Is Perplexity private? What it keeps, trains on, and shares

The Morse teamPublished October 19, 20268 min read

As of October 2026, Perplexity is private from other people but not from Perplexity: it keeps your threads in your Library until you delete them, uses your searches to train its AI models by default on the Free, Pro, and Max plans, and says it may share data "to cooperate with law enforcement." Incognito threads expire after 24 hours, and Enterprise accounts are never used for training.

We read Perplexity's privacy notice (last updated July 8, 2026), its terms, and more than a dozen of its help center articles on October 19, 2026. Every fact below links to the Perplexity page it came from. Where two of its pages disagree, we show both. Perplexity's help center deserves credit for saying outright that its training switch can't pull back data already collected.

Perplexity's privacy settings at a glance

What does Perplexity collect?

Perplexity collects what you type and what it answers. The privacy notice lists "prompts, queries, uploads, and any other data you choose to provide," along with the output and anything you build, "such as collections, pages, or Spaces" (Perplexity).

An account adds your "name, contact information, username and password," and "data on the actions that you perform while logged in" (Perplexity). Perplexity also records your IP address and device details, and estimates "your general location from the IP address from which you connect."

On its websites, Perplexity uses cookies and pixels that may record "which links you click or what you type as a prompt" (Perplexity). The notice says Perplexity does "not recognize the 'Do Not Track' signal," and honors Global Privacy Control where the law requires it.

Does Perplexity train on your searches?

Yes, unless you turn it off. Perplexity's help center says: "For Free, Perplexity Pro and Perplexity Max users, AI Data Retention is enabled by default" (Perplexity). Paying for Pro or Max doesn't change the default.

To turn it off, open Account settings, go to Preferences, and switch off the "AI data retention" toggle (Perplexity). Another help article calls the same switch "AI Data Usage" (Perplexity), so look for either name.

Three limits come with the switch, all from that help page:

• It only looks forward. "Opt-outs only apply to data collected after the opt-out date."
• It can't recall past data. "Previously collected training data cannot be deleted or removed."
• It doesn't stop all use. "Data may still be processed for service operation, legal compliance, and product improvement."

Memory follows the same switch. Perplexity says it "may use content from memory to improve our models for everyone" unless AI data retention is off (Perplexity).

The outside model makers don't get to train on your questions, according to Perplexity. Its help center says agreements with providers "like OpenAI and Anthropic prohibit using Perplexity data for training their models" (Perplexity). The privacy notice makes no such promise for Perplexity's own models, and lists improving "our AI models" among the uses of your data (Perplexity).

We compared this default with 14 other AI apps in which AI companies train on your data.

Does Perplexity store your searches?

Yes. Your threads stay in your Library until you delete them, and the privacy notice sets no fixed period: Perplexity keeps personal data "for only as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes in this Notice" (Perplexity).

To delete threads, open your Library, choose the three dots, and select "Delete all threads," which Perplexity says "cannot be undone" (Perplexity). Deleting your account disables it, and "all account and personal data will be permanently deleted after 30 days." Signing back in during those 30 days cancels the deletion. Perplexity's GDPR page adds that "some information may be retained for compliance with legal obligations or legitimate business purposes" (Perplexity).

Perplexity's own pages disagree on files. One help article says uploads "are retained for 90 days (7 days for Enterprise users)" (Perplexity). Another says "files are kept for 30 days by default" (Perplexity). Plan on the longer one.

Is Perplexity's Incognito mode private?

Incognito keeps a thread off your history for a day. Perplexity calls Incognito threads "private conversations that expire after 24 hours" (Perplexity), and its memory page says "questions asked in incognito are not retained or used in memory ever" (Perplexity). The privacy notice describes Incognito as "not saving your search activity across use sessions" (Perplexity). None of the pages we read says whether Incognito threads are kept out of training.

A lawsuit put Incognito in the news this year, and the April 2026 coverage that still ranks for this question stops at the filing. In Noel v. Perplexity AI, Inc. (N.D. Cal., No. 3:26-cv-02803), filed March 31, 2026, a user alleged that "even users who turned on the 'Incognito' feature still had their conversations shared with Meta and Google" (complaint). Those were allegations, never tested. The plaintiff filed a notice of voluntary dismissal without prejudice on May 1, 2026, and the court closed the case on May 6 (CourtListener). Without prejudice means the claims could be brought again.

