For dictation in the Claude mobile apps, Anthropic says it deletes your audio recording after converting speech to text and does not use your voice to train its models. The transcribed text stays in your chat, under the normal retention rules, and may be used for training if you opted in.
The four statements
Anthropic's privacy center article on dictation makes four points for Free, Pro and Max plans, and Claude Code sessions on those accounts.
- Audio: "After converting your speech input to text, we delete your audio recording."
- Text: the transcribed text of your chat is retained under Anthropic's retention periods.
- Voice: "We do not use your voice for training our models."
- Training: if you opted in to chats being used to improve Claude, the transcribed text may be used in line with your privacy settings.
What this means in practice
The audio file itself is short lived. The words are not. Once dictation ends, what you said is simply a chat message, with the same life as one you typed.
So the same controls apply. Switch off the model improvement setting if you do not want chats used for training. Delete the chat if you want it gone from your history, which starts the 30 day back-end deletion window. Use an incognito chat for a conversation you do not want used for improvement.
Where dictation can trip people up
Dictation lowers friction, which means people say more than they would type. Think about:
- Dictating in public places where others can hear names, addresses and numbers.
- Dictating a long, rambling brain dump that includes a third party's details.
- Reading back account numbers out loud to the phone.
- Forgetting that a transcript can include a misheard word that changes the meaning.
Habits
- Check the transcript before you send it.
- Dictate in private.
- Keep identifiers out of the spoken message just as you would out of typed text.
- Review the training setting once.
Anthropic's page covers its own dictation feature. If you use your phone keyboard's built in voice typing instead, that is a different system with its own privacy terms.
Quick check
Is my voice recording saved after I dictate?
Anthropic says it deletes the audio recording after converting your speech to text.
Can my dictated words be used for training?
The transcribed text may be, if you opted in under your privacy settings. Anthropic says it does not use your voice for training.
Sources
- What personal data is collected when using dictation on the Claude mobile apps? (Anthropic Privacy Center)
- Is my data used for model training? (Anthropic Privacy Center)
Last reviewed: 19 October 2026.
