The short answer
As of June 2026: Claude is memory-on-free-plan since March, no regional restrictions. ChatGPT Dreaming is rolling out to free users in the US first. Gemini offers memories at no cost. Grok's memory is live outside the EU/UK. Copilot Memory is tied to Microsoft 365 subscriptions. None of them shares memory with any other assistant.
What just happened
The memory race accelerated in the first half of 2026. Anthropic moved first: Claude Chat Memory launched across all plans — including free — in March 2026. It summarizes past conversations and carries context forward in a summary-based model, deliberately lightweight.
OpenAI followed with something more ambitious. ChatGPT Dreaming, announced June 4, 2026, is a background process that synthesizes memory from your entire chat history rather than waiting for you to state facts. It updates entries as circumstances change — tracking "going to Singapore in July" and revising it to "went to Singapore in July 2026" after the fact. A dedicated memory summary page lets you review and edit what it holds. The key enabler was a roughly 5x reduction in compute cost, which made it viable to extend to free-tier users. Rollout is US Plus and Pro first, then free users and other countries.
Gemini's memory offering is quieter but real: Google renamed "past chats" to "memories," added the ability to save details with a "remember" prompt, and made them reviewable in Settings. Personal Intelligence can reference your Google apps, though it's off by default. Google says it doesn't train on your Gmail or Photos data.
Grok (xAI) added both cross-conversation memory and Skills on May 18, 2026, with Grok 4.3, across web, iOS, and Android. Skills are persistent, reusable expertise blocks — formatting rules, workflow preferences, document styles — that Grok applies automatically. The significant restriction: memory is not available for EU or UK users under GDPR as of mid-2026.
Microsoft 365 Copilot Memory reached general availability between January and May 2026. It captures working style, preferences, and recurring topics, surfaces a "memory updated" notification, and applies learned context inside apps like Word. The access path is through a Microsoft 365 subscription, with enterprise governance controls for admins.
Free AI memory compared at a glance
| Dimension | ChatGPT (Dreaming) | Claude | Gemini | Grok | M365 Copilot | MemoryLake |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Memory on free tier? | Rolling out (US first) | Yes — all plans since March 2026 | Yes | Yes (not EU/UK) | No — M365 subscription | Yes |
| What you get free | Auto-synthesized memory + summary page | Summary-based context carryforward | Saved memories + Personal Intelligence | Cross-session memory + Skills | n/a | Cross-model memory vault |
| Works across other AIs | No | No | No | No | No | Yes (any MCP tool) |
| Data ownership | OpenAI-held | Anthropic-held | Google-held | xAI-held | Microsoft-held | You own it (AES-256) |
| Version control / audit | No | No | No | No | Partial (enterprise) | Yes (Git-style) |
| Regional availability | Rolling out (US first) | Global, all plans | Rolling out | Not in EU/UK | GA complete | Global (compliant) |
| Public benchmark | — | — | — | — | — | LoCoMo #1 (94.03%) |
How each assistant handles free memory
Claude
The earliest to remove the paywall. Anthropic made Claude Chat Memory available on every plan — including free — as of March 2026. It summarizes past conversations and carries forward context across sessions. The approach is deliberately lightweight: it doesn't attempt to reconstruct a granular timeline of your history, but it does mean that a free user today gets continuity between conversations that didn't exist before. No regional restrictions as of June 2026.
ChatGPT (Dreaming)
The most automated memory system announced so far. OpenAI's Dreaming, announced June 4, 2026, synthesizes memory in the background from your chat history and self-corrects as time passes. It's reaching free users after the team cut compute requirements by roughly 5x — a meaningful engineering achievement. The caveat is timing: rollout starts with Plus and Pro users in the US, with free users and other countries to follow. A memory summary page gives you visibility and editorial control over what ChatGPT holds.
Gemini
Free and broadly accessible. Google's memory feature lets you save details with a "remember" prompt and review them in Settings; the renamed "memories" (previously "past chats") carry context across sessions at no charge. Personal Intelligence extends this by referencing your Google apps, though it requires opt-in and Google states it does not train on Gmail or Photos data. Regional restrictions are not documented for the core memory feature as of June 2026.
Grok
Technically free, but with a notable geography restriction. Grok's cross-conversation memory and Skills, released May 18, 2026 with Grok 4.3, are available at no cost on web, iOS, and Android — outside the EU and UK. GDPR compliance has prevented rollout in those regions as of mid-2026. Skills are a genuine differentiator: persistent reusable expertise blocks that Grok applies automatically, rather than requiring you to re-explain your preferences every session.
Microsoft 365 Copilot
The only one in this group that doesn't have a consumer free tier. Copilot Memory reached general availability between January and May 2026 and is deeply integrated into the Microsoft 365 ecosystem — it learns preferences and working style, applies them inside apps like Word, and provides admin and user controls for viewing, editing, deleting, or disabling memory. Access runs through a Microsoft 365 subscription. For enterprise users, it's the most governance-ready option in this comparison.
The limit all free memory features share
The table tells the important story. Every platform offers something genuine at the free tier (with caveats), and every one of them keeps that memory inside its own walls. The preferences ChatGPT Dreaming learns don't reach Claude. The Skills you build in Grok don't apply in Gemini. The context Copilot has from your Word documents doesn't travel with you outside Microsoft 365. This isn't a bug — it's how each vendor's retention feature is designed. But it means that the more assistants you use, the more you re-introduce yourself at each new session.
For a single-assistant workflow, free platform memory is a genuine upgrade. For multi-tool workflows — which describe most people who use AI regularly in 2026 — the fragmentation is real.
Where a cross-AI memory layer fits
This is the gap a purpose-built memory layer addresses. MemoryLake stores your context once — independently of any vendor — and exposes it over MCP, so ChatGPT, Claude, and any other MCP-compatible tool can read the same record. You own the data, protected with AES-256 encryption, and can export or delete it at any time. A Git-style version history gives you an audit trail that no platform memory currently offers. On the LoCoMo benchmark, MemoryLake scored first at 94.03%, a reproducible result. It operates alongside platform memories: MemoryLake doesn't replace what ChatGPT Dreaming or Gemini memories do inside their products — it carries your context between them.
Use free memory everywhere — including across the AIs that don't talk to each other
The free tier across major assistants has never been more capable. Connect them with one memory layer, and the context you build in any of them travels with you.
Sources: official announcements from Anthropic (Claude Chat Memory, March 2026), OpenAI (ChatGPT Dreaming, June 4, 2026), Google (Gemini Personal Intelligence / memories), xAI (Grok memory & Skills, May 18, 2026, Grok 4.3), and Microsoft (M365 Copilot Memory, GA Jan–May 2026). Feature details current as of June 2026; verify against each vendor's latest documentation before relying on specifics.