Zero Data Retention
Zero Data Retention (ZDR) means that a provider will not store your data for any period of time.
OpenRouter has a setting that, when enabled, only allows you to route to endpoints that have a Zero Data Retention policy.
Providers that do not retain your data are also unable to train on your data. However we do have some endpoints & providers who do not train on your data but do retain it (e.g. to scan for abuse or for legal reasons). OpenRouter gives you controls over both of these policies.
How OpenRouter Manages Data Policies
OpenRouter works with providers to understand each of their data policies and structures the policy data in a way that gives you control over which providers you want to route to.
Note that a provider’s general policy may differ from the specific policy for a given endpoint. OpenRouter keeps track of the specific policy for each endpoint, works with providers to keep these policies up to date, and in some cases creates special agreements with providers to ensure data retention or training policies that are more privacy-focused than their default policies. When this is the case, OpenRouter keeps paperwork on file documenting these policy shifts, which can be made available by request.
If OpenRouter is not able to establish or ascertain a clear policy for a provider or endpoint, we take a conservative stance and assume that the endpoint both retains and trains on data and mark it as such.
A full list of providers and their data policies can be found here. Note that this list shows the default policy for each provider; if there is a particular endpoint that has a policy that differs from the provider default, it may not be available if “ZDR Only” is enabled.
Caching
Some endpoints/models provide implicit caching of prompts. This keeps repeated prompt data in an in-memory cache in the provider’s datacenter, so that the repeated part of the prompt does not need to be re-processed. This can lead to considerable cost savings.
OpenRouter has taken the stance that in-memory caching of prompts is not considered “retaining” data, and we therefore allow endpoints/models with implicit caching to be hit when a ZDR routing policy is in effect.
OpenRouter’s Retention Policy
OpenRouter itself has a ZDR policy; your prompts are not retained unless you specifically opt in to prompt logging.