Questions people actually ask.

Ask Safely is a private AI assistant. Powered by Anthropic's Claude, it gives you top-tier AI with a key difference: your chats auto-delete on a timer you choose, 8 hours by default, and your data is never used for training. Starting September 21, what's worth keeping goes into a Knowledgebook you own: a plain-words record of what you know, that only changes when you say so.

Ask Safely runs on Anthropic's Claude models: Haiku 4.5 and Sonnet 4.5 for everyday questions, and Claude Opus 4.8 on Expert. The app picks the right model for each question automatically, a faster one for simple things, a more powerful one for harder or higher-stakes questions. Expert subscribers can also choose a model manually. You don't need to know anything about AI models. Just ask.

Yes. When your question needs current information, Ask Safely automatically searches the web using Brave (a privacy-focused search engine), finds the most relevant results, and gives you a sourced answer. You'll see citations in the response so you can check the original sources yourself. You don't need to turn anything on. Search activates on its own when it's needed.

Ask Safely is available on iPhone and iPad (App Store), Android (Google Play), and web browser at app.asksafely.ai. Your account syncs across all your devices.

Ask Safely is built by SafeLife Inc., founded by Mike Ebener. Mike previously led product at Walmart, scaling their last-mile delivery business. The team includes engineers across iOS, Android, and web, a UX researcher, a fractional CTO, and a UX designer. SafeLife is a Delaware C-Corp. You can reach the team at mike@asksafely.ai.

When you chat with tools like ChatGPT, your conversations can be used to improve their AI by default. Your words, your business ideas, your personal details become part of the training data for future models. Ask Safely never does this. The AI models are already trained before they reach you. Nothing you type ever goes back into making the AI smarter or shaping what it tells someone else. Your conversations stay yours.

Your chats auto-delete on a timer you choose, 8 hours by default. When a chat clears, it's gone from your history. Everything is encrypted in transit and at rest, and never used for training. Your password is protected with one-way hashing, so even we can't read it.

Yes. When the countdown hits zero, the chat clears itself and it's gone from your history. Nothing moves to a trash folder to read later. Delete a chat yourself, by swiping left on mobile or clicking delete on web, and it clears the same way, right away.

No. Ask Safely does not sell, share, or provide your data to any third party. Your conversations are not used for advertising, profiling, or training. We make money from subscriptions, not your data.

You can ask about anything without worrying about a permanent record. Because chats auto-delete and your data is never stored long-term or used for training, there's no lasting footprint from questions about health symptoms, legal situations, finances, relationships, or anything else. That said, Ask Safely is an AI assistant, not a doctor, lawyer, or financial advisor. Always treat answers as a helpful starting point.

No. The privacy protections are completely separate from the AI's ability to answer your questions. Ask Safely uses the same top-tier Anthropic models available anywhere. The auto-deletion and encryption happen after you get your answer. They don't affect the quality of the response at all. Full AI capability, full privacy. No trade-off.

Ask Safely is completing its SOC 2 Type 2 certification through Vanta, with certification expected by mid-2026. Our entire platform runs on AWS infrastructure, which maintains SOC 2, PCI DSS, and HIPAA certifications, giving us a strong security foundation while we complete our own independent audit.

You choose the timer. Every chat auto-deletes on a window you set: 8 hours by default, or 7- or 30-day windows. You'll see a live countdown showing how long is left. Want a conversation to last longer? Extend it: swipe right on mobile to keep it 14 days, or use the extend buttons on web for 24 hours or 14 days. After that, it clears itself. You can also delete any chat yourself at any time.

Yes. Choose a default auto-delete window of 8 hours, 7 days, or 30 days in settings. 8 hours remains the default. Every chat shows its own countdown so you always know exactly when it clears, and you can still extend or delete any individual chat whenever you want. Change your window anytime.

When you save (extend) a chat, it moves from your default window to a 14-day window. You'll see its own countdown in your chat history, so you always know when it clears. During those 14 days you can re-read it, keep the conversation going, or clear it early. After 14 days, it clears itself.

On mobile apps, swipe left on a chat to delete it instantly. Swipe right to extend it to 14 days. As you start swiping, a label shows which action you're about to take so you don't accidentally do the wrong one. On the web app, the same actions are available through buttons.

No. Starting a new chat moves your current conversation to your chat history. It doesn't delete it. Your previous chat keeps its countdown timer and stays accessible until it expires or you delete it.

No, and that's on purpose. When you delete a chat, it clears from your history right away. There's no trash folder and no undo. If you might want to come back to a conversation, extend it to 14 days before you're done.

Upgrade to Expert and your first 30 days are free. The trial includes everything in Expert: Claude Opus 4.8, all four Experts, Deep Research, voice, document upload, and chat sharing. You'll need a credit card to start. After 30 days it's $12/month or $120/year (early pricing) unless you cancel; cancel during the trial and you won't be charged. The free Essential plan stays free either way.

Paid subscriptions. The Essential tier is free and always will be. The Expert tier is $12/month or $120/year (early pricing) and includes our most advanced AI, Deep Research, voice, and document upload. Starting September 21, it also includes Knowledgebooks you own and control. Your first 30 days of Expert are free when you upgrade. The first 100 Expert seats are Founding Memberships: $100/year, locked for life. When revenue comes from subscriptions instead of data, our incentives line up with yours.

The free Essential tier is genuinely free with no hidden data collection. You get unlimited AI chat, automatic web search, auto-deleting chats, the ability to save and extend conversations, guided prompts, follow-up suggestions, and cross-device sync. It handles about 80% of what most people use AI for. We offer it because trust is earned, and it's funded by the paid Expert tier.

