How long does Alexa keep voice recordings?

Alexa keeps your voice recordings for as long as your Alexa Privacy setting says: 3 months, 18 months, or not at all. The 3 and 18 month clocks start from your last request in that conversation. Even when no recordings are saved, Amazon keeps the text of what you said for 30 days. Siri works the other way round. Apple stores no audio unless you opt in to Improve Siri and Dictation. Google Assistant saves no audio to your account unless you turn on voice and audio activity.

What counts as a voice recording

A voice recording is the sound clip a speaker or phone sends to the company's servers after it hears its wake word, such as "Alexa", "Hey Siri" or "Hey Google". Before that word, nothing is sent. How a smart speaker listens for its wake word explains that part.

On the servers, the company makes a written copy of the clip, called the transcript. Amazon says it creates one for every request to help Alexa understand you. Behind both sits a third record: what the assistant did, such as the timer it set.

So there are two things to track, the audio and the text, and each company keeps them on different clocks. One more term matters for Alexa. Amazon groups related requests into a "chat". Ask three questions about a trip in a row, and Alexa may file them as one chat. The deletion clock runs per chat.

Alexa, Siri and Google side by side

Each company states its rules on its own pages, and none sets the others beside it. Here they are together, as read on November 4, 2026.

The short version: Alexa audio lasts as long as the choice you make in the app. Siri and Google save no audio unless you tell them to.

The rules in each company's words

Amazon: 3 months, 18 months, or not at all. Amazon's Alexa privacy page says you can have your voice recordings, text transcripts and typed requests deleted automatically after 3 or 18 months. It counts the time "since your last request to Alexa within that chat." If you choose not to save recordings, Amazon deletes each one after it handles your request, along with all those already saved. Transcripts and typed requests are different. Amazon keeps them 30 days after your last interaction in that chat, then deletes them. The page does not say which choice a new account starts on.

Apple: nothing kept unless you opt in. Apple's Siri privacy page says "your audio data is not stored by Apple unless you opt in" to Improve Siri and Dictation, or Improve Siri and Apple Intelligence. By default Apple keeps data about each request: its type, whether it worked, device details, and your rough location if Location Services is on for Siri. It is tied to a random code that changes several times an hour, not to your Apple Account. Apple may keep it for up to two years. Your request history and its transcripts stay on the device.

If you opt in, Apple may store your audio and transcripts for up to two years too. The "small subset" of requests that a person reviews may be kept longer. Apple says only its own employees review them.

Google: off unless you turn it on. Google's help page says the voice and audio activity setting "is off unless you choose to turn it on." With it off, Assistant recordings are not saved to your Google Account, even when you are signed in. With it on, audio is saved in Web and App Activity, the record of what you do across Google's apps, and follows its auto-delete timer. Google says that record also holds your Assistant activity, so a request can be logged there with no audio attached. Google's June 2020 announcement set that timer to 18 months by default for new accounts. Older accounts kept their old setting. Google adds that it may delete audio sooner.

Why you keep reading that Amazon keeps them forever

Search this question, and most top results are news stories from 2019 saying Amazon keeps Alexa recordings indefinitely. In July 2019, Engadget reported that Amazon had told Senator Chris Coons it keeps recordings and transcripts until you delete them by hand. Engadget describes no way to delete them on a timer.

That answer is out of date. Amazon's page now offers the 3 and 18 month timers and a choice to save no recordings. It does not say what a new account starts on. So your own setting is the only answer that holds. The 2019 stories still rank, which is why the old headline lives on.

A second mix-up comes from the 30 days. People read that Alexa keeps transcripts for 30 days and think everything goes after a month. It does not. The 30 days applies only to transcripts and typed requests, and only on "do not save recordings."

A third is that Siri keeps nothing. Apple keeps no audio by default, but it does keep request data for up to two years, just not tied to your name.

One shopping list request walked through the rules

Suppose that on March 1 you say "add milk to my shopping list" to a speaker in your kitchen, and that is your last request in that chat. Here is what each published rule says would happen to it.

• Alexa, set to 18 months. The audio and the transcript stay until 18 months after that request, so until about September 1 of the next year.
• Alexa, set to 3 months. Both go after about June 1.
• Alexa, set to do not save recordings. The audio is deleted once Alexa has handled it. The transcript stays 30 days, so until about March 31. Milk stays on the list, because Amazon keeps your shopping lists separately from recordings.
• Siri on a HomePod or iPhone, as it comes. Apple stores no audio. The details of the request, under a random code, may be kept for up to two years.
• Siri with Improve Siri and Dictation on. The audio and transcript may be kept up to two years, and longer if someone at Apple reviews that request.
• Google Assistant, voice and audio activity off. No recording goes into your account.
• Google Assistant, audio on, on an account made after June 2020 and never changed. The recording stays up to 18 months, unless Google deletes it sooner.

So the same few words could last seconds or a year and a half. The setting decides it, not the speaker.

What this answer does not cover

These are the rules Amazon, Apple and Google publish, as read on November 4, 2026. Deleting a recording is not deleting everything. Amazon says it may keep records of what Alexa did, your reminders, lists and messages, and copies tied to feedback you sent. Skills from other companies keep their own data. Amazon also keeps using systems already trained on your data, a limit set out in what deleting AI data actually removes. Google says it may keep some data after deletion for security, accounting or legal reasons. If your device now answers with Gemini, Gemini has its own history setting, covered in how long ChatGPT, Gemini and other chatbots keep your chats. Other assistants, such as Bixby, are not covered here.

How to set it today

For Alexa, open the Alexa app, go to More, then Alexa Privacy, and choose how long to keep recordings. If you use voice ID, which lets Alexa tell who is speaking, know the trade first. Amazon says saving no recordings deletes your voice IDs and stops voice ID working. A 3 or 18 month timer may break it too, if it deletes the clips your voice ID was built from.

If the light comes on when nobody spoke, ask "Alexa, tell me what you heard." Amazon's privacy hub says Alexa will read back your most recent request.

For Siri, go to Settings, then Privacy and Security, then Analytics and Improvements, and check whether Improve Siri and Dictation is on. For Google, open your Google Account, then Data and privacy, then Web and App Activity. The box is labeled "Include voice and audio activity." The same auto-delete timer covers your searches, and how long Google keeps your search history sets out its choices.

A voice request is now often a prompt sent to an AI model, so what an AI assistant does with your personal data applies to it too. A camera in the same home runs on a separate clock, set out in how long Ring, Nest and Blink keep video. If you are still choosing a speaker, picking one smart home system first decides which of these settings you live with.