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Is Brave Leo private? What Brave keeps, what stays on your device

October 8, 2026

Mostly, yes. Per Brave's privacy policy, Leo doesn't store or retain your prompts, replies or context on Brave's servers, discards chats soon after they finish, doesn't use them for training, and needs no account on the free tier. Requests go through a proxy so they can't be tied to your IP address. Two things still exist: your chat history, saved on your own device unless you turn it off, and any conversation you send as feedback, which Brave keeps for a year. If you want no history on the device either, nixm keeps no transcript.

The short answer

Leo is the AI assistant built into the Brave browser. Brave's pitch is that it is private by architecture rather than by setting: no account, no server-side record, no training. The details below come from Brave's browser privacy policy, last updated September 23, 2026, and its Leo help pages, so they describe Brave's stated practice rather than an independent audit.

What Brave keeps on its servers

  • Prompts and replies: Brave says it doesn't store or retain prompts, responses, context or personal data on its servers. Chat queries are described as ephemeral, discarded soon after the chat is completed.
  • Large prompts: these may be briefly cached, and Brave says they are deleted within minutes.
  • Training: Brave says conversations aren't used to train models.
  • Usage stats: Brave collects aggregated, non-identifying metadata about queries through its privacy-preserving analytics systems, not the content of your chats.

Your IP address and your account

Free Leo needs no account. Brave says requests pass through a reverse proxy so they can't be linked to your IP address, and that it doesn't collect identifiers such as your IP. Leo Premium, the paid tier with more models and higher limits, is validated with unlinkable tokens, so Brave says it can't connect your subscription to what you ask.

Where your chat history actually lives

"Nothing on our servers" doesn't mean nothing anywhere. Leo saves your conversation history on your device, and if you turn on Brave Sync it can be synced across your devices. You can switch history off or delete conversations in Leo's settings, and conversations in a Private Window are never saved. So the record that remains is the one on your own machine, which is as private as that machine is, and visible to anyone who uses it.

Claude, GPT and the other models

Leo offers a menu of models: open models such as Qwen and GLM, and commercial ones including Anthropic's Claude and OpenAI's GPT, with more on Premium. Brave says it now hosts all of them, including the Claude models, through its own secure infrastructure, and that there is no data sharing with the companies that created the models. Earlier, Brave says, some models were served through external providers. It doesn't publish the details of the infrastructure, which privacy forums have asked about, so on this point you are taking Brave's word, as you would with any hosted AI.

The feedback exception

If you rate a reply or send feedback, the situation changes. Brave says it then keeps the conversation text, the model used and your subscription status for one year, and deletes it from its servers after that. If a conversation is sensitive, don't send feedback on it.

So is Leo private?

For an assistant from a mainstream company, Leo is one of the cleanest designs: no account, no server-side record, no training, IP shielded. Its limits are practical rather than hidden. You have to use the Brave browser, history lives on your device unless you switch it off, and feedback creates a record that lasts a year. For how it compares with Duck.ai and Proton's Lumo, see whether Duck.ai is really private, whether Lumo is private and the most private AI chatbot.

The version with no history on the device either

nixm works in any browser and needs no account to start. It doesn't keep a transcript. A distilled log of the session stays with the signal for seven days, then dissolves, along with any images you uploaded. There is no conversation history to clear from your laptop afterwards, and nothing to sync.

frequently asked

Is Brave Leo private?

Per Brave, Leo doesn't store prompts or replies on its servers, discards chats soon after they finish, doesn't train on them, needs no account on the free tier, and proxies requests so they can't be tied to your IP.

Does Brave Leo save my conversations?

Not on Brave's servers, per Brave. Your chat history is saved on your device, and can sync across devices if you use Brave Sync. You can turn history off, and Private Window chats are never saved.

Does Brave use Leo chats for training?

Brave says conversations aren't used to train models.

Does Leo send my chats to Anthropic or OpenAI?

Brave says it hosts all Leo models, including Claude, through its own infrastructure, with no data sharing with the companies that created the models.

Does Leo keep anything when I send feedback?

Yes. Brave says feedback keeps the conversation text, the model and your subscription status for one year, then deletes it.

Do I need an account to use Brave Leo?

Not for the free tier. Leo Premium uses unlinkable tokens, so Brave says it can't connect your subscription to your usage.

Is there an AI chat that keeps no history on the device either?

nixm works in any browser with no account needed to start. It keeps no transcript: a distilled log stays with the signal for seven days, then dissolves, along with any images you uploaded.

try it now — no account, no transcript kept. even the signal dissolves in seven days.

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