ChatGPT vs Gemini privacy: every setting side by side, with Morse alongside

The Morse teamPublished November 5, 2026Facts checked November 5, 202613 min read

On ChatGPT vs Gemini privacy, neither app is private from the company that runs it, and each is ahead in different places. As of November 5, 2026, both train on personal accounts' chats by default, but ChatGPT lets you switch training off and keep your chat history, while Gemini's switch, Keep Activity, takes your history and most connected apps with it. Gemini forgets sooner, keeping a temporary chat 72 hours where ChatGPT keeps one up to 30 days, and it doesn't use your chats for ads, but it keeps chats picked for human review for up to three years, even after you delete them. Choose ChatGPT if you want to opt out of training without giving anything up, choose Gemini if you want short retention windows and no ads drawn from your chats, and choose Morse if you want GPT and Gemini without OpenAI or Google knowing it's you.

We read both companies' own pages on November 5, 2026. From OpenAI: its help pages on data controls (updated the day before we read it), model training, deleting and archiving chats, Temporary chat, how it handles consumer data, ads, and connected apps, plus its Terms of Use and privacy policy. From Google: the Gemini Apps Privacy Hub, whose notice was last updated October 13, 2026 and whose questions were updated October 26, and its help pages on Gemini activity, using Gemini Apps, temporary chats, connected apps, and children's accounts. We ran no tests, and everything here is about personal accounts, not work or school ones. Each company earns credit. OpenAI is the one of the two that separates training from history, and Google is the one that puts a number on how long reviewed chats are kept.

ChatGPT vs Gemini vs Morse, setting by setting

As of November 5, 2026. Every ChatGPT cell links to OpenAI's own page and every Gemini cell to Google's. The Morse column comes from our privacy policy.

Is Gemini more private than ChatGPT?

In two ways, yes. Gemini keeps less for less time once you ask it to forget: a temporary chat, or any chat with Keep Activity off, stays with your account for 72 hours (Google), while OpenAI "may keep a copy of a temporary chat for up to 30 days for safety purposes" (OpenAI). And Google says your Gemini chats don't choose your ads, adding, "If this changes, we will clearly communicate it to you."

ChatGPT is ahead in two others. Opting out of training on ChatGPT leaves your history, archived chats, and projects alone; OpenAI's data controls page says the setting "does not delete or hide saved chats" (OpenAI). On Gemini, the same choice ends your saved history and drops all but five connected apps. None of the OpenAI pages we read lists a feature that stops working when you opt out.

Both keep copies you can't delete. OpenAI's deletion page excepts chats "already de-identified and disassociated from your account" and anything it must keep longer "for security or legal obligations," without a period for either (OpenAI). Google gives a period for reviewed chats: up to three years, with "related data like your language, device type, location info, or feedback," and deleting your activity doesn't reach them (Google). Of the two exceptions, Google's is the only one with a stated length.

What does turning off training cost on ChatGPT and on Gemini?

On ChatGPT, close to nothing. On Gemini, your chat history. A privacy ranking that BGR reported in July 2025 marked Gemini down partly because, it said, users couldn't opt out of training. Google's hub, read November 5, 2026, says that with Keep Activity off, "Your future chats won't appear in your Activity, and won't be used to train our AI models, unless you choose to send Google feedback" (Google). You can opt out of both. The two companies set different prices for doing it.

On ChatGPT, open your account menu, choose Settings, then Data controls, and turn off Improve the model for everyone. OpenAI's words: "You can turn off Improve the model for everyone and keep your chat history" (OpenAI). The Privacy Portal's Do not train on my content does the same job, and either one is enough (OpenAI). The opt-out has gaps, all on OpenAI's own pages:

• Feedback. A thumbs up or down can put "the entire conversation associated with that feedback" into training, even after you opt out.
• Trusted Access sessions. During sessions in programs like Daybreak Blue, OpenAI "may use content from your interactions to improve our models even when 'Improve the model for everyone' is off."
• Voice and Codex. Voice mode has its own training control, and Codex has a separate Include environments setting that the ChatGPT switch doesn't change.

On Gemini, go to gemini.google.com, click Settings & help, then Activity, click On near the top, and choose Turn off or Turn off and delete activity (Google). Here is what goes with it:

• Your history. Future chats stay out of your activity, though each one is still "saved with your account for up to 72 hours."
• Most connected apps. Only Device assistance, Gemini Notebook, Messages, Phone, and WhatsApp keep working.
• Gem chats. Gems you make are kept, but "Any chats you create with Gems will not be saved" (Google).

