Is Zeta AI Safe? What the Zeta App Charges and Shares

Zeta is a real, heavily used app from a registered Korean company, and for an adult who keeps personal details out of the story it is safe to pay for in the ordinary sense: your card goes through Apple, Google or a named payment company. It is not private. Scatter Lab's own Privacy Policy says your chats train its AI by default, the only opt out is an email, and conversations can go to OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and BytePlus. It is also the company Korea's privacy regulator fined in 2021 over the Lee Luda chatbot.

Everything below comes from first-party sources checked on September 30, 2026: Zeta's English Terms (effective September 28, 2026), Privacy Policy, Regional Privacy Disclosures, subprocessor list, usage policy and help center, the US App Store listing with its in-app purchase list and privacy label, the Google Play data safety form, and the Korean regulator's own 2021 decision. Most pages that come up for this question are store listings, a parent guide and articles about a stock that shares the name. This one is for the adult deciding whether to put a card in. If you only want the prices, our Zeta AI app review with zeta pass pricing has every item annualised.

Is Zeta AI safe to use?

For an adult, yes in the sense that matters for your wallet. It is not a scam, it delivers the chats it sells, and it is actively maintained: version 3.49.55 shipped on September 28, 2026, the US App Store shows 29,515 ratings averaging 4.6, and Google Play shows more than five million downloads. Purchases run through Apple, Google or, on the web, Coda Payments as merchant of record.

The risks are in what happens to your writing. Zeta is a story app, so people pour a lot of themselves into plots and characters, and the average user spends hours a day in it (Scatter Lab's own company page claims 2 hours 40 minutes). All of that text is training data unless you ask otherwise, and some of it can reach third parties. Treat Zeta as a paid entertainment app, not a diary.

Who owns Zeta AI?

Scatter Lab, Inc., a Seoul company run by CEO Kim Jong-yoon. It is the seller on the US App Store and the developer on Google Play, and the English Terms name it as your contracting party under Texas law, with JAMS arbitration and a class action waiver you can opt out of within 30 days of accepting.

Scatter Lab has a history worth knowing before you hand it years of conversation. In December 2020 it launched Lee Luda, a chatbot styled as a 20 year old college student, and suspended it within about three weeks after it produced discriminatory and vulgar language. On April 28, 2021 Korea's Personal Information Protection Commission fined Scatter Lab 103.3 million won (a 55.5 million won penalty surcharge and a 47.8 million won administrative fine) for eight violations. The regulator found that KakaoTalk conversations collected through two of Scatter Lab's other apps, Science of Love and Text At, had been used to build Luda without proper consent, that names and phone numbers had not been removed or encrypted, that data had been posted on GitHub, and that data from children under 14 had been collected without a guardian's consent. The Commission called it the first sanction of an AI company for reckless processing of personal data.

That was five years ago and the company has since written far more detailed policies. It is still in the spotlight: on October 12, 2026 its CEO is due to testify before a National Assembly committee about the risks AI chatbots pose to minors, the second year running he has been called.

Does Zeta use your chats to train its AI?

Yes, by default. The Privacy Policy lists "AI Model Training and Improvement: to train and improve our AI conversation algorithms using conversation data, including text and associated metadata" as a purpose, and says creating an account means you consent to the recording, storage and processing of your conversations. It also warns that "AI model training may involve memorization, and complete removal of information from a trained model may not be technically feasible."

There is no switch in the app. To opt out you email privacy@scatterlab.co.kr, or write through the help center, with the subject line "AI Training Opt-Out". The policy says the opt out works "on a going-forward basis" and does not require Scatter Lab to retrain or delete models already trained on you. So if you care, send the email on day one, not after a year of chats. For how this compares with Character.AI, Replika, Nomi and Kindroid, see our guide to the best AI companion app for privacy and chat ownership.

Where does Zeta send your data?

Your data is processed in Korea and, in the company's own words, "may be transferred to and processed in the United States, Singapore, and other countries." Scatter Lab publishes a subprocessor list, last updated September 21, 2026, which is more than most apps in this category do. Here is what it names.

