What does ChatGPT know about me? How to check its memory

ChatGPT can use information you’ve shared to personalise its answers. Some comes from the conversation you’re having. Saved memory and custom instructions can carry information into future chats.

You can check those settings and change information that is wrong. Here’s where to look.

1. Ask what it remembers

Open ChatGPT and ask the following question.

What do you remember about me? Distinguish information I’ve told you from assumptions you’ve made.

Look for anything you don’t recognise or no longer want used.

ChatGPT’s answer can help you find a problem, but it may miss information or describe it incorrectly. Check the settings next.

2. Check your memory settings

On ChatGPT’s website, open Settings → Personalization and find the memory controls available to your account.

Read the saved information. If ChatGPT keeps recommending places near your old home, check whether it still has your previous location.

Use the available controls to correct or remove the entry. Start a new conversation afterwards and check whether it uses the updated information.

OpenAI’s memory documentation identifies where to manage ChatGPT memory. The controls available can differ between accounts.

3. Read your custom instructions

While you’re in Personalization, check any custom instructions you’ve added.

These are directions you want ChatGPT to follow across conversations. You might have asked it to use British spelling or keep replies short.

An instruction can keep affecting answers long after you’ve forgotten writing it. If you now want detailed explanations, change an instruction that tells it to be brief.

You can also narrow an instruction. “Keep routine emails short” gives you more flexibility than “Always keep your answers short.”

OpenAI’s personalisation guide explains custom instructions and how they differ from other personalisation features.

4. Check the material in the conversation

If the wrong detail keeps appearing, look at the files available in that chat.

An outdated CV can supply an old job title even after you’ve corrected your saved information. Ask the following question.

Where did you get that job title? Show me the source if you can.

If ChatGPT identifies a document, open it and check. Replace an outdated working copy or explain that you’re using it as a historical reference.

Check connected apps when they’re relevant too. The account you connected and the access you granted determine what information a service can provide. Connecting one app doesn’t give ChatGPT access to every account you own.

OpenAI’s plugin documentation explains how connected-service access works.

What about Claude?

In Claude’s current memory interface, open Settings → Memory.

Saved information appears under Topics. Open a topic to read it, then use the edit or delete control to change it.

Claude can also cite earlier conversations when it finds information through chat search. Follow those citations if you want to understand where a detail came from.

If you use both services, check each separately. Correcting ChatGPT doesn’t automatically update Claude.

Claude’s memory guide explains the current controls.

How AI Passport helps

Using several AI tools can mean maintaining several versions of the same information about yourself. You correct a preference in one assistant, then have to explain it again elsewhere.

AI Passport holds selected personal context that connected AI assistants can use with your permission.

For example, you could save a writing preference asking for British spelling and concise work emails. Once that memory is approved in Passport, a permitted assistant can retrieve it. You can reuse the preference in ChatGPT and Claude without saving it separately in each assistant’s native memory.

Start with something you regularly have to repeat. Ask your connected assistant the following.

Save this to AI Passport as a preference. Use British spelling when drafting my work emails.

In Passport’s normal review flow, the assistant creates a proposal for you to check. Read the wording before approving it.

You also control which connected apps can read the relevant context. Approving a memory and granting access are separate decisions.

Passport doesn’t automatically merge your conversation histories. It gives you a separate place to maintain the context you want to reuse.

Information already sent to an assistant remains subject to that service’s handling. Revoking a Passport pass controls future reads under that pass; it cannot remove text already delivered into another conversation.

Read how AI Passport controls memory access.

What is worth keeping?

Keep information that helps with tasks you actually use AI for.

A writing preference may remain useful for years. A budget for one weekend probably belongs in that conversation.

Check whether a saved statement describes you accurately. Researching a topic for someone else shouldn’t turn it into a permanent fact about you.

When an answer contains something wrong, find where it came from and correct that source. You’ll get further than repeatedly asking the assistant to stop making the same mistake.