What each kind of secret looks like, and what to do if you pasted one

If you already pasted a secret into an AI chat

Revoke or rotate the credential first, then clean up the chat. Deleting a conversation removes it from your history, but the text has already reached the provider's servers, and OpenAI's and Anthropic's own pages below say a deleted chat can stay in their systems for up to 30 days. Anyone or anything that saw the key in the meantime still has it.

A revoked key is worthless wherever it ended up. Each page above ends with the provider's own revoke or rotate steps; for personal data there is nothing to revoke, and those pages say what is worth doing instead.

Then delete the conversation. How, in the major assistants, according to each provider's own help page:

ChatGPT

1. Go to the chat history sidebar, hover over the conversation, click the three dots (⋯) next to its title, select Delete and confirm.
2. To remove everything at once, Settings → Data controls has options to delete (or archive) all chats, including those inside projects.
3. Archive is not delete: an archived chat stays in your account. Delete it from Settings → Data controls → Archived Chats → Manage.

OpenAI says a deleted chat is removed from your history immediately and scheduled for permanent deletion from its systems within 30 days, unless it has already been de-identified and disassociated from your account, or OpenAI must keep it for security or legal obligations. A deleted chat cannot be recovered.

Source: How to Delete and Archive Chats in ChatGPT — OpenAI Help Center, checked 2026-09-23. help.openai.com refused automated requests on 2026-09-23 (HTTP 403), so these steps were checked that day against the Internet Archive's copy of the page captured 2026-07-31. Internet Archive copy, captured 2026-07-31.

Claude

1. On the web, hover over the conversation, click the ⋮ button on its right, select Delete, then click Delete again to confirm.
2. For several at once: click Chats and tasks in the left sidebar, open one conversation's ⋮ menu and click Select, tick the others (or Select all), then click Delete and confirm.

Anthropic says a deleted conversation is removed from your history immediately and deleted from its back-end systems within 30 days. The article covers the consumer plans (Free, Pro, Max).

Source: Delete or rename a conversation — Claude Help Center, checked 2026-09-23.

Gemini

1. On a computer, go to gemini.google.com and click Activity.
2. Next to an activity item, click Delete activity item — or choose Delete and a range such as Last hour, Last day or All time.

Google says that even with Keep Activity off, conversations are saved with your account for up to 72 hours so it can provide the service. With Keep Activity on, activity older than 18 months is auto-deleted by default.

Source: Manage & delete your activity in Gemini Apps — Gemini Apps Help, checked 2026-09-23.

Microsoft Copilot

1. On the web, select the three dots to the right of the conversation and select Delete. In the Windows or macOS app, right-click it and select Delete. In the mobile app, press the three dots and select Delete.
2. To delete everything with a Microsoft account: on the privacy management page, under Copilot app activity history, choose Delete all activity history.

Microsoft says Copilot keeps your last 18 months of conversations while you are signed in.

Source: Conversation history in Microsoft Copilot — Microsoft Support, checked 2026-09-23.

Open the masking tool to mask a log, .env file or e-mail before it goes into the chat next time.