Grok (X)
What the default settings do
Grok, built by xAI and integrated into X, defaults to using your public posts and your interactions with Grok itself, your prompts, inputs, and the results you get back, to train and fine-tune its models. This setting is on by default for most accounts, and when it first appeared in July 2024, it had been enabled without a specific notification, which is part of why it became a recurring point of criticism. On X, one toggle covers two things at once: your public posts, and your conversations with Grok.
If you use Grok outside X, at grok.com or in the standalone Grok app, there is a second training setting there, called “Improve the Model.” The two are managed in different places, so if you use Grok in both, check both.
Turning either setting off only affects data going forward. Neither X nor xAI describes a way to retroactively remove your data from a model that has already been trained on it; opting out stops new collection but does not undo prior training use. Deleting a post you’ve already made works the same way: once it’s been used for training, deleting the post afterward does not remove whatever the model already learned from it.
Europe has seen the most regulatory pressure, though it is not settled. Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC) took X to the Irish High Court in August 2024 over training Grok on EU and EEA users’ public posts, and X agreed to suspend and then stop using posts collected in a specific 2024 window. In April 2025, the DPC opened a formal inquiry into whether X lawfully used EU users’ public posts to train Grok, which remains a live question. On February 17, 2026, it opened a second, large-scale inquiry into Grok’s creation and publication of non-consensual intimate and sexualized images involving people in the EU, including children. Other regulators, including the UK’s ICO and the European Commission, have opened their own investigations into the image issue.
X’s help documentation also states that making your account private excludes your posts from being used for Grok training and from its image tools, and this is described as a more dependable way to opt out for new content than the toggle alone. Grok also has a memory feature that lets it recall details across separate conversations, reportedly on by default with per-item view and delete controls, though this feature has been documented mainly through secondary reporting rather than a page we could independently verify, and it’s reported not to be available to users in the EU and UK.
A reasonable privacy baseline
On X, these settings are under Settings and privacy → Privacy and safety. In the Grok app and at grok.com, they are under Settings → Data Controls. Labels have changed several times, so if a name doesn’t match exactly, look nearby.
Training opt-out on X
Settings and privacy → Privacy and safety → Data sharing and personalization → Grok & Third-party Collaborators → Uncheck the box allowing your public data and Grok interactions to be used for training
The checkbox wording is roughly "Allow your public data as well as your interactions, inputs, and results with Grok and xAI to be used for training and fine-tuning." Unchecking it stops your public posts and your Grok conversations on X from being used for future training; it does not remove anything from models already trained.
Make your account private → Consider if avoiding training use is a priority
Per X's own documentation, a private account is described as a more dependable way to keep your posts out of Grok's training data and image tools than the toggle by itself, since it changes who can see the posts in the first place rather than relying on a separate data-use setting.
Grok app and grok.com
Settings → Data Controls → Improve the Model → Off
This is the training switch for conversations you have in the standalone Grok app or at grok.com. It is separate from the X setting above. Rating an answer with thumbs up or down can still let xAI use that conversation, so give feedback sparingly if you want training fully off.
Private Chat → Use for sensitive one-off questions
Private Chats are not saved to your history and are not used for model training. xAI says they are deleted from its systems within 30 days, the same window it uses when you delete a conversation or your account.
EU/EEA users
Check the X training toggle anyway → Don't assume regulators have handled it
X's 2024 commitment covered posts from a specific period, and the DPC's April 2025 inquiry into Grok training is still open. Until it concludes, unchecking the Grok & Third-party Collaborators box is the clearest way to record your choice, and it costs nothing.
Grok memory
grok.com or the Grok app → Settings → Data Controls → Memory → Review and delete stored items if present
Where this feature is available, it's reported to let Grok recall context across separate conversations by default, with the ability to view and delete individual memories. Because we could not independently confirm the exact current path from an official X or xAI page, treat this description as approximate; the setting is worth locating and reviewing under Data Controls if you use Grok regularly.
Trade-offs
- Turning off the training toggles does not undo any past use of your posts or conversations, so the benefit is entirely forward-looking.
- You have to change two settings, one on X and one in the Grok app, to cover both places you might talk to Grok. Missing one leaves that side opted in.
- Making your account private is a stronger lever against training use, but it changes who can see your posts generally, not just how they’re used for AI, which is a much bigger change if you post publicly for reach or professional visibility.
- Regulators in Europe are still investigating, so even EU and EEA users don’t yet have a settled, regulator-backed answer on training; the toggle is the main tool everywhere for now.
- Private Chat keeps a conversation out of your history, so anything useful from it has to be saved by you.
- Disabling Grok’s memory, where available, means losing continuity across separate conversations, so you’ll need to re-establish context each time.
Who should not change these settings
- If you only use Grok inside X and never open the standalone app, the X setting is the one that matters; there is no need to create a Grok app account just to change its toggle.
- If you maintain a public account deliberately for reach, such as for a business, publication, or public persona, making the account private to limit AI training use would undercut the reason you have a public account in the first place; the training toggle alone is the more proportionate step.
- If you use Grok’s memory feature and find it genuinely useful for ongoing projects or a consistent conversational style, keeping it enabled is a reasonable trade for that continuity.
- If you’re comfortable contributing your public posts and Grok conversations to xAI’s training and don’t view your public X activity as meaningfully different from any other public content you’ve chosen to share, leaving the defaults on is a coherent choice.