# ChatGPT Dots memory: what it remembers and how to wipe it

A dot remembers with three things: the conversation, its own notes and ChatGPT memory. See where each fact lands, what you can view, and how to delete it.

*From How to Use Dots, an independent guide (not affiliated with OpenAI). Web version: https://howtousedots.com/memory Last verified: 2026-10-06.*

*Step 10 of 10 on the path "Learn Dots, step by step". Before it: [Voice calls](https://howtousedots.com/voice-calls.md).*

Your dot remembers with three things: the conversation it's in, its own notes about you, and ChatGPT memory. You can read the conversation and manage ChatGPT memory. The notes have no screen, and the only way to clear them is to delete your dot.

**In short**

- Your dot keeps its own notes on your preferences, decisions and ongoing work.
- ChatGPT memory and your dot share in both directions, unless you turn Memory off.
- Your dot reads your connected apps without being asked and can save what it finds.
- You can't view, edit or delete a single note. Ask your dot what it knows, and tell it when something changes.

## What does your dot remember with?

Start with the map. Your dot's notes sit in the middle, and three things feed them.

Diagram: Your dot's own notes sit in the middle. This conversation feeds them. Your connected apps feed them, even when you haven't asked. ChatGPT memory and the notes share in both directions.
- This conversation → Its own notes
- Your connected apps → Its own notes
- ChatGPT memory ↔ Its own notes
- Note on This conversation: what matters
- Note on Your connected apps: read without asking
- Note on ChatGPT memory: shared both ways
- Note on Its own notes: no screen shows these

- **This conversation** is what your dot has in front of it for a reply or a job. You can scroll back through it.
- **Its own notes** hold the preferences, decisions and ongoing work it chose to keep. They aren't a full transcript, and you can't open them.
- **ChatGPT memory** is what regular ChatGPT remembers about you. You manage it in ChatGPT's settings, under **Personalization**.

## Where does this get remembered?

Where a fact lands depends on how your dot came across it. Pick one and watch the map.

**Interactive: Tool: where does this get remembered?**

Open it: https://howtousedots.com/widgets/memory-where.html

What it does: Pick something a dot learns and see which of three places holds it: this conversation, the dot's own notes, or ChatGPT memory. A preference you tell it goes to its notes and can add to ChatGPT memory. Something it reads in a connected app can be saved to its notes, and disconnecting the app does not remove it. Something ChatGPT already remembers is shared with the dot. A one-off instruction lives in the conversation. Something said in Slack reaches the same notes. A password typed into the sign-in form and a screenshot are not kept in its saved context. The dot's notes cannot be viewed or edited, and are removed only by deleting the dot; ChatGPT memory is managed in ChatGPT's memory settings.

Its content as text:

### Where does this get remembered?

Pick something your dot learns. The place that holds it lights up, and you'll see who else can use it and how to get rid of it.

Diagram: Three places a dot draws on. This conversation feeds your dot's notes with what matters. ChatGPT memory and your dot's notes share in both directions.

keeps
shared
Conversation
Its notes
ChatGPT memory

#### You tell it: "I prefer morning meetings"

- **Kept in:** **Your dot's notes.** A preference is what the notes are for. What you tell your dot can also add to ChatGPT memory.
- **Who uses it:** Your dot, wherever you reach it: ChatGPT, Slack or a call. Regular ChatGPT chats too, if the preference reached ChatGPT memory.
- **Can you see it?:** Not in the notes. If it reached ChatGPT memory, it shows up there.
- **To remove it:** From ChatGPT memory: delete it in ChatGPT's memory settings. From the notes: only by deleting your dot.

#### It reads in Drive: "the Q4 deck is in Finance"

- **Kept in:** **Your dot's notes.** Your dot reads connected apps without being asked, and can save what it finds.
- **Who uses it:** Your dot, in later conversations and jobs.
- **Can you see it?:** No. Ask your dot what it knows about the deck and it will tell you in words.
- **To remove it:** Disconnecting Drive stops new reading. It leaves what your dot already saved. Only deleting your dot removes that.

#### ChatGPT already knows: "you're vegetarian"

- **Kept in:** **ChatGPT memory.** Your dot starts with the relevant parts of it.
- **Who uses it:** Regular ChatGPT chats and your dot.
- **Can you see it?:** Yes, in ChatGPT's memory settings.
- **To remove it:** Manage it in ChatGPT's memory settings. A change there doesn't necessarily change notes your dot has already made.

#### You say: "use the attached sheet for this report"

- **Kept in:** **This conversation.** It's context for the reply or the job in front of your dot.
- **Who uses it:** Your dot, for this job. A task it hands to Work or Codex gets the instructions and context for that job, not your whole history.
- **Can you see it?:** Yes. Scroll up: it is in the conversation.
- **To remove it:** Deleting your dot deletes its conversation. The notes aren't a full transcript, so a one-off detail like this may never reach them.

#### You mention a deadline in a Slack DM

- **Kept in:** **Your dot's notes.** Slack and ChatGPT reach the same dot, with the same notes.
- **Who uses it:** Your dot, in every channel. It can use the deadline to prepare an update in ChatGPT.
- **Can you see it?:** The Slack message stays in Slack. It isn't copied into your ChatGPT conversation.
- **To remove it:** Only by deleting your dot. Using the deadline is allowed. Posting it in a team channel still needs your permission.

#### You type a password into its sign-in form

- **Kept in:** **Nowhere in its memory.** Your dot's saved context doesn't keep credentials.
- **Who uses it:** The website you signed in to. Your dot's browser stays signed in until you sign out or the site ends the session.
- **Can you see it?:** There is nothing to see.
- **To remove it:** Nothing to remove. One caution: this covers the sign-in form. A password pasted into the chat is an ordinary message.

