Optery Review: What It Does, What It Costs and Whether It's Worth It in 2026

Summary

• What it is: a data removal service that scans people-search sites and data brokers, shows screenshots of what it finds, and files opt-outs for you on paid plans.
• Price: Free Basic $0. Core $39/year, Extended $149/year, Ultimate $249/year, plus sales tax — varies by state. Prices verified on 10/08/2026 on Optery’s site.
• Best thing I saw: a person in chat answered both parts of my refund and data question in about 20 minutes on 10/08/2026.
• Weakest point: by Optery’s own published list, Core covers 152 named sites, or 380 if you sign a limited power of attorney for Expanded Reach.
• Checkout: the Core checkout showed no total, tax, or renewal price before a card was entered.
• Not for you if you mainly want Whitepages, Intelius, or TruthFinder handled and don’t want to pay $249/year.

How we rate Optery

Criterion	Grade	What it’s based on (10/08/2026)
Results (30%)	Excellent	Optery publishes its full site list by plan: 152 named sites on Core and 406 on Ultimate by our count, 944 with custom removals. The first free scan finished in about 25 minutes. Removals not checked: free plan
Price & value (20%)	Excellent	A free plan with no time limit and a $39/year entry plan, the lowest paid price among the services we scored. The big people-search sites only come with the $249/year plan
Checkout honesty (15%)	Good	No total, tax, or renewal price before the card step. The 30-day refund reads the same on the pricing page, help center, and support chat
Data handling (15%)	Good	Sign-up asked for name, city, state, birth year, and email. No SSN, phone, or card. Account deletion sits in the dashboard behind a typed DELETE
Ease of use (10%)	Excellent	Two sign-up screens, no card, and a first scan in about 25 minutes. The dashboard has seven sections. Sign-up showed a reCAPTCHA check
Support (10%)	Excellent	Chat inside the account. A person answered our standard question in about 20 minutes, and the answer matched the help center

Account type: Free Basic, opened on 10/08/2026. The weights and the scale are on the methodology page, and the checkout scoring follows the US Privacy Checkout Test.

What’s good

• Free Basic asked for no card. The first scan finished in about 25 minutes on 10/08/2026 (12:27 to 12:52 p.m. ET).
• Optery publishes its covered sites by plan. I counted 944 unique names on the list on 10/08/2026.
• Account deletion is in the dashboard. It takes the button, a typed DELETE, and a confirm click.
• Our support question got a full answer from a person in about 20 minutes, and it matched the help center.
• The 30-day money-back guarantee reads the same on the pricing page, in the help center, and in chat.
• Sign-up didn’t ask for an SSN, phone number, street address, or ID photo.

What’s bad

• Whitepages, Intelius, TruthFinder, FastPeopleSearch, TruePeopleSearch, PeopleFinders, and Instant Checkmate appear only under Ultimate on Optery’s list (10/08/2026).
• The Core checkout showed no total, tax, or renewal price until a card was added.
• Optery’s numbers don’t match across its own pages: 945+ sites on the home page, 637+ on the login page, 630+ for Ultimate on pricing, and 636+ inside the account.
• Newsletter and promotional emails were switched on by default in the new account.
• Google Play’s data safety card says the app collects no data, while the privacy policy lists names, addresses, and birth years.

What Optery is and how it works

Optery, Inc. is a Delaware C corporation headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area, according to its terms of service and pricing page (10/08/2026). Its BBB profile lists a business start date of 08/18/2020 and BBB accreditation since 10/28/2021. The sign-up page says the company is backed by Y Combinator. I found no parent company named in its legal pages.

The service works in four steps:

1. You create an account with your name, city, state, birth year, and email.
2. Optery scans data brokers and Google for profiles that match, and saves screenshots of what it finds.
3. On a paid plan, it sends opt-out requests for you. Optery says it fills out forms, solves captchas, clicks verification links, and sends legal requests (pricing page, 10/08/2026).
4. It rescans every month and resubmits opt-outs when profiles come back.

On Free Basic, you get steps 1 and 2 and do the opt-outs yourself with Optery’s self-service links.

Results in the US Privacy Checkout Test

I went through the Core yearly checkout on 10/08/2026 up to the payment step and stopped there. Three things stood out:

• The checkout window showed the plan, “Yearly,” and “Save 17%, for ~ 2 free months,” but no dollar amount. The $39.00 figure was on the plan card behind the window.
• The payment panel read “Awaiting payment method for calculating tax.” No total appeared before a card.
• There was no renewal price and no auto-renew text in the window. The terms say plans renew “at the then-current non-promotional rate.”

