Terms of Use (ROW)

This is OpenAI's legal rulebook for using ChatGPT, DALL·E, and other OpenAI services as an individual — it covers everything from what you can and can't do, to how disputes are handled and what happens to what you type or upload. The single most important thing for the average person: when you use OpenAI's services, you give OpenAI a broad license to use your conversations and uploaded content, including to train its AI models, unless you opt out via account settings. You can opt out of having your conversations used to train OpenAI's models by going to Settings > Data Controls in your ChatGPT account and disabling 'Improve the model for everyone'.

This document constitutes OpenAI's Terms of Use governing individual access to ChatGPT, DALL·E, and associated services, forming a binding agreement between users and OpenAI OpCo, LLC (a Delaware company), effective January 1, 2026, with dispute resolution mandated through binding arbitration under AAA rules. The most significant obligations include users granting OpenAI a broad license to use submitted content for service improvement and model training, compliance with usage policies, and acceptance of mandatory arbitration with a class action waiver for all disputes. Notable deviations from industry standard include OpenAI's explicit claim of ownership over AI-generated outputs assigned to users (rather than the user owning outputs by default), the breadth of the content license granted to OpenAI for model training purposes, and a mutual indemnification structure that nonetheless imposes significant user-side liability for third-party claims arising from user content or violations. The document engages GDPR (for EU/EEA users), CCPA (for California residents), COPPA (age restriction to 13+/18+ depending on jurisdiction), and the EU AI Act given OpenAI's classification as a high-risk AI system provider; the mandatory arbitration clause and class action waiver present particular compliance risk under consumer protection frameworks in the EU and certain US states where such clauses may be unenforceable. Material compliance considerations include the interplay between OpenAI's training data license and GDPR's lawful basis requirements under Art. 6 and Art. 9, and the requirement for operators building on OpenAI's API to ensure downstream user compliance.