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How to manage or turn off ChatGPT memory

ChatGPT can carry details from one conversation into the next. That's handy until it remembers something wrong, outdated or private. Here's how to see what it knows, fix or delete individual memories, and switch memory off fully or in part.

Updated 15 October 2026

These steps were checked against OpenAI's help pages in October 2026. OpenAI notes that memory controls vary by plan, region, platform and workspace, so your screen may show a slightly different set of switches.

How ChatGPT memory works

Memory draws on a few separate sources, and each has its own controls:

• Saved memories: specific facts you asked ChatGPT to remember, or that it saved because they looked useful. They're stored apart from your chats.
• Chat history: with Reference chat history on, ChatGPT can pull relevant details from earlier conversations. What it takes from them shifts over time.
• Other context: depending on your plan and region, memory can also use your custom instructions, files in Library and connected apps such as Gmail.

Memory comes in two styles. Improved memory keeps a broad summary up to date as you go. The older, legacy style is a plain list of individual saved memories. Where both are offered, the Memory settings page lets you pick Saved memories for the legacy style or Try improved memory to go back, and switching doesn't delete any chats.

Open your memory settings

1. Open Settings from your profile menu.
2. Select Personalization.
3. Select Memory.

Depending on your account, you'll see some of these: Memory, Reference saved memories, Reference chat history, Memory summary, Manage or Saved memories.

See what ChatGPT remembers

• Read the memory summary. It gives an overview of what ChatGPT may use to tailor answers. It's a high-level view and can leave out details.
• Ask directly. Type "What do you remember about me?" in a chat.
• Check Sources under an answer. When ChatGPT uses personal context, a Sources section may appear below the reply, pointing to the past chat, saved memory, file or email involved. It may not list every factor.

Correct or delete a memory

You have three options, depending on how far you want to go:

• Fix it. In the memory summary, type a correction in the text box, or highlight the wrong text and correct it. You can also just tell ChatGPT in a chat that something is out of date.
• Mute it. Select Don't mention this again where it appears. This only cuts down future mentions; the original chat or file stays.
• Delete it. Remove the item from the memory summary or the saved-memories list, or ask ChatGPT to forget it.

To remove a detail completely, you have to clear it everywhere it lives: the saved memory, the chat where you first mentioned it (archived chats included), any Library file containing it, and any connected app holding it. A memory that came from a chat can outlive the chat itself. Our guide to deleting ChatGPT chats covers that part.

Turn memory off

Pick the level of switch-off you want:

• Turn it off, keep your chats. Switch off Memory on the Memory settings page. Your past chats aren't touched, and if you switch memory back on later, ChatGPT may start building new memories from them.
• Erase and stop. In the memory summary, open the ••• menu and choose Delete and turn off memory. This deletes what the summary shows and turns memory off. Past chats stay.
• Stop using old chats only. Turn off Reference chat history. What ChatGPT had picked up from past chats is scheduled for deletion within 30 days, while your saved memories and the chats themselves stay.
• Stop using saved memories. Turn off Reference saved memories. Be aware this switches off Reference chat history as well.

Keep memory out of one chat or one project

• One conversation: open a new chat, select Temporary, and choose Unpersonalized before your first message. It won't use your memories or custom instructions, and a temporary chat doesn't create or update memories while it stays temporary.
• One project: set the project to Project-only memory under ••• → Project settings → Memory. Its chats can draw on each other but not on your saved memories or other chats, and chats outside the project can't draw on it. Our ChatGPT Projects guide explains the options.

Good to know

• Memory isn't custom instructions. Custom instructions are standing directions you write yourself. Memory builds up from your conversations and other sources.
• Model training is a separate switch. On personal accounts, OpenAI may use chats and remembered details to improve its models while Improve the model for everyone is on, which you can turn off under Data controls. Business, Enterprise, Edu and Healthcare workspace content isn't used for training by default.
• Deletion isn't instant everywhere. Changes can take a while to reach everywhere, and OpenAI can hold on to logs of saved memories you delete for as long as 30 days, for safety checks and debugging.
• Work accounts. Workspace owners and admins can control memory settings across the workspace. In ChatGPT Business, if the owner turns memory off for the workspace, members' saved memories in that workspace are deleted.
• Safety use continues. Even with memory off, ChatGPT can still draw on a small amount of context in the rare conversations that look like a serious safety risk. That is separate from personalization.

If it doesn't work

• You don't see a setting described here. It may not have reached your plan, region or device yet. In a work account, your admin may have restricted it.
• ChatGPT keeps bringing up something you deleted. The detail may still be in a chat, a Library file or a connected app. Remove it there, and allow some time for changes to take effect.
• Old details came back after you re-enabled memory. ChatGPT can rebuild memories from chats still in your history. Delete those chats if you don't want them used.
• You can't see what a project remembers. Project memory has no list view. To stop a project using a particular chat, delete it or move it to another project.

Sources

• Memory in ChatGPT (OpenAI Help Center, checked 15 October 2026)
• Memory FAQ (Business Version) (OpenAI Help Center, checked 15 October 2026)
• Temporary chat in ChatGPT (OpenAI Help Center, checked 15 October 2026)
• Projects in ChatGPT (OpenAI Help Center, checked 15 October 2026)
• Data controls in ChatGPT (OpenAI Help Center, checked 15 October 2026)

Frequently asked questions