Two details stand out. The usage policy says the Snapshot image feature sends your conversation with the character to Google to generate the picture. And the Privacy Policy says that although Scatter Lab does not sell data for money, sharing with advertising partners "may be treated as a 'sale' or 'sharing' of personal information" under US state laws. You can object to that under your state's privacy law, and for users it knows to be under 18 the company says it does not target ads.

What do the App Store and Google Play labels say?

The store labels are the developer's own declarations and the policy is the contract, so it is worth reading them side by side.

Unlike some apps we have checked, the labels here broadly match the policy. The one thing neither store label tells you is the training default, which is the most important fact for anyone writing personal material into the app.

Is Zeta AI safe for kids?

The English Terms let 13 year olds sign up with a parent agreeing to the Terms for them, while the Korean and Japanese services start at 14. Apple rates the app 13+ with age assurance controls and Google Play rates it Mature 17+. The Terms themselves say the companion style features, "including romantic or dependency-building interactions", are not intended for users under 18. The audience is young: Korean press reported in September 2026 that 58.3 percent of Zeta's Korean monthly users were teenagers. That is the reason for the parliamentary hearing, and a parent should weigh it seriously. The rest of this page is written for adults.

Is Zeta AI NSFW?

Only partly, and only after verification. The default Safe Mode is judged against the PG-13 standard. Unlimited Mode is for users 18 or older who complete adult age verification and permits R-level expression "on a limited basis". The usage policy is explicit that Unlimited Mode "does not permit unrestricted content", never applies where a character is or could be perceived as a minor, and bars sharing sexual output outside the app. An August 18, 2026 update let Scatter Lab remove plots and restrict Unlimited Mode for some stories.

One inconsistency to know about: an older help center answer still says Zeta does not offer an 18+ service, which the newer Terms and usage policy contradict. The Terms govern. If you are weighing whether to hand over ID for adult access anywhere, our piece on Character AI age verification covers what these checks collect.

What does Zeta cost and can you get a refund?

Chat on the default model is free if you watch ads. zeta pass is $14.99 a month on the US App Store, which is $179.88 a year because there is no yearly plan, and it removes ads, adds 200 Pieces a month and speeds up replies. The help center says plainly that it "does not improve the performance of the AI model itself." The better models bill in Pieces: 5 a turn on koji and 10 on luca since August 7, 2026, which at 1.4 cents a Piece is about 7 and 14 cents a message.

zeta pass renews every 30 days and Scatter Lab says payment "may be processed up to 24 hours before the scheduled renewal date", so cancel at least a day early in the App Store, Google Play or the app's My Page. If you tend to forget renewals, a tool that will alert you when a subscription is about to charge you again pays for itself quickly with a pass like this. Refunds are not handled by Scatter Lab: its help center sends you to Apple or Google, and the Terms say payments and paid Pieces are non-refundable except where the law requires. To see how that compares with the rest of the category, look at our AI companion app pricing comparison.

How do I delete my Zeta account?

In the app, go to My Page, open the menu, choose Account Information and then Delete Account. The help center says your chat history and purchase history are deleted and cannot be restored. Three things survive. Plots you published stay public unless you delete them first. The Terms say closing your account "does not end the license you granted us over your User Content". And the Privacy Policy says conversation data already used for training "may not be fully removable from trained models." Any remaining Pieces are forfeited.

Should you pay for Zeta?

Pay for it if you enjoy steering stories with a big cast of user made characters, you are comfortable with your writing training a Korean company's models, and you budget for Pieces on top of the pass. Send the training opt out email first, skip the 1-day pass unless you truly use it one day a month, and buy Pieces in the $1.99 pack of 200 or in packs of 500 and up, which all cost the same per Piece.

It is the wrong purchase if what you want is one partner who remembers your life, because a story app is built around plots and a rotating cast, not continuity. That is the gap Amorous.ai fills: one devoted girlfriend or boyfriend with long term memory, no ads and nothing metered, on flat plans from $9 a month billed yearly. You can see every plan and start today, or talk to one of them in the chat above first.