OpenRouter’s Zero Data Retention guide, fetched on 16 October 2026, still describes the Google model-group switch in one line: enabling it “Removes AI Studio endpoints (Vertex remains available).” The page’s structured data gives a modification time of 15 October 2026 at 17:28 UTC. The guide does not mention 18 October.
The date is in a screenshot of an email, posted weeks earlier.
The email in the screenshot
On 19 September 2026, a post on r/openrouter titled “Google (Gemini) models no longer available for ZDR on Oct 18, 2026” shared an image the author called an email from OpenRouter. The post text says Google is no longer permitting OpenRouter to employ ZDR when routing requests to Google models, for example Gemini. The screenshot is headed “Upcoming change to OpenRouter’s ZDR designation for Google authored models.”
The text in the image says that, effective 18 October 2026, OpenRouter will no longer designate “Google authored models” as ZDR-eligible, and that after that date requests that require ZDR will not route to those models. The reason in the image is Google’s automated abuse-prevention policy: safety classifiers may identify requests that could violate Google’s policies, and prompts flagged for further review may be securely retained. The email says that process does not meet OpenRouter’s requirements for a ZDR designation, so OpenRouter is updating its classifications and routing.
The image does not say Google trains on prompts. It describes retention of flagged prompts for review. OpenRouter’s guide draws the same distinction in general terms: a provider that does not retain data also cannot train on it, while some endpoints do not train and still retain data, for example to scan for abuse or for legal reasons.
The screenshot file opened. The Reddit page itself did not. The post’s title, time, and text were read from a public archive of that thread. Treat the image as a customer-posted copy of an email, not as a page on openrouter.ai.
What the live list shows today
The guide says its ZDR table is filled from the endpoint list. Fetched at 13:35 UTC on 16 October, that list held 58 Gemini rows across 22 model ids. Every Gemini row carried a Vertex tag, such as google-vertex/global or a regional Vertex tag. Flash variants are on the list, including google/gemini-2.5-flash and google/gemini-3.8-flash. Other ids are on it too, including google/gemini-2.5-pro, google/gemini-4-argon, and google/gemini-embedding-2. No Gemini row used an AI Studio tag, and the full list of 1,011 ZDR endpoints had no AI Studio tag at all.
The provider policy feed behind the provider logging table, fetched the same morning, records two Google entries. Google AI Studio: prompts retained, retention listed as 55 days, training flag false. Google Vertex: prompts not retained, training flag false. Those are OpenRouter’s recorded flags. They are not a statement Google has published about this change.
Two days before the date in the email, Vertex Gemini routes are still on the ZDR list, and AI Studio Gemini routes are not. The guide’s Google row matches that split. The email’s wording is wider. It says Google-authored models, not AI Studio alone.
What a ZDR setting does to fallbacks
The guide says ZDR can be required for the account, for one model group, for a guardrail, or on a single request by setting provider.zdr to true. If any of those is on, the request may go only to endpoints OpenRouter classifies as zero retention. The per-request flag cannot turn an account or guardrail rule off.
If OpenRouter routes as the email describes, then on 18 October a request that requires ZDR will not be sent to Google-authored models, including when Gemini remains in a fallback list. The email does not say that requests without a ZDR requirement stop. The guide, as it reads on 16 October, still leaves Vertex available when the Google group rule is on. Someone who needs that Vertex path should not treat today’s table as a promise past the 18th. The email and the guide disagree, and only the email names the date.
Google has not commented on the change
Google has not published a statement on the OpenRouter email. On the Google AI forum, a post on 14 October asks Google to restore zero data retention on Vertex and describes a safety-classifier exception. A reply timestamped 16 October 2026, 9:54am on the forum, from an account named Pooja_Kapse, does not discuss the policy. It points the poster to a sales representative or the Google Cloud forum.
A comment under the Reddit post asked whether Vertex and AI Studio would now train on prompts. Google has not answered that, and the email does not say they will.
The Campfire
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Held for the desk. It appears after a look.