ChatGPT Health is not offered in Europe or the UK: OpenAI has opened it to adults in the US, and its early access left out the European Economic Area, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. A European athlete loses a product promise but keeps a legal right, because under GDPR the heart rate and sleep data from your watch is health data, protected whichever chatbot you use.
Most coverage treats that as Europe missing out. Look at what each side actually holds, though, and the picture flips. In the US, the “not used for training” rule is OpenAI’s own policy for one space inside one app. In the UK and the EU, the law says a company needs a strong legal reason to use your health data at all, and it gives you rights you can enforce against any company that holds it.
This article sets the two systems side by side, shows which of your training metrics count as health data, and ends with what to do this week depending on where you live. It is a plain-English guide, not legal advice.
Key Takeaways
- ChatGPT Health keeps connected health data out of model training, but it is offered to users aged 18 and over in the US. There is no announced date for the UK, the EEA or Switzerland.
- In the US, HIPAA generally does not cover a chatbot or app you sign up to yourself. What protects you there is mostly the company’s own policy, a federal breach rule and a few state laws.
- Under UK and EU GDPR, data concerning health is a special category that is prohibited to process unless an exception applies, and explicit consent under Article 9(2)(a) is the usual route for a fitness service.
- The ICO lists “data from fitness trackers” as health data, so heart rate, HRV and sleep from your watch are covered.
- GDPR does not switch training off for you. It gives you the right to see your data, have it deleted, object, and withdraw consent, and it lets you complain to a regulator.
Is ChatGPT Health Available in Europe or the UK?
No. ChatGPT Health is open to logged-in users aged 18 and over in the US, and OpenAI has not announced a date for the UK, the EEA or Switzerland. OpenAI launched Health in January 2026 with an early access that excluded those three regions, then in July 2026 opened it to “all U.S.-based users over 18 across all plans”, as TechCrunch reported . Connecting medical records and Apple Health is a US feature too.
OpenAI has not said exactly why Europe is waiting, beyond telling UK press at launch that compliance work had to come first. Either way, if you train in London, Lyon or Lisbon, every conversation you have with ChatGPT about your training happens in ordinary ChatGPT.
That matters, because ordinary ChatGPT has different defaults. We cover those in detail in is it safe to connect your training data to ChatGPT , so this article stays with the question underneath: what protects your data when the product promise does not reach you.
Some sites suggest a VPN to get into the US product. That puts you in breach of the terms you agreed to, and it does not change which laws apply to you, so we do not recommend it.
US vs EU Health Data Protection at a Glance
The short version: a US athlete is protected mainly by what the company promises, and a UK or EU athlete is protected mainly by what the law requires. The table below sets out what each athlete has when they connect training data to an AI assistant.
| US athlete | UK or EU athlete | |
|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT Health | Available, 18+ | Not available |
| What keeps health data out of training | OpenAI’s policy inside Health | Your own setting; the law sets the legal basis |
| Main law on health data in a consumer app | No general federal law; HIPAA usually does not apply | UK GDPR or EU GDPR, Article 9 |
| Consent for health data | Required by some state laws, such as Washington’s | Explicit consent is the usual legal basis |
| Right to see and delete your data | Depends on your state | Yes, everywhere the law applies |
| Who enforces | FTC, state attorneys general | The ICO in the UK, national regulators in the EU |
What to notice: the US column changes with the product and the state you live in, while the European column stays the same whichever assistant you use.
What a US Athlete Actually Has
A US athlete’s best protection for training data in ChatGPT is ChatGPT Health itself, because the federal law most people think of, HIPAA, generally does not cover a consumer app you sign up to on your own. HIPAA binds health plans, healthcare providers and the companies working on their behalf. A chatbot you chose to use is none of those.
Three things fill part of that gap:
- The product promise. OpenAI says data connected inside Health is not used to train its models, whatever your training setting. It is a strong promise, but it is a policy, and it applies only inside Health.
- The FTC’s Health Breach Notification Rule. The FTC amended it in 2024 to cover health apps outside HIPAA, and the rule requires a covered company to notify you after a breach. It is about telling you when something goes wrong, not about what the company may do with your data day to day.
- State laws. Washington’s My Health My Data Act, in force since 31 March 2024, protects consumer health data “from being collected and shared without that consumer’s consent” and lets you have it deleted, according to the state attorney general . Other states cover health data only inside a general privacy law, if at all.
So a runner in Seattle and a runner in Dallas can hand the same heart rate data to the same chatbot and walk away with different rights. If you are in the US and you want health questions kept out of training, ask them inside Health.
What GDPR Gives a UK or EU Athlete
In the UK and the EU, GDPR treats data concerning health as a special category: processing it is prohibited unless one of a short list of exceptions applies, and for a fitness service the usual one is your explicit consent. Article 9(1) sets the prohibition. Article 9(2)(a) lifts it where “the data subject has given explicit consent to the processing of those personal data for one or more specified purposes.”
The UK kept the same rule in UK GDPR, alongside the Data Protection Act 2018. GDPR also follows the person, not the server. A US company offering a service to people in Europe is bound by it for their data, which is why OpenAI names an Irish company as controller for users in the EEA and Switzerland.
