How long does Microsoft Copilot keep your conversations?

Microsoft keeps consumer Copilot conversations in your Microsoft account privacy dashboard, where you can view and delete them. On work or school accounts, Copilot interactions are stored in your organisation's Microsoft 365 tenant and are subject to your employer's retention policy and eDiscovery, which means IT can retrieve them.

Short answer

Two completely different products

The word Copilot covers a consumer assistant and an enterprise Microsoft 365 feature. Their data handling is not comparable, and confusing them is the source of most bad advice.

Consumer Copilot. Conversations are tied to your Microsoft account and appear in the privacy dashboard at account.microsoft.com/privacy. You can review and delete them there.

Microsoft 365 Copilot. Interactions are stored inside your organisation's tenant, usually in a hidden folder in the user's Exchange mailbox. That means they fall under your company's retention labels, legal hold, audit logging, and eDiscovery.

What this means at work

If you use Copilot on a work account, treat every prompt as a company record. Compliance officers can search it. Legal hold can preserve it beyond your ability to delete it. Nothing about it is private from your employer, and that is by design rather than a flaw.

Retention specifics

Consumer conversation history persists until you delete it or clear activity from the privacy dashboard. Enterprise retention is whatever your admin configured, which is commonly a few years, sometimes indefinite.

Keeping your own copy

Neither version gives you a clean, portable transcript. The practical route is to copy conversations out or save them as text or HTML, then convert them into proper documents.

ChatExports parses saved Copilot conversation text and turns it into Word, PDF, Markdown, CSV, or plain text files, entirely in your browser. That gives you a readable archive that survives account changes, job changes, and retention policies you do not control.

Frequently asked questions

Can my employer see my Copilot chats?

On a work or school account, yes. Interactions are stored in the tenant and available through audit and eDiscovery.

Where do I delete consumer Copilot history?

At account.microsoft.com/privacy, under your Copilot or AI activity.

Does Microsoft train on Copilot conversations?

Microsoft 365 Copilot data is not used to train foundation models. Consumer terms differ, so check the current privacy statement.

Can I export Copilot conversations?

There is no one-click export. Save the conversation text and convert it into documents.