Everything in Essential, plus Claude Opus 4.8, Anthropic's most powerful model, with an extended-thinking toggle and manual model selection. Expert also adds the four Experts (Lookout, Writer, Researcher, and Troubleshooter), Deep Research, voice conversations, dictation, document upload and analysis, and private chat sharing links. Starting September 21, it includes Knowledgebooks you own and control. Founding Members ($100/year, locked for life, 100 seats) get every Expert feature first and a direct line to the team: shape features, test early builds, and help design Knowledgebooks before they go public.

Your chats auto-delete by default, so there's nothing to lose there. Once Knowledgebooks launch on September 21, you'll be able to export yours anytime. We've built the product so you're never locked in.

We don't run ads and have no plans to. When AI recommends a product or steers a conversation toward a brand, how would you know? Unlike traditional ads, AI-generated recommendations can be invisible, woven into answers you're trusting as objective. We'd rather make money from subscriptions and keep your conversations completely clean.

Four focused helpers, each doing a single thing well. Lookout gives you a second look before you act. Writer drafts emails and notes in your voice. Researcher looks things up fast. Troubleshooter walks you through a fix. Each one sees only the chat you're in. Included with Expert, and your first 30 days are free when you upgrade.

Deep Research is Expert's tool for questions one search can't settle. Ask something big, like comparing Medicare plans or whether to refinance, and Ask Safely breaks it into steps, runs the searches, reads the sources, and writes a cited report you can download as a PDF. You watch its progress live. It runs on Claude Opus 4.8. Included with Expert. Your first 30 days are free when you upgrade.

No. Guest Mode lets you try Ask Safely right away. No signup, no email, nothing. You get up to 10 messages a day with the same AI, web search, auto-deleting chats, and guided prompts. If you like it and want unlimited messages, you can create a free Essential account. Any conversations you started as a guest carry over.

Whatever's on your mind. Ask Safely shows guided prompt suggestions when you open a new chat. Categories like "Help me write," "Help me learn," or "Search a topic," each expanding into specific ideas. After each response, you'll also see follow-up suggestions that help you dig deeper. These prompts are there every session, not just your first time.

Yes, with Expert. Upload Word docs, PDFs, spreadsheets, and images (.docx, .pdf, .csv, .xlsx, .png, .jpg, .gif) and the AI reads, analyzes, and discusses them with you. Useful for reviewing a contract, making sense of a spreadsheet, or getting feedback on your writing. Uploads are encrypted and deleted on the same timers as your chats. Included with Expert. Your first 30 days are free when you upgrade.

Yes, with Expert. Voice-to-voice lets you talk with Ask Safely and hear spoken replies. Dictate turns your speech into text in the chat box. Voice gets the same privacy protections as text: encrypted, never used for training, deleted on the same timers. Included with Expert. Your first 30 days are free when you upgrade.

Yes, with Expert. Generate a private link to any conversation and set when the link expires. The person you share with sees the chat without needing an account. Included with Expert. Your first 30 days are free when you upgrade.

Knowledgebooks. On September 21, Knowledgebooks go live: a plain-words record of what you choose to keep, that only changes when you say so. Every line shows where it came from, and you can edit or remove any of it. The four Experts (Lookout, Writer, Researcher, and Troubleshooter) already shipped in the July update and are live today.

When the AI uses web search, it includes citations directly in the response. You can see which sources informed which parts of the answer and click through to verify. Below the response, you'll also see which AI model was used and whether search was involved.

For most conversations, it doesn't need to, and that's the point. About 80% of what people ask AI are one-off questions. Starting September 21, for the things that matter, you choose what to keep in a Knowledgebook: your dietary needs, your kids' names, your work context. You see everything and edit anything. Later, in late 2026, your Knowledgebooks can travel to other assistants you choose. Founding Members are helping design them right now.

Yes. On iOS, you can enable Face ID or Touch ID in settings. The app will require biometric authentication to open, adding an extra layer of privacy on top of your account login.

Be specific. Instead of "help me write an email," try "help me write a polite but firm email to my landlord about a broken heater." Mention who the audience is and what tone you want. If the first answer isn't quite right, tell the AI what to change rather than starting over.

For everyday use (writing help, searching, learning, and general questions) you won't notice a quality difference. Ask Safely uses Anthropic's latest Claude models, including Opus 4.8 on Expert, which consistently rank among the best available. What you will notice: Ask Safely doesn't collect your data and doesn't build a hidden profile. Starting September 21, it gives you Knowledgebooks you actually own, instead of memory locked inside someone else's database.

The difference is what happens to your data, and who controls what your AI knows. ChatGPT stores your conversations by default and builds a hidden profile you can't fully see, edit, or take with you. Ask Safely clears your chats on a timer you choose, 8 hours by default, and never uses your data for training. Starting September 21, what's worth keeping goes into a Knowledgebook you own and can read, edit, and export. Later, in late 2026, it can travel to other assistants you choose.

You can. Claude is great. Ask Safely adds three things on top. The privacy layer: chats that clear on a timer you choose, encryption in transit and at rest, and no data training. The simplicity layer: automatic model selection, auto-triggering web search, and guided prompts. And, starting September 21, Knowledgebooks: a record of what you know that you own and control. Claude gives you the raw AI. Ask Safely handles the complexity, protects your data, and puts you in charge of what your AI keeps.

Either way works. Many people switch entirely because Ask Safely covers everything they need. Others keep ChatGPT for some things and use Ask Safely specifically for private conversations: health questions, financial planning, personal topics, or anything they'd rather not have stored permanently.

Because our business depends on it. We make money from subscriptions. If we broke your privacy, we'd lose our only reason to exist. On top of that, chats clear themselves by default, everything is encrypted in transit and at rest, and we're pursuing SOC 2 certification for independent, third-party review.