The full procedure and every service’s row are on the US Privacy Checkout Test page.

Where Optery stands in the Data Removal Coverage Index

Optery says 630+ sites for Ultimate on its pricing page and 945+ on its home page (10/08/2026). By its published list on 10/08/2026, I counted these unique names:

Plan	Without Expanded Reach	With Expanded Reach	Our 16 people-search sites covered
Core, $39/year	152	380	4 of 16
Extended, $149/year	329	557	6 of 16
Ultimate, $249/year	406	634	13 of 16

Ultimate also lists 316 sites for best-effort custom removals, which brings the list to 944 names. Of the 16 people-search sites we write opt-out guides for, Radaris, Nuwber, and ClustrMaps weren’t on the list. I counted names, not domains, because the list links to Optery’s own pages. The method is on the Data Removal Coverage Index page.

Pricing summary

Optery has one free plan and three paid ones. Paid annually, Core is $39/year, Extended $149/year, and Ultimate $249/year. Month to month, they cost $3.99, $14.99, and $24.99. Prices verified on 10/08/2026 on Optery’s site.

Sales tax varies by state, and the checkout I saw didn’t show it before a card. The terms say plans renew at the then-current non-promotional rate, and no renewal figure appeared before payment. Every paid plan has a 30-day money-back guarantee on the first purchase. The full table and cancel steps are on the Optery pricing and plans page.

Free plan

Free Basic has no time limit and asked for no card when I signed up on 10/08/2026. It runs the scan, shows screenshots of matches, and links you to each site’s opt-out page. It doesn’t send any opt-outs for you.

In my free account, the dashboard showed “0 / 633” data brokers covered. Every row of the site table read “Upgrade for coverage” in the exposure column, and custom removals and map blurring were locked. The Optery free plan page covers what Free Basic includes and the discounts Optery lists.

Interface and ease of use

The dashboard has seven sections: Dashboard, Manage Profile, Manage Family, Plans, Reports, Custom Removals, and Account. After sign-up, the first scan didn’t start right away. It showed a countdown with “Postpone Scan by 45 mins” and a “Scan Now” button, so you can add more details first.

Two things slowed me down. Sign-up showed a reCAPTCHA “I’m not a robot” check under the form, and “Continue” did nothing until it was solved. Opening a dashboard page by typing its address logged me out once, while clicking through the menu didn’t.

Optery also has mobile apps. On 10/08/2026, the iPhone app had 3.6/5 from 79 ratings, and the Android app had 3.1 from 248 reviews and 100K+ downloads. The step-by-step setup is on the how to use Optery page.

Coverage: which data brokers it removes you from

Optery removes you only from the sites on its published list for your plan, plus Expanded Reach sites if you turn that on. The list on the pricing page is grouped into five sections: Core, Extended, Ultimate, Expanded Reach, and Custom Removals (10/08/2026).

The plan you pick decides which big sites are covered. Core includes Spokeo, MyLife, ThatsThem, and Acxiom from our list of 16 people-search sites. Extended adds BeenVerified and PeopleLooker. Whitepages, Intelius, TruthFinder, FastPeopleSearch, TruePeopleSearch, PeopleFinders, and Instant Checkmate are listed only under Ultimate.

Expanded Reach is a free add-on for paid plans, and it’s where most of Core’s 380 comes from. To turn it on, you sign a limited power of attorney. Optery’s help center says it may send your name, city, and state to brokers that didn’t have them before, because their opt-out pages can’t confirm that you’re listed there (10/08/2026). Core also handles one name and one city and state per person.

The scan report: what it found about me

The first scan on my free account finished in about 25 minutes, from 12:27 to 12:52 p.m. ET on 10/08/2026. It found one matched profile on a data broker (IDCrawl) and one Google result for the name. It marked 404 sites as “Not Found / Search In Progress.”

The test identity used a test city and birth year, so a short result is expected.

The site table listed 405 sites. On Free Basic, the exposure column read “Upgrade for coverage” in every row I saw, and some rows had a “View” link to check the broker yourself.

The Reports page said the first exposure report would be ready in 1 to 2 days. I didn’t wait for removals to complete. What I checked is the scan, the broker list, and the checkout.

Removal timeline: what Optery promises and what it shows

Optery’s help center says paid users start seeing profiles disappear within about a week (10/08/2026). It adds that more than half are usually removed or not found within 30 days, and the long tail can take 3 to 4 months. Some brokers need the opt-out repeated every year.

