How to opt-in for zero data retention with Azure OpenAI service?

Question

How to opt-in for zero data retention with Azure OpenAI service?

Misha Umnov 25

Hello everyone,

We are evaluating Azure OpenAI models (inference only) to power a new AI feature for our clients.
We need to understand how the prompts we send to Azure OpenAI model Completion API would get stored somewhere in Azure, or third parties, and how could we opt-out of this behavior?
Our goal is to get zero-data-retention at Azure OpenAI layer and store/retrieve all relevant data to/from our product databases, ie that the data is never stored to Azure servers at-rest at all.

We have already reviewed https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/ai-foundry/responsible-ai/openai/data-privacy?tabs=azure-portal and it seems there is some data persistence & human review for "abuse moderation" feature, which I understand can be opted-out via support.
Are any more services/features we need to opt-out from to get to zero-data-retention? Any kind of 'logging' we need to explicitly turn off like there is with Cognitive Services?

Manas R Mohanty 17,270 Reputation points Moderator

2025-07-15T02:00:51.98+00:00

Hi Misha Umnov

You can share the justification on zero-day retention here on Abuse monitoring form.

Currently available for managed customer as Amira mentioned.

Reference - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/ai-foundry/openai/concepts/abuse-monitoring

Thank you

Answer accepted by question author

Amira Bedhiafi 43,046 MVP Volunteer Moderator

Hello Misha !

Thank you for posting on Microsoft Learn.

Zero data retention is only available for customers with an enterprise agreement (EA) or Microsoft Customer Agreement (MCA) and not pay-as-you-go.

You can deploy a dedicated Azure OpenAI Resource, not public/shared preview endpoints and access it via region-specific endpoints ( https://{your-resource-name}.openai.azure.com/).

You can open a support ticket to request zero data retention, Microsoft will confirm and flag your resource to bypass prompt logging and human review.

Abuse monitoring and content filtering is on by default and may retain data temporarily (up to 30 days) so when zero retention is approved, this is disabled or bypassed for that resource.

Keep in mind that in zero zata retention mode:

prompts and completions are not stored even temporarily
no human review is conducted
you are responsible for ensuring content safety and compliance on your own systems
you must request this mode per resource as it's not enabled by default

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/ai-foundry/responsible-ai/openai/data-privacy?tabs=azure-portal

Mart 0 Reputation points

2026-01-09T07:56:26.5833333+00:00

Hi there!

You mention that Zero Data Retention is available for customers with a Microsoft Customer Agreement. However, my request was denied because I have an unmanaged account, something only obtainable by having a partnership. Just posting this so other people know!

1 additional answer

Your answer

Manas R Mohanty 17,270 Reputation points Moderator

2025-07-15T02:00:51.98+00:00

Hi Misha Umnov

You can share the justification on zero-day retention here on Abuse monitoring form.

Currently available for managed customer as Amira mentioned.

Reference - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/ai-foundry/openai/concepts/abuse-monitoring

Thank you
Mart 0 Reputation points

2026-01-09T07:56:26.5833333+00:00

Hi there!

You mention that Zero Data Retention is available for customers with a Microsoft Customer Agreement. However, my request was denied because I have an unmanaged account, something only obtainable by having a partnership. Just posting this so other people know!

Answer 1

Mahdi 0

While I appreciate the clear and to the point response above, I just spent an hour of my day trying to figure how to make a support ticket! and I failed!

Can you also provide a How To guide on making simple support tickets ?

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