived chats, saved memories, Library files and shared links, which live elsewhere. Export anything you may need first, use Temporary Chat for conversations you never want saved, and if you only want to remove some chats, select them rather than wiping everything.

Related reading: where ChatGPT conversations are stored, how archiving works, sharing a ChatGPT chat safely, and automatic ChatGPT backups.

Sources

• OpenAI Help Center, Deleting and archiving chats in ChatGPT
• OpenAI Help Center, Chat and file retention in ChatGPT
• OpenAI Help Center, Memory in ChatGPT
• OpenAI Help Center, Sharing conversations and scheduled tasks in ChatGPT
• OpenAI Help Center, Temporary chat in ChatGPT

Last updated: October 10, 2026