Zero Data Retention (ZDR) request — Enterprise customer, no response after multiple submissions

ChatGPT Support
1

I’m looking for advice from anyone who has successfully gone through the
ZDR approval process for the API.

I’m building a production platform with strict client NDA obligations that
contractually require ZDR before any production traffic can be routed
through our API organization. We are commercially prepared for enterprise
contract terms including annual API commitment structures.

I submitted the Contact Sales form on Saturday, May 23rd — no
acknowledgment, no ticket number, no assigned account contact after 4
business days.

I escalated through the Help Center bot today and now have an open
ticket: Case 09311337 (Sev 2). I have not yet received any substantive
reply from the Enterprise team beyond the auto-confirmation.

This is now blocking our production launch window.

If anyone here has successfully reached the right team for ZDR approval
recently, I’d appreciate any advice on how you moved your request forward.
If @OpenAI_Support is monitoring, I’d be grateful for a status check on
Case 09311337.

Thanks,
Shane

2

Closing this thread out for the record and for other developers (or OpenAI as applicable) tracking the case.

Timeline:

  • May 23: Contact Sales form submission requesting ZDR enablement
  • May 27: Help Center escalation opened — Case 09311337 (Sev 2)
  • May 28: First Support reply — redirected back to the Contact Sales form
  • May 28: Reply documenting that the redirect channel had already been exhausted; explicit request for internal routing to Sales
  • May 30: Support escalation manager confirmed that Support cannot internally route enterprise sales requests for non-Enterprise workspaces; reaffirmed the Contact Sales form as the only path
  • May 30: Final reply extending the deadline to Friday, June 5 EOD for any US-based Account Executive contact
  • June 5 EOD: No Account Executive contact materialized through any channel

Channels exhausted across the 14 calendar days:

  • Contact Sales form
  • Help Center Sev 2 escalation with case number
  • This community forum thread
  • OpenAI Trust Portal access request
  • Direct LinkedIn outreach to six US-based Account Executives across the Digital Natives and Accounts segments

No substantive contact from any OpenAI Sales representative on any channel.

Outcome:

Our team completed competitor (e.g., Anthropic) enterprise enablement in parallel. Others’ Zero Data Retention provisioning was active and commercial terms were progressing within the same window that OpenAI’s standard channels did not produce engagement. My team’s production inference is now migrating to Anthropic out of necessity though we would like to have OpenAI.

For other developers facing similar situations:

If you have a production launch with ZDR as a contractual gating condition for your customers, plan for OpenAI’s enterprise sales engagement to take 2-6+ business weeks even with active escalation across standard channels. Similar cases documented earlier this year on this forum showed comparable or longer timelines. If your launch window does not accommodate that runway, evaluate alternative providers in parallel from day one — Anthropic specifically has a more streamlined enterprise ZDR enablement process based on our direct experience this past two weeks.

OpenAI Support throughout this case was professional and clear about scope limits. The gap is structural: there is no documented path for non-Enterprise workspaces to escalate sales requests through the support channel. The Contact Sales form is the only path, and during this evaluation window it did not produce a response.

If an OpenAI Account Executive (or other relevant stakeholders) reads this thread and wants to engage on a future evaluation, contact remains open via the email associated with this case and my team would be happy to re-engage.

Thanks,

Shane