Does Zendesk train on your data?
Zendesk says it uses Service Data to improve its AI features. Paid accounts can opt out, but only by asking; Zendesk confirms a free trial cannot opt out at all, and that none of this is published.
Opt-out is sold, not offered
"If Customer uses Generative AI Services, Service Data will not be used by any LLM Provider for any purpose other than to provide and secure the AI Services."
- 17 Aug 2026
- 5 Oct 2026
- Paid accounts (AI Services)
- global
- Fetched from the company
- 11BF0275…42B3
How we read it: Resolved 19 Aug 2026 by Zendesk, and this is what an UNCLEAR listing is for. The addendum addresses training in every direction but its own; asked directly, Zendesk said it "uses Service Data to improve its native features, but customers can opt out at any time by contacting their Account Manager", at no cost in features. On 24 Aug it confirmed the rest: "We do not have that opt-out information published on a page at the moment", and "opt-outs are supported for paid accounts only". The control is real, unpublished, and gated behind a paid account — reachable only by someone who already knows to ask. The grade rests on those replies, not on anything a customer could look up.
opt out, opt-out, object to, settings, toggle, turn off, disable, by default
What the document does offer
- "Generative AI Services are identified to enable Customer control over Generative AI Services use including, where applicable, the ability to disable them at any time" — disabling the feature, not excluding data from training
- no other control appears in the addendum; "opt out" appears zero times
- the opt-out this tier is graded on exists only in Zendesk's reply of 19 Aug 2026: "customers can opt out at any time by contacting their Account Manager"
- "Account Manager" appears zero times in the addendum and zero times in the privacy notice
- Zendesk confirmed the absence itself on 24 Aug 2026: "We do not have that opt-out information published on a page at the moment" — so the zero matches above are the company's position, not a limitation of this search
Why none of it applies: The only published control disables the AI features; it does not address whether Service Data already collected trains Zendesk's own models. The opt-out that earns this tier its D was supplied by Zendesk in correspondence and appears in neither document, which is why the grade rests on a reply rather than on anything a customer could look up. That is recorded as the finding rather than smoothed over. Zendesk has since confirmed the opt-out is published on no page at all, and is available to paid accounts only — turning what this search could report only as an absence into a stated position.
"If Customer uses Generative AI Services, Service Data will not be used by any LLM Provider for any purpose other than to provide and secure the AI Services."
- 17 Aug 2026
- 5 Oct 2026
- Standalone free trial (AI Services)
- global
- Fetched from the company
- 11BF0275…42B3
How we read it: Added 25 Aug 2026, and stated by Zendesk rather than inferred by us. Asked whether a customer on a standalone free trial — not one taken out under an existing paid account — has any route to opt out, Zendesk answered: "You are correct, the answer is no." Trials taken out through a paid account keep that account's opt-out. This tier is the population left over, and it carries the paywall the paid tier does not: the control exists and is reachable only by becoming a customer. This page left the point unstated for a day rather than infer it from "opt-outs are supported for paid accounts only", because that sentence implies the gap without describing it. Zendesk described it.
trial, free trial, proof of concept, evaluation, opt out, paid
What the document does offer
- "trial" appears in the addendum only in the definition of the subscription term, never beside a control
- no plan or account type appears anywhere near the opt-out, because the opt-out appears nowhere in the addendum at all
- the only control the document names disables the AI features rather than excluding data from training
Why none of it applies: Nothing published distinguishes a trial from a paid account, because nothing published describes the opt-out in the first place. The distinction exists, Zendesk applies it, and it reached this page only because Zendesk was asked a direct question and answered it plainly. A trial customer reading every document Zendesk publishes would find no indication that the control other customers have is unavailable to them.
What Zendesk said when we showed them this
Clarified“We do not have that opt-out information published on a page at the moment [...] Currently, opt-outs are supported for paid accounts only. Opt-outs are respected for customers who sign up for Free Trials or Proof of Concepts (PoCs) of specific features or functionality through their paid accounts. [Asked whether a standalone free trial, not taken out under a paid account, has any route to opt out:] You are correct, the answer is no.”
What each plan can refuse
The same questions, asked of every plan we could identify. Every cell comes from a quoted clause or a documented search - see the evidence above.
- Contact support
- Not stated
- 55 / 100
- Not stated
- Unknown
- Paid upgrade required
- Not stated
- 75 / 100
- Not stated
- Unknown
How to opt out of Zendesk AI training
Plan by plan, from what Zendesk's own policy says about refusing. Where it publishes the steps, they're listed here with the limits they carry. Where there's nothing to switch off, or nothing graded, this says so instead of inventing a menu path.
Paid accounts (AI Services)
Yes, but not self-serve: Zendesk makes you contact support.
- Ask your Zendesk Account Manager to opt your account out of training on Service Data.
- Keep the reply: Zendesk told us this route isn't published anywhere.
This route comes from Zendesk's reply to us of 19 August 2026, not from any page it publishes. Zendesk also says opt-outs are supported for paid accounts only.
Standalone free trial (AI Services)
Only by moving to a higher-priced plan. Zendesk puts the opt-out behind a paid tier.
What this policy has done since we started watching
No change detected. We've held a copy of Zendesk's documents since 1 Aug 2026 and re-read them since, across 3 captures of 2 documents. The text hasn't moved in a way that touches this verdict. That's a fact about the documents, and it's only knowable by having kept the earlier copies.
Vendor response
Their reply is quoted in full at the top of this page.
We wrote back on 24 Aug 2026, and they answered.