A zero-retention API — also called zero data retention, or ZDR — is a way of accessing an AI model in which the provider does not keep your prompts or the model's outputs after the response is returned. The model still processes your request to answer it, but nothing is stored server-side afterward, so there is no lingering copy to log, review, train on, or expose in a breach.
Retention, training, and human access are three separate things
It is easy to blur these together, but they are distinct questions. Retention is whether a copy is kept, and for how long. Training is whether your conversations are used to improve the model. Human access is whether staff or reviewers can read them. A provider can decline to train while still retaining chats readable for years — which is why our 2026 data-retention audit tracks all three separately. Zero retention addresses the first one.
API and business terms vs. consumer apps
The same company often applies very different data policies to its free consumer chatbot and to its API or business tier. Consumer products may retain history, sample it for review, and use it for training unless you opt out; at the API and business level, providers typically commit contractually not to train on the traffic, and some offer an explicit zero-retention configuration for eligible customers. This is why a secure gateway that reaches models through business APIs can be more private than logging into the same model's consumer app.
How this applies to Secret Chat AI
Secret Chat AI reaches every model under business API terms rather than a consumer privacy toggle, opts out of third-party training, and — where the provider supports it — sends an explicit request to delete your prompt and response after the session, recorded in a per-session PDF privacy report. The exact retention guarantee varies by model, so we do not claim uniform zero retention across all of them; the honest, verifiable claim is business terms plus deletion-where-supported plus local-only history.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Is zero retention the same as no training?
No. Zero retention means no copy is stored after the response; no-training means the data is not used to improve the model. A provider can do one without the other, so treat them as separate guarantees.
- Does a zero-retention API still receive my prompt?
Yes. The model has to read your prompt to answer it, so the provider processes it in the moment. Zero retention only means nothing is kept afterward — it is not the same as the provider never seeing the content.
- Is an API more private than a consumer AI app?
Usually, yes. Business and API tiers generally exclude training by default and offer stronger data terms than free consumer products, which often retain and may train on chats unless you change the settings.
Related terms: Training Opt-Out · OPFS · all glossary terms