Google's hub adds one thing the switch never covers: "Your Gemini settings don't control processing of your chats to create anonymized data to improve Google services" (Google). Google does better on voice. Audio, Gemini Live video, and screenshares aren't used to improve its services by default (Google); that takes a separate setting, and "This setting is off by default" (Google).

Do people at OpenAI and Google read your chats?

Yes, at both companies, and both say so in writing. OpenAI says "a limited number of authorized OpenAI personnel, as well as trusted service providers" may access content to investigate abuse or a security incident, to give support, "to handle legal matters," or "to improve model performance (unless you have opted out)" (OpenAI). Opting out removes only the last reason. OpenAI also says it monitors and logs "all access to user content."

Google says reviewers, including "Google's trained service providers," read a subset of chats, judge whether replies were "low-quality, inaccurate, or harmful," and suggest better ones that train its models (Google). Chats "are disconnected from your account before being sent to service providers," which cuts the link to your name but leaves whatever you wrote about yourself. Turning off Keep Activity stops review for model improvement, but "Even if your Keep Activity setting is off or you use temporary chats, Google still uses your chats to respond to you and help protect Google, our users, and the public, including with help from human reviewers."

Their warnings read almost the same:

• OpenAI: "Please do not enter sensitive information that you would not want reviewed or used."
• Google: "Please don't enter confidential information that you wouldn't want a reviewer to see or Google to use to improve our services, including machine-learning technologies."

Our guide to who reviews AI chats covers the contractors behind this work at each company.

Which temporary chat is more private, ChatGPT's or Gemini's?

Gemini's, by time kept. Google holds a temporary chat for 72 hours, and OpenAI for up to 30 days. To start one in ChatGPT, open a new chat, select Temporary, and pick Personalized or Unpersonalized before your first message (OpenAI). A personalized one can read your existing memories, custom instructions, and plugins, so pick Unpersonalized for anything sensitive. If you save a temporary chat later, it becomes a regular one under your training setting. Temporary chats show no ads (OpenAI).

In Gemini, click Temporary chat next to New chat (Google). It's walled off more firmly by default: you can't use Gems or connected apps, get personalized replies, save anything for later personalization, or give feedback. It isn't offered on work or school accounts, in Gemini in Chrome, or in Gemini in Google Messages. Neither company's temporary chat keeps out its own safety reviewers.

Does ChatGPT or Gemini use your chats for ads?

ChatGPT does, on its Free and Go plans. Gemini doesn't, by Google's own statement. OpenAI started testing ads in the US on February 9, 2026, and says "Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise, and Edu accounts will not have ads" (OpenAI). With ad personalization on, ads can draw on "past chats and memory." You can turn that off under Settings, then Ad Controls, but you'll still see ads "based on the context of your current chat thread."

OpenAI earns credit for the limits it sets. It says advertisers "never receive your chats, chat history, memories, name, email, precise location, IP address, or sensitive information," that ads don't appear near "personal health, mental health, or politics," and that it shows no ads to accounts identified as belonging to people under 18. Our guide on how to turn off ChatGPT ads walks through each control.

Google's line is short: "Your Gemini Apps chats are not being used to show you ads" (Google). Shopping is the one exception it names. Products you add to your Google shopping cart from Gemini are saved to Google Wallet and used "including for personalization and ads (depending on your settings)."

What do Gmail and other connected apps add?

More to train on, in both apps, while training is on. In ChatGPT, an app you enable "may access and use relevant context from your ChatGPT conversations," and from your memories if Memory is on, and it may see your "IP address, device or browser type, language and region settings, and approximate location" (OpenAI). On Free, Plus, Go, and Pro, OpenAI "may use information accessed from apps to train our models" if "Improve the model for everyone" is on.

Gemini's list is mostly Google's own services. Personal Intelligence can connect Gmail, Calendar, Drive, Docs, and the rest of Workspace, plus Search, Maps, Wallet, Google Photos, and YouTube, and Google says the data is used to "improve Google services, including training generative AI models, for everyone" (Google). Photos data is used "to infer your interests, relationships to people in your photos, and where you've been." Disconnecting an app "doesn't delete any data from Gemini Apps Activity." If Gemini is already reading your inbox, here's how to turn off Gemini in Gmail.

