Is your AI provider training on your documents? What to check

Hardly anyone reads every line of the terms they agree to, and that is normal. With AI tools, though, those terms decide what happens to what your staff type and upload. Here is what to look for.

This is general information, not legal advice. Providers change their terms, so what is below was last checked on 12/10/2026 (12 October 2026). Check the current terms before you rely on it.

What “training” means

AI models are built and improved using very large amounts of text. Some providers can use what people type into their chat services to help train future models. Whether they can depends on the plan, and often on a setting. That is not hidden or sinister, it is what the terms say. The risk for an office is that nobody checked.

What two big providers say

• ChatGPT (OpenAI). On individual plans, content may be used to train models by default. You can turn that off in the settings (“Improve the model for everyone”) or through OpenAI's privacy portal. By default, OpenAI says it does not use inputs or outputs from ChatGPT Business, Enterprise, Edu or its API for training. Source: OpenAI help.
• Claude (Anthropic). For people on the Free, Pro and Max plans, allowing chats to be used for training is a choice they make in a setting. Anthropic said that if you allow it, data is kept for up to five years, and if you do not, the existing 30-day period applies. Its Team, Enterprise and API products are not used for training by default. Source: Anthropic's announcement.

The pattern is the same for both. Paid business plans are generally treated more carefully than personal ones, and the default setting on a personal account matters.

Why this matters for an office

Staff often use their own personal accounts for work, without telling anyone. If someone pastes a client contract into a personal account where training is switched on, the office may have a confidentiality or privacy problem that nobody knows about. The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner advises organisations not to enter personal information, and particularly sensitive information, into publicly available generative AI tools, and to check whether a product's terms let the provider use what you enter for training. Source: OAIC guidance.

What to check

• Which accounts are staff really using? Personal, free, or paid business accounts?
• Is training switched on or off for each of them?
• How long is data kept, and can it be deleted?
• Who can see it, and where is it processed?
• Is there a written rule on what may be put into an AI tool? Our free staff AI use policy template is a place to start.

With a private AI computer

With one of our computers, your questions and documents stay on a computer in your office, so there is no provider's terms deciding what happens to them. There are two things to know. The open-source AI models we install come from other publishers under their own licences, which your quote names. And web search is off unless you switch it on, because then the words of a search go to a search provider. Your documents are never part of it. We keep no copies of your documents after set-up unless you ask us to in writing. See what stays private, and what doesn't.

Busy servers and other people's demand

A cloud AI service is shared by a huge number of people, so when demand jumps, you feel it. In September 2026, OpenAI paused new sign-ups to its US$200 ChatGPT Pro plan because demand for a new model was straining its capacity (Ubergizmo, 14 September 2026). PCWorld reported on 2 October 2026 that sign-ups had reopened, but that the plan's usage allowance had been cut, so a Pro plan now gives about 10 times the usage of Plus rather than 20 (PCWorld). Providers can change plans, limits and availability, and they do.

Could you get less for the same price later? It is possible. If demand keeps growing faster than providers can add capacity, one way they can respond is to lower the usage on a plan, as in the Pro example above, or to raise prices. That is our estimate based on the information available on 12/10/2026. It is not a prediction or a guarantee, and it could go the other way: more capacity and more competition could lower prices or raise allowances. Check the provider's current plan before you decide.

A private AI computer is yours alone. Nobody else's demand can slow it down or lock you out. Your own team does share it, so we size each build to the number of people who will use it at the same time. If more people use it at once than it was sized for, answers will slow down, which is why we ask about your busiest hour.

The short version

Read the data section of the terms, check the setting, and write a simple rule for your staff. Whichever tool you choose, know where your documents go. Want to compare costs? Try the cost calculator, or read private AI vs ChatGPT.