How to use Grok privately

Grok app or Grok in X?

Grok comes in two places, with separate policies and separate settings:

• The Grok app and grok.com follow the privacy policy of xAI, which makes Grok. Its current policies call the company SpaceXAI LLC ("SpaceXSI"). (xAI Privacy Policy)
• Grok inside X follows X's privacy policy and X's settings, not xAI's. (xAI Consumer FAQs)

If you use both, set both. If you sign in to grok.com with your X account, you can choose to let X share your X profile and your Grok on X conversation history with xAI. (xAI Privacy Policy)

Make the Grok app more private, step by step

These steps use the labels from xAI's own FAQ for the Grok app and grok.com.

1. Use Private Chat for anything sensitive

Select the ghost icon in the top right corner to start a Private Chat. It doesn't appear in your conversation history, isn't used for model training, and is deleted from xAI's systems within 30 days. (xAI Consumer FAQs)

2. Turn off Improve the model

This is the setting that decides whether your conversations can be used to train Grok.

• In the Grok app, go to Settings, then Data Controls, and turn off Improve the model.
• On grok.com, go to Settings, then Data, and turn off Improve the Model.

Once it's off, your new conversations aren't used to train xAI's models. Feedback you choose to send can still be used for training. And sign in: in some regions outside the EU and UK, you can't opt out of training when you use Grok without an account. (xAI Consumer FAQs)

3. Decide whether Grok uses your X data

In the same place (Data Controls in the app, Data on grok.com), turn off Personalize Grok using X if you don't want your X data used to personalize Grok. (xAI Consumer FAQs)

4. Delete conversations and share links

• One conversation: in the app, tap your profile picture to open your history, press and hold the conversation, and select Delete Conversation. On grok.com, select the trash button next to it in your history.
• Everything: in the app, go to Settings, then Data Controls, and select Delete All Conversations. On grok.com, delete all conversations from Settings.
• Share links: anyone with a share link can read the conversation, and a link posted publicly can be indexed by search engines. Remove links at grok.com/share-links by selecting Remove next to each one.

Deleted conversations take up to 30 days to leave xAI's systems. (xAI Consumer FAQs)

This has happened: in 2025, shared Grok conversations were indexed by Google and showed up in search results. (TechCrunch, August 20, 2025)

If you use Grok in X

These steps use the labels from X's help center.

1. Turn off training. In X, open Settings and privacy, then Privacy and safety, then Data sharing and personalization, then Grok & Third-party Collaborators. Under Data Sharing, clear Allow your public data as well as your interactions, inputs, and results with Grok and xAI to be used for training and fine-tuning. This covers your public posts as well as your Grok conversations.
2. Turn off personalization. On the same page, under Grok Personalization, clear Allow X to personalize your experience with Grok.
3. Delete your Grok history. Under Data sharing and personalization, select Grok, then Delete Conversation History. Deleted conversations are removed within 30 days, unless X has to keep them for security or legal reasons.
4. Protect your posts if you don't want them used to train Grok or surfaced in its answers. Go to Privacy and safety, then Audience and tagging, and check Protect your posts.

Two more things to know. Even with training off, X features powered by Grok, such as recommendations, still learn from how you use them. And if you add Grok to an X Chat conversation, X and xAI can read every message sent after Grok joins, until it's removed. (X Help Center: About Grok)

What these settings don't change

These settings control what Grok saves and learns from. They don't change who handles your messages.

• xAI still processes everything you send in order to answer it. Every setting above applies after your message reaches xAI.
• Private Chats and deleted conversations can take up to 30 days to be erased, and xAI can keep them longer for legal, compliance, or safety reasons. Conversations already de-identified and disconnected from your account can stay. (xAI)
• People at xAI may read your conversations. xAI says a limited number of authorized staff may review conversations to improve model performance, investigate security incidents and misuse, and meet legal obligations. (xAI)
• Feedback counts. A thumbs up or down can send that conversation for training, in the Grok app and in X, even with training turned off. (xAI; X)
• xAI asks you to keep personal details out. Its FAQ says: "To protect your privacy, please do not share any personal or sensitive information in your questions to Grok." (xAI)

Use Grok through Bearly with zero data retention

If you want privacy on every chat without remembering to switch modes, there's another option: use Grok models in a different app that runs them with zero data retention. Bearly is one of those apps. We make it, so weigh this section with that in mind.

Bearly gives you Claude, GPT, Gemini, Grok, and more in one app. With ZDR mode on, every chat model you can pick runs with zero data retention. That means the provider running the model doesn't keep your prompt or the answer once it has finished processing them. Our AI proxy doesn't store your prompts or the answers either. Bearly doesn't train AI models on your chats, has no ads, and doesn't sell your data.

To turn it on:

1. In Bearly, open your account menu at the bottom of the sidebar and choose App Settings.
2. Select Privacy & Security.
3. Turn on Zero Data Retention only.
4. Start a chat and choose a Grok model from the model picker.

With the setting on, the picker shows only zero-retention models, and automatic fallbacks stay on them too. Each model carries a ZDR badge. The setting belongs to your account, so it follows you to your other devices. (Bearly docs: zero data retention)

What it covers: the models that write chat replies. Web search, image generation, voice, and memory run separately. Web search sends the provider your query, never your name, account, or IP address. Image search runs on a provider that keeps nothing after it answers. Your chats are still saved in your Bearly history so you can come back to them. In the same pane, select Set up end-to-end encryption, and new chats are encrypted on your devices; we store and sync only the locked copies.

Questions people ask

Is Grok private?

Not fully. Grok saves your conversations, xAI may use them to train its models until you turn that off, and authorized xAI staff may review them. Private Chat with Improve the model turned off is the most private way to use Grok itself.

Does Grok have an incognito mode?

Yes. On grok.com and in the Grok app, it's called Private Chat: select the ghost icon in the top right corner. It stays out of your history and out of training, and is deleted within 30 days.

Does Grok train on my conversations?

It can. xAI may use your conversations to train its models unless you turn off Improve the model (Settings > Data Controls in the app, Settings > Data on grok.com). In X, the setting is under Grok & Third-party Collaborators. Feedback you send can still be used.

Are my Grok conversations public?

Only the ones you share. A share link lets anyone who has it read the conversation, and a link posted publicly can show up in search engines. Remove links you don't need at grok.com/share-links.

Does turning off training in X also cover grok.com?

No. They're separate settings under separate policies. Turn off Improve the model in the Grok app or on grok.com, and the training setting in X if you use Grok there too.

Related

• Bearly vs Grok: what's different
• Private AI in Bearly: what happens when you send a message
• How zero data retention works in Bearly: what the setting covers, step by step
• How to use ChatGPT privately
• How to use Gemini privately

Sources

All checked October 27, 2026.

• xAI, Consumer FAQs
• xAI, Privacy Policy (last updated October 11, 2026)
• X, About Grok
• TechCrunch, Thousands of Grok chats are now searchable on Google (August 20, 2025)