AI Chat That Doesn’t Store Your Conversations
Short answer: Duck.ai, Brave Leo, Proton Lumo, Venice AI, NanoGPT, PPQ.ai and Obscurify.ai all say they don’t keep your prompts on their servers; your chat history stays on your own device. ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini do keep conversations by default, and even their temporary or incognito modes keep a copy for 72 hours to 30 days. “Not stored” also depends on the model company behind the service, so check what it promises too.
Disclosure: written by Obscurify.ai, one of the services compared. Every claim about another service links to its own page, checked on 2026-11-06.
Where can an AI conversation be stored?
A chat can be kept in three places, and “we don’t store your chats” usually only speaks for one of them:
- The chat service’s servers. This is what most privacy pages talk about.
- The model company. If the service sends your prompt to OpenAI, Anthropic or Google, their retention rules apply unless the route has zero data retention (ZDR): a commitment to delete the prompt once the reply is done.
- Your device. Private services usually keep history in your browser’s local storage. Anyone with your unlocked device can read it, and clearing site data deletes it.
Many services also hold a chat in memory briefly to make replies faster. That isn’t storage on disk, but a good privacy page tells you how long it lasts.
Which AI chats don’t store your conversations?
Checked 2026-11-06, from each service’s own privacy page.
| Service | Stored on its servers? | Model companies keep it? | Where your history lives | Used for training? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Duck.ai | No, by default | Providers agree to ZDR; OpenAI and Anthropic may cache up to 1 hour in memory | Your device; optional end-to-end encrypted Sync & Backup | No |
| Brave Leo | No; large prompts cached, “deleted within minutes” | Brave says it hosts the models on its own infrastructure | Your device | No |
| Proton Lumo | No logs; “the data is erased” after the reply | Open models on Proton’s own servers | Your device, synced with zero-access encryption (guests: erased after the session) | No |
| Venice AI | No | Default mode is ZDR by contract; for GPT, Claude and Gemini, “assume the provider is storing your content” | Your browser | Not stated |
| NanoGPT | No, by default (opt-in sync and sharing) | Providers’ own policies; ZDR “best effort” | Your browser | No |
| PPQ.ai | Prompts not stored | Depends on the model’s tier; “Anon” models may keep prompts | Your browser, if you don’t make an account | Not stated |
| Maple AI | Yes, but end-to-end encrypted so Maple can’t read it | Open models in an attested enclave | Maple’s servers, encrypted with your key | Not stated; Maple can’t read it |
| Obscurify.ai | No; held in memory up to 1 hour for speed, then deleted, never written to disk | Zero-data-retention routes only, under providers’ published policies (no signed agreements) | Your browser | No |
For comparison, the big three keep chats by default:
| Service | Normal chats | Temporary / incognito mode | Sign-up needs |
|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | Kept until you delete them, then deleted within 30 days | Up to 30 days “for safety purposes” | An OpenAI account |
| Claude | Kept until you delete them, then deleted within 30 days; up to 5 years if you allow training | Incognito chats kept 30 days | Email and a phone number |
| Gemini | Auto-deleted after 18 months by default | With Keep Activity off, kept 72 hours | Google account |
Two details matter. Claude keeps flagged chats up to 2 years, and Google keeps chats picked for human review up to 3 years, even after you delete your activity. Google’s own advice: “Please don’t enter confidential information that you wouldn’t want a reviewer to see.”
Why does “not stored” matter more than “deleted later”?
Because data that exists can be ordered kept. In 2025, a court order in the New York Times’ lawsuit required OpenAI to preserve consumer ChatGPT conversations, including deleted ones, until the obligation ended on September 26, 2025. OpenAI said customers on its Zero Data Retention API weren’t affected, because “it is not stored”. (OpenAI)
A 30-day deletion window is a promise about the future. A chat that was never written down can’t be preserved, leaked or reviewed.
How do you check whether an AI chat stores your conversations?
- Read the privacy policy for retention, not marketing. Look for a number of days and for the words “prompts” or “content”. Vague phrases like “we take privacy seriously” don’t count.
- Check what happens at the model company. Look for zero data retention, and whether it’s a contract or only the provider’s published policy.
- Look for exceptions. Feedback buttons, flagged chats, shared links and optional sync all usually store content.
- Prefer things you can verify. Open-source code, attested enclaves (Maple, PPQ.ai, Venice Pro) and end-to-end encryption beat policy alone.
- Test it. Open the chat in a second browser: if your history appears there without sync turned on, it’s on a server.
What does Obscurify.ai keep?
- Not kept: your prompts and AI replies. Conversations are held in memory for up to 1 hour for performance, then permanently deleted, and never written to disk. History lives in your browser and you can delete it.
- Kept: IP address and browser user agent for abuse prevention, deleted after 30 days; billing records (model, token counts, cost, time); a keyed hash of your account number.
- What we can’t promise: model companies see the prompt text (not who sent it). We only use zero-data-retention routes, but those rest on the providers’ published policies, without signed agreements. There’s no TEE or end-to-end encryption, and the server is closed source.
The full list is in our privacy policy. For what each part of “private” means here, see private AI.
Frequently asked questions
Does any AI chat store nothing at all?
Only one running on your own device. Every online service handles your prompt in memory to answer it, and most keep some logs (IP addresses, billing). Local models keep nothing anywhere else; Obscurify.ai’s Local Mode runs small models in your browser.
Does ChatGPT’s temporary chat store my conversation?
Yes, briefly. OpenAI says it may keep a copy of a temporary chat for up to 30 days for safety purposes. It isn’t used for training while it stays temporary.
Does Claude’s incognito mode store my chats?
Yes. Anthropic says incognito chats aren’t saved to your history or used for training, but are retained for 30 days by default.
Is Duck.ai’s chat history stored?
Not on DuckDuckGo’s servers by default. Recent chats stay on your device unless you turn on Sync & Backup, which stores them end-to-end encrypted.
If a service doesn’t store chats, can it still be forced to hand them over?
It can only hand over what it has. A service with no stored chats can still be ordered to start logging, and it still has things like IP logs or payment records. That’s why Obscurify.ai deletes IP logs after 30 days, uses accounts with no email, and publishes a monthly warrant canary.
Where can I compare more private AI chats?
See the best private AI chatbots in 2026 and the full private AI chat comparison.