Optery Review 2026: Does Optery Work, and Which Plan Do You Need?

Does Optery work? The independent evidence

Optery works better than most removal services on the only independent test available: Consumer Reports’ 2024 study ranked Optery’s Ultimate plan first of 7 paid services, at 68% of profiles removed within four months. Consumer Reports enrolled 32 volunteers from California and New York, gave each service 4 of them (4 more had their opt-outs filed by hand as a control) and checked 13 people-search sites, including Spokeo, Whitepages, Intelius and BeenVerified, after one week, one month and four months. So Optery’s 68% rests on 4 people.

Sorted by Consumer Reports’ four-month removal rate, as Consumer Reports published it. Optery Ultimate removed 52% in the first week and 58% after a month; EasyOptOuts was quicker in week one (59%) and costs far less. Consumer Reports called EasyOptOuts and Optery the two best performers. Three caveats apply: the test ran in May–September 2023, it covered 13 sites rather than Optery’s full list, and it measured Ultimate, not Core.

Which Optery plan do you need?

Most people should choose between Core and Ultimate: Core at $39 a year buys automated removals from 380+ sites, while Ultimate at $249 adds a human agent, custom requests and the coverage Consumer Reports measured.

• Free Basic suits you if you want to see where you’re exposed and do the opt-outs yourself.
• Core covers 380+ sites only with Expanded Reach switched on (150+ without it), and only one name and one city and state.
• Extended adds unlimited name variations and past addresses, a human Privacy Agent for special cases, and removal reports with before-and-after screenshots about every 90 days.
• Ultimate adds unlimited custom removal requests, covering 940+ sites in total once you’ve been a member for 30 days, plus outdated-content requests to Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo and Yahoo.

Yearly billing works out cheaper than monthly on every tier: Core is $3.99 a month billed monthly against $3.25 a month billed yearly. Optery’s family program discounts all plans by up to 30% as you add people; the family page doesn’t list per-person prices.

How Optery removes your data

Optery scans data broker and people-search sites for your profiles, sends opt-out requests in your name and re-scans to check they’re gone. On paid plans the scans and removals run monthly, and Optery adds newly supported brokers automatically.

Core is fully automated, with no person assigned to your account. Extended and Ultimate pair the automation with a human Privacy Agent for cases the software can’t handle, and send removal reports with before-and-after screenshots, so you can see each listing that came down. The free plan’s exposure reports include screenshots too, which is how most people decide whether to pay.

How long does Optery take to work?

Optery says many profiles start disappearing within about a week of upgrading, and more than half are usually removed or not found within 30 days. Some brokers act within 24 hours; others take weeks or months, and Optery says the long tail can take 3–4 months. Search engines can keep showing an old listing for weeks after the broker removes it, which is why Ultimate includes outdated-content requests to Google and Bing.

Optery vs Incogni vs DeleteMe

Optery Core is the cheapest of the three, Incogni Standard lists the most brokers on a base plan, and only Optery and DeleteMe have an independent removal result.

Incogni’s base plan is cheaper than Optery Ultimate and lists more brokers than Core; read our look at Incogni’s automated plans. DeleteMe puts people on custom requests from the start; see what DeleteMe’s Standard plan covers, or Incogni vs DeleteMe side by side. All nine services we track are compared in data removal services ranked by broker coverage.

Is Optery legit?

Optery is legit: the company was founded in 2020, is headquartered in Clayton, California, and its Ultimate plan topped Consumer Reports’ 2024 removal study. Optery’s About page lists co-founders Lawrence Gentilello, Chen Atlas and Dekel Barzilay and says the company is SOC 2 Type II certified; Optery doesn’t publish the report. Trustpilot shows 4.0 out of 5 from 234 reviews on Optery’s claimed, paid profile.

Every paid plan has a 30-day money-back guarantee, and you can cancel any time. One point Consumer Reports raised: Optery’s privacy policy says your personal data may be transferred in a merger, acquisition or asset sale, with at least 30 days to delete your account first.

Optery downsides

Optery’s weak spots are the price of its best tier and what the cheaper tiers leave out:

• The measured tier is the expensive one. Consumer Reports used Ultimate at $249 a year; no independent result exists for Core.
• Core is narrow. One name, one city and state, no human help, and 150+ sites unless you enable Expanded Reach.
• Manual opt-outs still did better. Manual opt-outs, which Consumer Reports staff filed by hand for 4 volunteers, reached 70%; follow our free do-it-yourself removal steps if you have the time.