Removal status lives in “Removals In Progress” and “Removals Completed” tabs on paid plans, with progress emails monthly by default. On a free account I couldn’t see those tabs work, so the actual removal time is not measured here. Users’ reports on removal times are in the section on what other users say.

Custom removal requests

Custom removals are an Ultimate-only feature, and they start 30 days after you buy the plan. You submit the full URL of a profile on a site that isn’t on the standard list, with an optional screenshot.

Optery’s help center says about 75% of these requests succeed, and a failed one can be resubmitted once every 12 months (10/08/2026). It doesn’t cover social media, news, forums, or court records. On Free Basic the page was locked with “Exclusive feature for Ultimate subscription.”

What it’s like to be a U.S. customer: price, cancellation, data, support

What you’ll actually pay at checkout

On 10/08/2026 the checkout showed Optery Core yearly with no dollar amount, tax, or total before the card step. The panel read “Awaiting payment method for calculating tax,” and the plan card behind it said “$39.00 billed yearly.”

The renewal price isn’t shown before payment. The terms say the plan renews “at the then-current non-promotional rate.” Payment options were card and Link. There was a promo code field, but checking a code without a card returned “Payment Declined.”

What’s in the plan (and what isn’t)

Core covers 152 named sites, or 380 with Expanded Reach, plus monthly rescans for one name and one city and state. It doesn’t include Whitepages or Intelius, which sit in Ultimate at $249/year, or custom removals.

Extended adds name and address variations, a human privacy agent, and removal reports with before-and-after screenshots about every 90 days. It also blurs your home on Google and Apple Maps. Family plans cover any number of people, each with their own account, at 20% to 30% off (10/08/2026).

How to cancel and get a refund

Cancel in “Account,” then the red “Cancel Plan” button at the bottom of the page, per Optery’s help center (10/08/2026). I didn’t reach the cancellation screen because a free account has no plan to cancel. Plans & Billing showed only “Upgrade.”

The plan stays active until the end of the term and then drops to Free Basic. Refunds: 30 days on the first purchase per the help center (10/08/2026). You cancel first, then email support@optery.com, and the help center says refunds take 5 to 10 business days.

What personal data they ask for — and how to delete it

Sign-up asks for your first and last name, country, email, password, state, city, and year of birth. Day and month of birth and a middle name are optional. No SSN, phone, card, or ID.

To delete your account and data, go to “Account,” click “Permanently Delete My Optery Account,” type DELETE, and confirm. The privacy policy (last updated 05/17/2026) says account data is deleted immediately and backups are cleared within 7 days. I stopped at the confirm step because the account stays open for 30-day follow-up checks.

The privacy policy says that, under a conservative reading of the CCPA, Optery may “sell or share” data through advertising cookies such as Google’s (10/08/2026). California residents can use the requests described in that policy. This is not legal advice. Also, the newsletter and promotions emails were on by default in my account.

Who can sign up (U.S. only, state limits, age)

Personal accounts are open to residents of the U.S., Canada outside Quebec, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa, per the help center (10/08/2026). I found no state limits for U.S. customers. Minimum age 18 per the terms of service (03/13/2026). Disputes go to individual arbitration under California law, and you can opt out of arbitration by mail within 30 days of accepting the terms.

Support: channels and hours (ET)

Chat inside the account and email at support@optery.com, with no phone number listed. The chat widget said “Support is available 24/7, including holidays” and that replies can take up to 24 hours.

My chat on 10/08/2026 at 12:28 p.m. ET got an instant bot reply about canceling, then a reply from a person about 20 minutes later. That reply answered both parts: a full refund within 30 days, and deletion as a separate request.

What we saw inside the account

The dashboard showed one matched profile, 404 sites “Not Found / Search In Progress,” and “0 / 633” brokers covered on the free plan. The first report wasn’t ready on day one, and the Reports page promised it in 1 to 2 days. Custom removals and map blurring were locked behind paid plans. The missing piece is any removal status, which only paid plans show (screenshots dated 10/08/2026).

Is Optery safe and legit?

Optery is a registered U.S. company with its legal entity, address, and governing law in its terms. It says it completed an AICPA SOC 2 Type II audit, with the report available to business customers under NDA (security page, 10/08/2026). The report isn’t public, so I couldn’t read it.

The same page says data is encrypted with TLS 1.2 or higher in transit and AES-256 at rest, and that production runs on AWS in the U.S. The account supports app-based two-factor authentication (2FA).

Optery publishes its covered-site list by plan. On 10/08/2026, I found no FTC case, no CFPB results, and no court case naming Optery as a party. The BBB rated it A- with 4 complaints in the last 3 years. Optery’s security page describes an incident response plan and lists no past incidents (10/08/2026).

One inconsistency to know about: Google Play’s data safety card for the Optery app says it collects no data and shares none (10/08/2026). The privacy policy says the service collects names, locations, birth years, and emails, and sends some of them to data brokers to opt you out.

What other users say

On Trustpilot, Optery had 231 reviews and 4.1/5 on 10/08/2026. The profile was labeled “No recent history of asking for reviews.” BBB showed 4.8/5 from 82 reviews and 4 complaints in 3 years. The App Store showed 3.6/5 from 79 ratings, and Google Play showed 3.1 from 248 reviews.

I couldn’t read Reddit because it blocked our connection.

Two complaints passed our threshold of three independent mentions on two platforms in 24 months:

• Profiles still visible after months of paying: 9 mentions (Trustpilot 7, BBB 1, Hacker News 1), 2024–2026. One Trustpilot reviewer wrote: “I paid for 2 months and STILL had my information ALL OVER the internet” (07/20/2026). In a BBB complaint from 08/03/2026, Optery replied that it issued a full refund for the first year.
• Billing problems around cancellation or renewal: 4 mentions (Trustpilot 3, BBB 1), 2026. One reviewer titled their post “My subscription is canceled - continued billing attempts” (Trustpilot, 09/26/2026).

The most repeated praise in the recent reviews we read was fewer spam calls after a few months (4 mentions). Next came help from support when canceling or asking for a refund (3). I didn’t verify each case.

Who it’s for (and who it’s not for)

Optery fits you if:

• You want to see where your profiles appear before paying anything.
• You want a published list of exactly which sites your plan covers.
• You’re fine with $249/year to get Whitepages, Intelius, and TruthFinder covered.
• You want a support chat. Ours was answered by a person in about 20 minutes.

Look elsewhere if:

• You want the big people-search sites handled on a budget plan. Core doesn’t list them.
• You don’t want to sign a power of attorney to reach Core’s 380-site figure.
• You need the exact total with tax before you enter a card.
• You only care about one or two sites. Our Whitepages opt-out steps show how to do it for free.

What I’d change

• Show the total, sales tax, and renewal price in the checkout window before the card step.
• Use one site count across the home page, pricing page, login page, and account.
• Move at least Whitepages and Intelius into Core or Extended.
• Turn off promotional emails by default.
• Fix the Google Play data safety card so it matches the privacy policy.

Alternatives to Optery (on this site)

• DeleteMe is another data removal service reviewed on this site. Compare its broker list and checkout with Optery’s before you pick a tier.
• Incogni is worth comparing on price and on which people-search sites its list includes.
• Aura is an identity theft protection service with data removal inside its plans. Read it if you want both in one subscription rather than removal alone.

The full comparison is on our best data removal services page.

Verdict: is Optery worth it in 2026?

Get Optery if you want to see your exposure for free first, then pay for monthly removals from a published list. Results, price, ease of use and support all scored Excellent. Checkout honesty is the weak spot: no total, tax, or renewal price showed before the card step on 10/08/2026. If Whitepages and Intelius matter to you, price it at $249/year, not $39.

Try Optery free

What we checked

• Test account: Free Basic opened 10/08/2026. Dashboard, scan result, settings, and the account deletion dialog captured the same day. The account stays open for 7-day and 30-day checks
• Checkout: went to the payment step for Core yearly on 10/08/2026 — saw no total, renewal price not shown, sales tax not shown, auto-renew not mentioned
• Cancellation: not reachable on a free account. The account deletion dialog was reached in 2 clicks plus a typed DELETE on 10/08/2026, not confirmed
• Vendor pages: pricing, terms of service, privacy policy, refund policy, help center, security page — captured 10/08/2026
• Support: one question sent via chat on 10/08/2026 at 12:28 p.m. ET — reply from a person in about 20 minutes
• User reports: 231 Trustpilot reviews (4.1/5), 4 BBB complaints and 82 BBB reviews, 0 Reddit threads (blocked), 79 App Store ratings and 248 Google Play reviews — read 10/08/2026. Complaint themes counted at 3+ independent mentions
• Public records: FTC cases and proceedings, CFPB, and CourtListener searched 10/08/2026 — 0 results naming Optery
• Not checked: removal results over time and the paid cancel flow, because both need a paid plan

FAQ

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