What happens to ChatGPT chats you import into Gemini?

They become Gemini activity, training included. Google's hub says memory and chats imported from other AI platforms are "used consistently with your Gemini Apps activity, including to improve our services (including training generative AI models)" (Google). You can delete imported chats one by one, or all the chats from one .zip at once. So a ChatGPT history you kept out of OpenAI's training can enter Google's if you import it with Keep Activity on. Signed-in ChatGPT users on Free, Go, Plus, and Pro can request that export from settings (OpenAI).

ChatGPT or Gemini: which is safer for a teenager?

They draw different lines. OpenAI's terms, effective January 1, 2026, require users to be "at least 13 years old," with a parent's or guardian's permission under 18 (OpenAI), and a parent with a linked teen account may decide whether that teen's chats train OpenAI's models (OpenAI). Google lets a parent give a child under 13 access through Family Link, and says "The Keep Activity setting is not available to users under 13" (Google). Its activity page states the on-by-default rule only for people 18 and over. Morse is for adults only.

How Morse keeps your GPT and Gemini chats off both companies' accounts

Every row in the table above is a rule about a copy OpenAI or Google keeps, tied to the account you signed in with: an OpenAI account with your email and payment details, or a Google Account that also holds your mail, photos, and searches. Picking ChatGPT or Gemini only picks whose rules govern that copy. Morse doesn't keep the copy, and it lets you use GPT and Gemini with neither account behind the chat.

There's no training switch with a price attached, because Morse doesn't train AI on your content. There's no three-year reviewed copy and no 30-day temporary copy on our servers, because they don't keep your messages. There are no ads, so there's nothing for your chats to personalize.

• Anonymous, to ask GPT or Gemini without OpenAI or Google knowing it's you. Our proxy removes your account, email, and IP address and sends the message under Morse's own account. The provider sees the message without knowing it's you, and may keep it for a limited time to check for abuse, under its own policy. You need no account at either company, and there's no Keep Activity setting or ad profile. Morse strips who you are, not what you write, so leave out names and details that point to you.
• Private, the default, for questions you'd rather no host kept. Open-weight models like DeepSeek, Kimi, and GLM, plus xAI's Grok, run on hosts that keep nothing. Morse has zero data retention agreements with its inference, search, and other providers. Where a provider confirms zero retention on each reply, Morse checks it and refuses a reply that doesn't.
• E2EE, for anything no one should read. Your browser checks the secure enclave's hardware attestation, then encrypts the message so only that enclave can read it, and Morse's servers relay ciphertext they can't read. The enclaves are run by third-party providers, not by Morse, and the guarantee rests on the enclave hardware and attestation working as designed. E2EE runs open-weight models, without web search or image generation, and comes with Pro at $19 a month. Here's how end-to-end encrypted AI chat works.

In every mode, your chat history is stored in your browser, encrypted, and locked when you sign out; opening it takes a key that never leaves your device and one our server gives you at sign-in. Morse doesn't sell your data or show ads, and runs no advertising trackers or third-party analytics. Temporary chats are kept in memory only. Because we don't store chats, we usually have very little to give authorities. Clearing your browser or deleting your account deletes your chats, and we can't recover them, so keep a copy of anything you need. The privacy modes page shows what anyone can see of a message in each mode.

Choose ChatGPT, Gemini, or Morse

• Choose ChatGPT if you want to opt out of training and keep your full history and connected apps, you'll pay for Plus or Pro to drop ads, and you can live with temporary chats kept up to 30 days.
• Choose Gemini if you want 72-hour temporary chats, no ads drawn from your chats, and Gemini working inside Gmail, Drive, and Photos, and you accept that switching off training switches off your history.
• Choose Morse if you want GPT and Gemini without either company knowing it's you, open-weight models on hosts that keep nothing, E2EE that your own browser verifies, and history kept encrypted on your device, with no training or ads on any plan.

Send a first message from the Morse home page without an account, or start free with 15 messages a day and no card. E2EE chats come with Pro, at $19 a month.

Morse publishes this comparison. We've tried to keep it fair; if something's wrong or out of date, email hello@trymorse.ai.

ChatGPT is a trademark of OpenAI. Morse is not affiliated with or endorsed by OpenAI.

Gemini is a trademark of Google LLC. Morse is not affiliated with or endorsed by Google LLC.