01In plain English
With zero data retention, your prompts and files are processed and then discarded, rather than kept in logs for days or weeks. It is usually offered on business or enterprise plans, or when a tool uses an AI provider under that agreement.
02Why it matters when you are choosing
If you paste contracts, code or customer details into an AI tool, stored copies are a risk even when they are not used for training. Zero retention removes that copy.
03What to check
Ask the vendor
Ask whether it covers every model the tool calls, whether abuse monitoring keeps anything, and which plan it comes with.