#### You send it a screenshot

- **Kept in:** **Nowhere in its memory.** Your dot's saved context doesn't keep images or screenshots.
- **Who uses it:** Your dot, while it works on what you sent.
- **Can you see it?:** The message you sent is still in the conversation.
- **To remove it:** Nothing in the notes to remove. Files your dot makes live where they were saved and follow that place's rules.

## See what your dot knows

The notes have no screen, so the way in is to ask. This dot was asked "do you have all my memories?":

![The owner asks: do you have all my memories? The dot answers: I can't verify that I have all your saved ChatGPT memories. I have a detailed summary of things learned from past conversations, but I can't compare it against your complete memory list. So: quite a bit of personal context, yes. A confirmed complete copy of every memory, no](https://howtousedots.com/assets/shots/memory-ask-your-dot.jpg)

1. A new dot starts with a summary of what ChatGPT has learned about you, so it knows you on day one.

Image: The AI Advantage (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=db1KRJQEt8w)

Ask yours the fuller version:

```prompt title="Ask your dot what it knows"
What do you know about me right now? List it by where it came from: this conversation, ChatGPT memory, my connected apps, and your own notes. Flag anything that might be out of date.
```

When something in the answer is wrong, say so: "I've moved to Lisbon, update what you know." Your dot revises its notes as your decisions and priorities change.

## What does each switch do?

Three actions sound like "forget this". Each one stops something narrower.

| You do this | It stops | It leaves in place |
|---|---|---|
| Turn off **Memory** in ChatGPT | Sharing between ChatGPT memory and your dot, in both directions | Everything your dot already received, and the notes it made |
| Disconnect an app | New reading through that connection | What your dot already saved from the app |
| Delete your dot | The dot, its conversation, its notes and its scheduled tasks | ChatGPT memory from your other chats, and the files and threads your dot created |

## Wipe your dot's memory

So the one way to clear the notes is the last row: delete your dot. It can't be undone, so save any results you need first.

1. Open your dot's conversation and click **...** at the top right. In the desktop app, **...** is in the title bar. On a phone, tap your dot's picture at the top of the conversation.
2. Click **Delete**, the red item at the bottom.
3. Read the confirmation, which says what happens to your conversations, memories and scheduled tasks. Then confirm.

![The dot menu, opened from the three dots: Rename, Pause, Reboot, and Delete in red with a bin icon](https://howtousedots.com/assets/shots/memory-dot-menu.jpg)

Image: Leon van Zyl (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niv2BEcOkR8)

You land in a new ChatGPT chat with no dot, and you can [create a new one](https://howtousedots.com/setup) on a computer.

## Check you've got it

One sort before you delete anything.

**Sort it: You delete your dot. Sort each thing: gone, or still there?**

Answer:
- Your dot's notes about you → Gone (Deleting your dot deletes its own context.)
- Your conversation with your dot → Gone (It goes with the dot.)
- The Monday report it runs every week → Gone (Scheduled tasks are deleted too.)
- What ChatGPT remembers from your other chats → Still there (ChatGPT memory is separate. Manage it in ChatGPT's memory settings.)
- A spreadsheet your dot made → Still there (Files it created are stored separately.)
- A Codex thread it started → Still there (Work and Codex threads it created are stored separately.)

## Next step

You've finished the lessons. Pick a job to hand over.

**Next:** [Recipes](https://howtousedots.com/use-cases)

Fourteen jobs to hand your dot today: the prompt to copy, the apps it needs, the rule to set, how long it runs and what comes back, with real results.

### Why does my dot know things from my old ChatGPT chats?

ChatGPT shares with it. Your dot receives saved memories and recent conversation context from ChatGPT, so a new dot already knows the outline of what ChatGPT has learned about you. To stop the sharing, turn off **Memory** in ChatGPT's settings.

### Will a new dot remember me after I delete the old one?

Partly. The old dot's notes are gone. ChatGPT memory is still there, and a new dot starts with the relevant parts of it, unless you've turned Memory off.

### Does my dot remember my passwords?

No. Its saved context doesn't keep credentials, images or screenshots. That covers the sign-in form your dot shows you. A password pasted into the chat is an ordinary message, so don't paste one. See [the cloud computer](https://howtousedots.com/cloud-computer).

### Is my dot's memory used to train OpenAI's models?

That depends on your plan and your data controls. [Privacy and security](https://howtousedots.com/privacy-security) covers it.

- 2026-10-06: Rebuilt as a lesson, with a tool for where each kind of fact is kept.
- 2026-10-05: First published.

## Sources

- [OpenAI docs: Tasks and memory](https://learn.chatgpt.com/docs/dots/tasks-and-memory)
- [OpenAI Help Center: Dots privacy, security, and safety FAQs](https://help.openai.com/en/articles/20001529-dots-privacy-security-and-safety-faqs)
- [OpenAI Help Center: Getting started with your dot](https://help.openai.com/en/articles/20001530-getting-started-with-your-dot)
- [OpenAI docs: Control your dot (delete your dot)](https://learn.chatgpt.com/docs/dots/controls)
- [OpenAI docs: Meet dots](https://learn.chatgpt.com/docs/dots)
- [The AI Advantage on YouTube: screenshot of a dot describing what it remembers](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=db1KRJQEt8w)
- [Leon van Zyl on YouTube: screenshot of the dot menu](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niv2BEcOkR8)