Personal plans and work plans
It depends on the plan, not the product.
ChatGPT, Claude and Copilot each come in two kinds: a personal plan you sign up for yourself, and a work plan your employer buys and signs a contract for. The logo is the same. The deal behind it is not. If you run your own business, you are the employer: a business plan you pay for yourself counts as a work plan.
On a work plan, none of the three trains its models on what you type, and your employer controls how long it is kept. On a personal plan, two of the three train on your chats unless you switch it off, and the third trains on them if you said yes when it asked. Paying for the personal plan does not change this: ChatGPT Plus is still a personal plan.
Personal plan
You agreed to the consumer terms. Your chats may train future models, are kept on the AI company's schedule, and can be read by its staff for safety or support. Your employer has no contract with the AI company.
Public information only
Work plan
Your employer signed business terms and a data processing agreement. No training on your chats, retention set by your organisation, and staff access only in narrow cases.
Whatever your employer's policy allows
Plan by plan
Checked against each AI company's own policy pages on 1 October 2026. These change often, so treat the date as part of the answer.
| Plan | Trains on your chats? | How long chats are kept | Stored in Canada? |
|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT Free, Plus, Pro | Yes, unless you switch it off | Until you delete them, then up to 30 days | No |
| ChatGPT Business | No | Set by your organisation; deleted chats gone within 30 days | No |
| ChatGPT Enterprise | No | Set by your organisation | Yes, for eligible new workspaces |
| Claude Free, Pro, Max | Only if you said yes | 30 days if you said no; up to 5 years if you said yes | No |
| Claude Team, Enterprise | No | Set by your organisation | No, stored in the US |
| Copilot app, personal Microsoft account | Yes, unless you switch it off | 18 months by default | No |
| Copilot with your work account | No | Set by your organisation | Stored, with the right add-on; processing may happen elsewhere |
Three things in that table surprise people.
- ChatGPT Business is not the same as Enterprise. Both keep your chats out of training, but only Enterprise can store them in Canada.
- Claude asked everyone once. In late 2025 Anthropic asked every personal user to choose whether their chats could be used for training. Many people clicked through without reading. If you are not sure what you picked, check.
- Copilot is two products with one name. Sign in with your personal Microsoft account and you are on consumer terms. Sign in with your work account and you get Microsoft's enterprise data protection. Microsoft has also been renaming its work products, so the name on the screen tells you less than ever. The account you signed in with tells you more.
What Canada's privacy regulators found
On 6 May 2026 the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada published the results of a joint investigation into OpenAI with the regulators of Quebec, British Columbia and Alberta.
The finding was mostly about the data OpenAI collected from the internet to train its early models, not about what users type. The regulators found that collection overbroad: it swept in health information, political views and children's information without valid consent. On users' own chats, they accepted that training on them was reasonable given OpenAI's safeguards, and the complaint on that point was not upheld.
What OpenAI agreed to matters more for you than the finding itself:
- a notice shown to Canadian users before they type, saying chats may be reviewed and used to train models
- a filter that masks personal details in training data
- an easier way to export your data
- written retention schedules, and quarterly reports to the regulators
Switching training off is not the same as private
The training switch decides one thing: whether your chats help build the next model. It does not decide who can read them today.
- ChatGPT personal plans: staff and trusted contractors can view chats for abuse, support and legal reasons, even with training switched off.
- Claude personal plans: a chat flagged by its safety systems can be kept for up to two years and used for safety work, even if you said no to training.
- Copilot with a personal account: Microsoft uses automated and human review for safety and product improvement, and there is no switch for that.
The rules you are already under
None of this is legal advice, and none of it replaces your employer's policy if you have one. But two public documents set the tone for everyone in Canada:
- Canada's privacy regulators, federal and provincial together, published principles for generative AI in December 2023. For organisations, the short version is: don't put personal information into a prompt unless you are authorised to, and prefer the more private tool when there is a choice.
- The federal Guide on the use of generative AI for public servants says plainly that personal information must not go into publicly available AI tools, and treats doing so as an unlawful disclosure because the AI company may keep a copy. Protected and classified information stays out entirely.
If you work in the private sector the federal guide does not bind you, but it is a fair picture of where an employer's policy is likely to land.
What to paste where
| What you have | Personal plan | Work plan |
|---|---|---|
| Public information: a press release, a published report | Fine | Fine |
| Your own draft with no names or numbers | Fine | Fine |
| Your employer's confidential documents: plans, pricing, strategy | No | If your employer allows it |
| Anything about a client or customer | No | If your employer allows it |
| Other people's personal details: names, emails, health, SIN | No | Only if you are authorised to use it for this purpose |
| Passwords, keys, protected or classified material | No | No |
Back at your desk
- Find out which plan you are onLook at the account name at the bottom of the sidebar. A workspace with your employer's name means a work plan. Your personal email means a personal plan, even if you pay for it.
- If it is personal, switch training offChatGPT: Settings, Data controls, Improve the model for everyone. Claude: Settings, Privacy, Help improve Claude. Copilot: Privacy, Training on conversation activity.
- Take the names out before you pasteReplace people, clients and account numbers with placeholders such as Client A and Person B. The answer you get back is just as useful.
- At work, ask IT which plan you haveMany organisations already pay for one through Microsoft 365 and haven't told anyone. If there isn't one, that is the request to make.
Before you paste anything, ask who else gets to read it.
Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead.