Folks are using AI for everything these days. Drafting emails, analyzing documents, even asking sensitive questions about finances or health. That convenience has come with a tradeoff, though. Most AI services quietly collect prompts and data that can end up in logs or training pipelines. Now, VPN provider ExpressVPN is trying to position itself as the privacy-first alternative with the launch of ExpressAI.
The new platform is designed to give users access to modern AI models while keeping conversations encrypted and inaccessible to anyone else, including ExpressVPN itself. According to the company, ExpressAI runs prompts inside secure computing enclaves. In simple terms, messages are decrypted only inside a cryptographically isolated environment that even the host system cannot access. The goal is straightforward. Use AI without worrying that your prompts, documents, or files will quietly become part of someone else’s dataset.
ExpressVPN says the platform follows a strict “zero access” approach. User prompts and uploaded files remain encrypted end to end, and the company claims it cannot read or store them. Conversations are also excluded from training pipelines, which means prompts are not recycled to improve the underlying models. For folks who want even tighter control, ExpressAI includes a “ghost mode” that automatically deletes chats and an encrypted vault where conversation history is locked behind a user-created password.
Instead of offering a single AI model, ExpressAI launches with several options that users can switch between depending on the task. These include GPT OSS 120B for everyday writing and reasoning, DeepSeek R1 Distill 32B for multi-step problem solving, Qwen2.5-VL 32B for image and document analysis, Qwen3.5 35B-A3B for coding and complex prompts, and Nemotron 12B from NVIDIA for technical and math-heavy workloads. The interface even allows users to run the same prompt across multiple models at once to compare answers side by side.
To support its privacy claims, ExpressVPN says ExpressAI underwent an independent security audit by Cure53. The review included penetration testing, source code inspection, and analysis of the platform’s cryptography and infrastructure. Cure53 concluded that the system processes user interactions within confidential computing environments that isolate prompts from infrastructure operators.
The launch is also part of a broader shift for ExpressVPN. The company started as a VPN provider, but it has been expanding into a wider privacy ecosystem that includes password management, secure messaging, and now AI tools. With ExpressAI, the brand is clearly betting that users will start demanding stronger privacy guarantees as AI becomes a bigger part of everyday computing.
Still, some skepticism is healthy here. Privacy claims in the tech industry are easy to market and harder to verify over time. Independent audits help, but the real test will be whether platforms like ExpressAI can deliver useful AI features while actually keeping user data out of corporate pipelines.
ExpressAI begins rolling out today to subscribers of the ExpressVPN Pro plan, with access expanding in phases.
