Skip to main content

How to delete your entire chat history in ChatGPT

chatgpt recommends sonos ace colors
Phil Nickinson / Digital Trends

Just as you should be regularly clearing your browser history and deleting your oldest, cringiest social media posts, routinely wiping your ChatGPT chat history is an efficient, low-effort means of protecting your private data online.

Recommended Videos

Difficulty

Easy

Duration

5 minutes

What You Need

  • A computer or mobile device with an internet connection

  • Your ChatGPT login and password

Whether you're concerned about sensitive information or simply want a fresh start ahead of a new project, clearing your chat history takes less than five minutes and can be easily done, whether on desktop or the mobile app.

How to delete all your ChatGPT chats on desktop

Step 1: Log into your ChatGPT account on the desktop website. Select the Log In radio button in the lower-left corner of the screen and input your credentials.

ChatGPT home screen without anyone logged in.
Andrew Tarantola / Digital Trends

Step 2: Go to General Settings and select Delete All Chats. Click on the User icon in the upper-right corner of the screen, select Settings from the drop-down menu. The Delete All Chats option is at the bottom of the list with a large red radio button to its right.

The ChatGPT general settings screen showing the option to delete all chats.
Andrew Tarantola / Digital Trends

Step 3: Confirm your choice. Once you select the Delete All Chats button, the system will show a confirmation screen. Make sure that this is really what you want to do before confirming because the operation is irreversible and all of that data will be permanently deleted.

The ChatGPT delete all chats confirmation screen.
Andrew Tarantola / Digital Trends

How to delete all your ChatGPT chats on mobile

Step 1: Log into your ChatGPT account and open the navigation bar. As soon as you've input your credentials and arrive on the ChatGPT mobile home page, select the two horizontal lines at the top-left corner of the screen to open the navigation menu. Select your account icon at the bottom of the navigation bar to bring up the Settings menu.

Step 2: Select Data Controls. Tap on the Data Control tab in the Settings menu, it's the fourth option down under Account.

Step 3: Select Clear Chat History. It's the one in red text and, once tapped, be sure to confirm your choice to delete your chat history in the following pop-up menu.

How to to delete a single ChatGPT conversation

In some cases — say, you need to share your screen for a presentation at work and you don't want folks seeing your suspiciously thorough questioning of ChatGPT regarding the advent of Roman concrete — simply pruning your chat history is the superior option to clear cutting the entire archive.

On desktop, go to the gray navigation bar on the left of the screen, find the specific chat you want gone in the History list, click the options ellipsis (the three horizontal dots) on the right of the chat session title and select Delete from the drop-down menu. On mobile, select the two horizontal lines at the top-left corner of the screen to expand the navigation bar, then select your desired conversation from the list, long press on it to open the options tab, and select Delete from there.

Andrew Tarantola
Andrew Tarantola is a journalist with more than a decade reporting on emerging technologies ranging from robotics and machine…
ChatGPT’s latest model may be a regression in performance
chatGPT on a phone on an encyclopedia

According to a new report from Artificial Analysis, OpenAI's flagship large language model for ChatGPT, GPT-4o, has significantly regressed in recent weeks, putting the state-of-the-art model's performance on par with the far smaller, and notably less capable, GPT-4o-mini model.

This analysis comes less than 24 hours after the company announced an upgrade for the GPT-4o model. "The model’s creative writing ability has leveled up–more natural, engaging, and tailored writing to improve relevance & readability," OpenAI wrote on X. "It’s also better at working with uploaded files, providing deeper insights & more thorough responses." Whether those claims continue to hold up is now being cast in doubt.

Read more
ChatGPT just improved its creative writing chops
a phone displaying the ChatGPT homepage on a beige bbackground.

One of the great strengths of ChatGPT is its ability to aid in creative writing. ChatGPT's latest large language model, GPT-4o, has received a bit of a performance boost, OpenAI announced Wednesday. Users can reportedly expect "more natural, engaging, and tailored writing to improve relevance & readability" moving forward.

https://twitter.com/OpenAI/status/1859296125947347164

Read more
ChatGPT already listens and speaks. Soon it may see as well
ChatGPT meets a dog

ChatGPT's Advanced Voice Mode, which allows users to converse with the chatbot in real time, could soon gain the gift of sight, according to code discovered in the platform's latest beta build. While OpenAI has not yet confirmed the specific release of the new feature, code in the ChatGPT v1.2024.317 beta build spotted by Android Authority suggests that the so-called "live camera" could be imminently forthcoming.

OpenAI had first shown off Advanced Voice Mode's vision capabilities for ChatGPT in May, when the feature was first launched in alpha. During a demo posted at the time, the system was able to identify that it was looking at a dog through the phone's camera feed, identify the dog based on past interactions, recognize the dog's ball, and associate the dog's relationship to the ball (i.e. playing fetch).

Read more