Explicit consent is a high bar. It has to be specific to a purpose, a clear act of yours rather than a pre-ticked box, and you can withdraw it at any time, as easily as you gave it.
Which of Your Training Data Counts as Health Data Under GDPR
Heart rate, HRV, resting heart rate and sleep all count, because the UK regulator lists “data from fitness trackers” as health data. The ICO’s guidance also says health data includes “any information on injury, disease, disability or disease risk”, so a line in a chat about your sore Achilles is covered too.
Inference counts as well. The ICO says that if a company infers your health status, it is processing special category data “regardless of how confident you are that the inference is correct.” A coach reading a falling HRV trend as illness is making exactly that kind of inference.
Pace, distance and lap splits are a greyer area on their own. Once they sit next to heart rate, sleep and an injury note in the same conversation, treat the lot as health data.
The Rights You Can Use
GDPR gives you five rights that matter here, and they apply to any company holding your data, including an AI assistant.
- See it. You can ask for a copy of the personal data a company holds about you. It has one month to reply in most cases.
- Delete it. You can ask for your data to be erased, for example once you withdraw consent.
- Object. You can object to processing based on the company’s legitimate interests, which is how some companies justify model training.
- Withdraw consent. Where consent was the basis, you can take it back at any time.
- Complain. You can complain to the ICO in the UK or to your national regulator in the EU.
Regulators do act on this. In December 2024 Italy’s data protection authority fined OpenAI €15 million, finding among other things that it had no adequate legal basis for using personal data to train ChatGPT. OpenAI said it would appeal.
Two Athletes, Same Question
The same question gets the same answer on both sides of the Atlantic; what differs is who decides what happens to the data afterwards.
Take Jordan, a 10K runner in Austin, and Lotte, a HYROX athlete in Rotterdam. Both ask an AI assistant why their resting heart rate has sat 6 beats above normal for four days, and both paste in 30 days of heart rate and sleep.
Jordan asks inside ChatGPT Health. OpenAI’s policy keeps that conversation out of training, and HIPAA does not reach a consumer chatbot, so the policy is the main protection. Lotte cannot open Health, so the question goes to ordinary ChatGPT. Unless training is switched off, that conversation can be used for training under OpenAI’s normal rules. But Lotte can switch it off, object, ask OpenAI for a copy of the data it holds, and complain to the Dutch regulator if no answer comes.
Jordan has the better default. Lotte has the stronger rights. Neither is protected well without doing something.
What to Do This Week, by Where You Live
Whichever side you are on, the first move is the same: decide what an assistant may see before you connect anything. Then add the steps for your region.
If you are in the UK or the EU:
- Switch training off before your first health question. Our step-by-step ChatGPT privacy settings guide shows where it lives.
- Share heart rate, HRV and sleep only when the question needs them. “Was my long run too fast?” needs splits, not three months of sleep.
- Keep a note of what you shared and when. It makes an access or deletion request much easier to word.
- Use your rights if you change your mind. A request to see or delete your data is free in most cases.
If you are in the US:
- Ask health questions inside ChatGPT Health, where the no-training promise applies.
- Switch training off in ordinary chats anyway, because Health’s rule stops at its own walls.
- Check whether your state has a consumer health data law. If you live in Washington, you have consent and deletion rights.
Anywhere: when a service connects to your training data, look for health data behind its own tick, off unless you choose it. That separate tick is what explicit consent looks like in a product, and a service that bundles health into one “allow all” button is telling you something.
FAQ
No. ChatGPT Health is offered to users aged 18 and over in the US, and OpenAI has not announced a UK date. UK athletes use ordinary ChatGPT, where the standard training and Memory settings apply.
Not by itself. GDPR decides what legal basis a company needs and gives you rights to object, withdraw consent and ask for deletion. You still need to switch training off in your settings to keep your chats out.
Yes, in practice. The ICO lists data from fitness trackers as health data, and heart rate, HRV and sleep are what those trackers record. Inferred health status counts too, even if the inference is wrong.
Very little for an athlete. The UK kept the same special category rule and the same core rights after Brexit. The regulator differs: the ICO in the UK, and a national authority in each EU country.
We would not. It breaks the terms you agreed to, and it does not change which laws apply to you. Switching training off in ordinary ChatGPT gets you most of the practical benefit.
Deleting a chat removes it from your history, but it does not undo training that has already happened. Under GDPR you can also ask the company directly to erase your personal data. ---
Your Rights Travel with You
ChatGPT Health in Europe is not on offer yet, and that is less of a loss than it sounds. A US athlete gets a strong promise inside one space. A UK or EU athlete gets GDPR: heart rate and sleep data are health data, a company needs explicit consent or another narrow exception to process them, and you can see, delete, object and complain. Neither side is protected by default, so switch training off, share only what each question needs, and use your rights when you want your data back.
If you would rather your training was read by a coach built that way from the start, that is how the Kracey coach works. It is an AI HYROX, running and endurance coach in Telegram that reads your training through intervals.icu and messages you first. Your data is stored in Frankfurt and never used to train AI models, and on the ChatGPT connector heart rate, HRV and sleep sit behind a separate tick, off unless you choose it. Our data page sets out the rest. You get 14 free days, no card, and they start when your coach can see your training.