Claude vs ChatGPT
Side-by-side comparison of the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy of Claude and ChatGPT.
The service includes several user-friendly protections—no mandatory arbitration, local court access for EEA/Swiss users, user rights in inputs/outputs, clear deletion timing, portability, and a statement that it does not sell personal data. But it also defaults to using prompts and outputs for model training, collects broad technical and content data, auto-renews subscriptions, limits liability, and allows suspension/termination with potential deletion of account materials.
Claude’s consumer terms for EEA/Swiss users are relatively transparent and preserve user ownership of inputs while assigning output rights to users. Privacy terms are mixed: Anthropic collects substantial usage and content data and may use prompts/outputs for model training by default unless you opt out, but it offers deletion, access, portability, objection rights, and says it does not sell personal data. Disputes stay in court rather than mandatory arbitration.
Points of interest
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negative ●●●●○ termsTraining on chats by default
Your prompts, outputs, and feedback may be used to improve services and train models unless you opt out. Even after opting out, flagged content and reported feedback can still be used for training or safety review.
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positive ●●●●○ termsNo mandatory arbitration
Users can bring disputes in court, and EEA/Swiss consumers may also file claims in their local courts. That preserves ordinary legal remedies instead of forcing private arbitration.
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positive ●●●●○ termsYou keep input rights
Anthropic says you retain rights in your submitted content, and it assigns any rights it has in outputs to you. This is unusually favorable compared with services that claim broad ownership over user content.
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positive ●●●●○ privacyClear deletion timeline
Deleted conversations are removed from your history immediately and from Anthropic’s back-end within 30 days. This is a concrete and user-friendly retention promise for chat history.
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positive ●●●●○ privacyNo sale of personal data
Anthropic expressly says it does not “sell” personal data under applicable privacy laws. It also offers opt-outs for targeted advertising and says it honors global privacy controls.
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negative ●●●○○ privacyBroad data collection
Anthropic collects not just account and payment details, but also prompts, outputs, support messages, IP address, device data, usage logs, and cookies. That gives the service a detailed picture of your activity and interactions.
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negative ●●●○○ termsAuto-renewing subscription
Paid plans renew automatically unless canceled at least 24 hours before the end of the current term. Payments are generally nonrefundable outside legal cancellation rights.
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negative ●●●○○ termsCan change terms and service
Anthropic may revise the terms and modify, suspend, or discontinue services, usually with 30 days' notice for material changes. This gives it significant flexibility to alter features, pricing, or rules later.
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negative ●●●○○ termsLiability cap applies
If something goes wrong, Anthropic’s liability is capped at the greater of what you paid in the prior six months or €100, subject to mandatory legal exceptions. That can sharply limit compensation for losses.
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positive ●●●○○ privacyAccess and portability rights
Depending on location, users may request access, deletion, correction, portability, restriction, objection, and consent withdrawal. The policy also points to Privacy Settings and a dedicated privacy email for requests.
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negative ●●○○○ termsTermination may delete data
Anthropic may suspend or terminate access for breaches, legal compliance, security needs, or long inactivity, and it may delete materials tied to your account after termination. Users should not assume indefinite access to stored chats or content.
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neutral ●●○○○ privacyInternational data transfers
Personal data may be transferred to the US and other countries, with Anthropic relying on adequacy decisions or standard contractual clauses. This is common, but it means your data may be processed outside your home jurisdiction.
Documents
The documents provide strong consumer rights for covered users, including local-court dispute resolution, preserved statutory rights, meaningful privacy controls, deletion/export tools, and a training opt-out. Main concerns are broad data collection, model-training use by default, auto-renewal, admin access for work accounts, and retention exceptions.
ChatGPT’s EEA/UK/Switzerland terms are relatively consumer-protective compared with many online services: users keep input ownership and generally own output, can go to local courts, and get clear account controls such as deletion, export, training opt-out, and temporary chats. At the same time, OpenAI collects broad usage and content data, may use content to improve models unless you opt out, auto-renews paid plans, and reserves rights to suspend accounts and retain some data for safety, legal, and business reasons.
Points of interest
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positive ●●●●● privacyStrong deletion and export controls
Users can delete chats, delete accounts, export data, use temporary chats, and manage memory settings. Deleted personal data is generally removed within 30 days unless an exception applies.
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negative ●●●●○ termsContent used to improve models
OpenAI can use your prompts, uploads, and outputs to develop and improve services, including model training, unless you opt out. This creates a meaningful privacy tradeoff for sensitive chats.
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positive ●●●●○ termsNo forced arbitration
Disputes can go to your local courts, which is more user-friendly than mandatory arbitration or class-action waivers. EEA users also get access to an EU dispute resolution platform.
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positive ●●●●○ termsStatutory rights preserved
The terms explicitly say consumer rights under applicable law are not waived. This helps protect users against overbroad contract terms.
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positive ●●●●○ termsYou own input and output
Users retain ownership of their input and, where legally permitted, own the output assigned by OpenAI. That is stronger than services that claim broad ownership over user-generated results.
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positive ●●●●○ termsTraining opt-out available
You can turn off use of your content for model training in account settings. This is a significant privacy control, even though it is not the default.
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negative ●●●○○ privacyBroad data collection
The privacy policy allows collection of account data, payment data, prompts, files, contacts, device, usage, cookies, location, and some outside-source data. Users should assume extensive telemetry and content processing.
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negative ●●●○○ privacyRetention exceptions apply
Although deletion tools exist, OpenAI may keep data longer for legal, security, fraud, abuse, and accounting reasons, and de-identified training data may remain disassociated from your account. So deletion is not always immediate or absolute.
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negative ●●●○○ privacyWork admins can access content
If you use an employer or business-linked account, administrators may control the account and access your content, and your organization may learn you have the account. That reduces privacy in workplace contexts.
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positive ●●●○○ termsClear notice of term changes
Material adverse changes to the terms require at least 30 days' advance notice. This is better than immediate unilateral changes without warning.
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negative ●●○○○ termsAuto-renewing subscriptions
Paid plans renew automatically until canceled. After the 14-day cooling-off period, cancellation usually stops future charges but does not refund the remaining billing period.
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neutral ●●○○○ privacyInternational data transfers
Personal data may be processed outside Europe, including in the United States, using adequacy decisions or standard contractual clauses. This is common, but some users may prefer local-only processing.
Documents
Comparison is based on each service's published Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Read the source documents linked above before relying on any specific clause.