Guide
Glossary
Zero data retention (ZDR)
Zero data retention (ZDR) is an arrangement in which an AI provider agrees not to store your prompts or the model's responses once each request has been answered. Without it, business API services keep some content for a period: OpenAI's API, for example, keeps abuse-monitoring logs for up to 30 days. As at September 2026, OpenAI and Anthropic offer ZDR only to business API customers they approve, and only for eligible features. Microsoft's similar arrangement for its Azure-hosted models is called modified abuse monitoring. ZDR is mainly an API arrangement: chat apps such as ChatGPT and Claude follow their own retention settings. Exceptions remain, including legal holds, flagged misuse and, with Anthropic, some newer models.
Also called ZDR, zero retention
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Example
In a law firm
For example, a litigation firm builds an internal tool that sends discovery documents to an AI model through an API, and asks the provider for ZDR. Before relying on it, the firm gets written confirmation that the arrangement is active for its organisation, which models and features it covers, and that staff using the provider's chat app are outside it.
Is zero data retention the same as not training on your data?
No, they are separate promises. Business AI services from OpenAI, Anthropic and Microsoft already exclude customer content from model training by default. ZDR is about storage: whether the provider keeps a copy of your prompts and outputs at all after answering. A provider can agree not to train on your data and still store it for weeks to check for misuse. When assessing a vendor, ask about both, and get the answers in the contract rather than a web page. Sources: OpenAI data controls, Anthropic API and data retention, Microsoft abuse monitoring.
Guides that explain it in context
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