What Happens When You Delete ChatGPT Memory?

Memory in ChatGPT is designed to make your interactions personalized by remembering things you’ve shared. However, instead of storing everything you’ve ever said (which would be too resource-heavy)—ChatGPT selectively saves certain details from your conversations or the ones you explicitly ask it to remember.

For example, if you tell ChatGPT that you want to understand any new information with examples, it will remember that and tailor future responses accordingly. However, you can also delete this information from ChaGPT’s memory if you are worried about privacy or feel ChatGPT no longer needs to retain this information. Here’s what happens when you do that.

1. ChatGPT Won’t Personalize Answers

ChatGPT lets you delete specific or entire memory. When a memory is deleted, it will no longer remember your preferences or personalize its answers to your questions. For example, if you delete memory, ChatGPT won’t remember that you prefer detailed answers with examples or that you are allergic to some food item. You’ll need to re-share these details again.

However, unless the Memory feature is turned off, ChatGPT will continue learning new details from your future interactions.

2. Memory Is Deleted, Conversations Are Not

Deleting memory doesn’t mean your chat history will be erased. Once ChatGPT learns something about you, that detail is stored in its memory separate from the actual conversations you had. When you delete memory, those specific pieces of remembered information are removed, but your chat logs remain intact. This means you can delete memory without worrying about losing the history of your past chats.

3. Responses Can Be Less Biased

ChatGPT’s reponses are influcened by the information you share as it learns more about you. For example, you like actions movies and share names of two movies of which one is action and one is comedy. ChatGPT will choose action if it’s memory serves it right but may choose comedy or answer neutral if your preferences are deleted from it’s memory.

Deleting memory means responses are more generalized, potentially reducing subtle bias. This can also enhance your privacy, as ChatGPT won’t retain details about you between chats.

If you want to keep the memory but still want an unbiased answer, use the Temporary Chat feature. When using Temporary Chat, ChatGPT won’t access or save information from previous conversations. This mode is ideal for one-off queries or when you want unbiased, generalized responses.

How to Delete ChatGPT Memory

Now that you know what happens when you delete memory, here’s how you can do it. Follow the steps below to delete ChatGPT memory:

1. Click on the profile icon and select the Settings menu in ChatGPT.
2. Navigate to Personalization and click on Manage under the Memory section.
3. From here, you can:
   • Delete all memories by clicking on the Clear memories button.
   • Pick specific memories you don’t want ChatGPT to remember and click on the delete icon next to them.

You can also delete details from memory directly in your conversations. Just ask ChatGPT to forget something, and it will remove that information. Be careful, though—ChatGPT cannot restore deleted memories, and you might accidentally delete details you didn’t intend to remove.

Ravi Teja KNTS

Tech writer with over 4 years of experience at TechWiser, where he has authored more than 700 articles on AI, Google apps, Chrome OS, Discord, and Android. His journey started with a passion for discussing technology and helping others in online forums, which naturally grew into a career in tech journalism. Ravi's writing focuses on simplifying technology, making it accessible and jargon-free for readers. When he's not breaking down the latest tech, he's often immersed in a classic film – a true cinephile at heart.