Does Perplexity share your data with advertisers?

Not your conversations, Perplexity says. Its July 8, 2026 update to the privacy notice "clarified that we do not sell your personal data or send your queries, prompts, or conversation content to advertisers" (Perplexity).

The same notice describes sharing for Perplexity's own advertising. Perplexity "may share data with third parties to measure the performance of our advertising, including via server-to-server connections" and pixels, and "third parties may use this data to serve ads tailored to your interests" (Perplexity). One help article goes further than the notice: "None of your search data will ever be shared with a third-party service, whether you choose to have AI data retention on or off" (Perplexity). The two don't match, and the privacy notice is the dated legal document.

Perplexity's shopping feature has a rule of its own: "Advertisers cannot pay to list their products in our 'related products' section" (Perplexity). We found no page of Perplexity's own describing sponsored answers or follow-up questions as of October 19, 2026.

What does Comet, Perplexity's browser, collect?

Comet keeps some data on your computer and some on Perplexity's servers. The privacy notice says that, "depending on your settings, we record your browsing history and track your use and engagement when you use Comet with your synced Perplexity account" (Perplexity). Other browsing data, site permissions, and downloads are stored locally, and "while we do not access this data," it "may be used to provide and improve Comet."

Comet's incognito mode has a warning in the notice: "we, and third parties like the websites that you visit, may still be able to track you."

Is Perplexity Enterprise more private?

Yes. The privacy notice "does not apply to data collected through Perplexity's Enterprise and API offerings" (Perplexity), which follow business contracts instead. Perplexity says "your enterprise data will never be used to train or fine-tune our AI models," uploaded files are kept for 7 days, and it holds SOC 2 Type II certification (Perplexity). Admins can set a retention period, after which threads "will be permanently deleted within 7 days," on organizations with 50 or more seats or an Enterprise Max seat (Perplexity).

It costs more. Enterprise Pro "starts at $40/month or $400/year/seat" (Perplexity), and Enterprise Max "costs $325/month or $3,250/year" (Perplexity), as of October 2026.

Can Perplexity give your searches to the police?

Yes, under the privacy notice. Perplexity "may share data to cooperate with law enforcement, participate in a legal process, or for legal compliance" (Perplexity). We found no transparency report from Perplexity that counts such requests, as of October 19, 2026.

If you have a dispute with Perplexity itself, its terms (last updated January 23, 2026) require individual arbitration and waive class actions, unless you opt out within 30 days of agreeing (Perplexity). For how stored AI chats end up in court, see can AI chats be subpoenaed. This isn't legal advice.

How Morse keeps your searches private

Your questions sit on Perplexity's servers, attached to your account, where the default is training and the retention period is "as long as necessary." Morse keeps your history somewhere else, in your own browser, encrypted, and we don't train AI on your content, sell your data, or show ads (privacy policy).

There's no "AI data retention" switch to find on Morse, under either name, because nothing is collected for training. There's no Library on our servers to delete or to keep for 30 days, since Morse's servers don't keep messages or log what you write. And because we don't store chats, we usually have very little to give authorities.

Pick the mode by what you're asking:

• Private, for web searches you don't want kept. Private is the default mode. Morse has zero data retention agreements with its search, inference, and other providers, so they keep nothing. Where a provider confirms that on each reply, Morse checks it and refuses a reply that doesn't. Our explainer on zero data retention covers what that promise means.
• E2EE, for questions no one should read. Your browser checks the secure enclave's proof that it's genuine, then encrypts the message for that enclave alone. Morse's servers relay text they can't read. E2EE runs open-weight models with no web search, so use it for questions you'd ask a model, not a search engine. It rests on the enclave hardware and attestation working as designed.
• Anonymous, for GPT, Claude, and Gemini without your name on it. Morse's proxy strips your account, email, and IP address and sends the question under Morse's account. The provider sees the question without knowing it's you, and may keep it for a limited time to check for abuse under its own policy.

Your history is locked when you sign out and needs two keys to open, one of which never leaves your device. Clearing your browser deletes it for good, and Morse can't restore it, so save anything you'll want later.

Try a question from the Morse home page without an account, or start free: the Free plan includes web search.