Optery Review: The Service With the Highest Removal Rate We Measured

TL;DR: Optery is our top pick among paid data-removal services in 2026. In our 90-day benchmark it removed about 68 percent of the listings we tracked, the highest verified rate in the group, earning a grade A. It backs every claim with before-and-after screenshots, covers 400-plus broker sites, and starts at roughly $3.25 per month (Core, billed annually). It is not perfect: the dashboard is dense, and the Ultimate tier is expensive. If you want proof and the strongest removals, Optery is the one to buy. See Optery's current plans. Disclosure: we earn a commission if you subscribe through our Optery links, at no extra cost to you. We rank by tested results, not payouts.

What Optery is and how it works

Optery is a US-based personal information removal service. You give it your name, past addresses, email, and phone, and it hunts for your profile across data-broker and people-search sites, then files opt-out requests on your behalf. We have run Optery on our own identities since 2023 and re-tested it for this benchmark in 2026.

Three things make Optery's mechanics stand out:

• Automated search plus opt-outs. Optery scans roughly 400-plus broker sites and submits removals automatically on a continuous cycle. Brokers re-list people constantly, so this re-scan loop matters more than the one-time sweep most buyers imagine.
• Custom manual removals. Some brokers will not accept an automated form. On higher tiers, Optery's team handles those by hand, including stubborn or regional sites that scripts cannot clear.
• Exposure reports with real screenshots. This is Optery's signature. It shows you a screenshot of your actual listing on each broker, then a follow-up screenshot proving the page is gone. No other service in our test documented removals this transparently. You are not taking their word for it.

If you want our full methodology, see how we test.

Optery pricing in 2026

Optery uses a free scan plus three paid tiers. Prices below are billed annually, which is how the per-month figures get low. Always check the live pricing page because Optery adjusts tiers periodically.

Our take: the free scan is genuinely useful and worth running before you pay anyone. For most individuals, Extended is the sweet spot, you get screenshot proof and most of the coverage. Ultimate is for people with a specific reason to want every site cleared, and at $300 a year it is the priciest plan we tracked. If budget is your first concern, compare options on our cheapest data removal page.

How Optery performed in our 30/60/90-day test

We seeded each service with identical profiles and counted listings that genuinely disappeared, verified by hand, not by the vendor's own dashboard.

That 68 percent is the number to remember. For context, the 2024 Consumer Reports study found paid services removed only about 35 percent of listings on average within four months, and DIY beat many of them. Optery sat at the very top of that study too, near 68 percent, alongside EasyOptOuts at about 65 percent. Incogni and DeleteMe landed mid-pack in both that research and ours. Optery did not clear everything, no service does, but it cleared more than anyone else we measured, and it proved it with screenshots.

Broker coverage and what gets cleared

Optery's full list spans 400-plus broker and people-search sites on the Ultimate tier. Coverage scales with the plan: Core focuses on the highest-traffic brokers (the ones most likely to surface in a Google search of your name), while Extended and Ultimate reach deeper into the long tail and regional sites.

In practice, the high-traffic brokers, the ones that actually show up when someone searches you, get cleared fastest and most reliably. The obscure tail is where every service struggles, because those sites are slow, hostile to opt-outs, or relist aggressively. Optery's continuous re-scan and manual handling are what pushed its long-tail results above the pack. If you want to see how that coverage compares head to head, read Incogni vs Optery and DeleteMe vs Optery.

Strengths and weaknesses

What we liked:

• Highest tested removal rate. 68 percent over 90 days, grade A, the top result in our benchmark.
• Radical transparency. Before-and-after screenshots on every documented removal. You can verify the work yourself.
• Useful free scan. See your exposure before spending a dollar.
• Tiered pricing. A real $39-a-year entry point, not a single take-it-or-leave-it plan.

What held it back:

• Dense dashboard. The exposure reports are thorough to the point of overwhelming. First-time users may feel buried in detail.
• Ultimate is pricey. At about $25 a month, the top tier costs more than rivals, and most people do not need full 400-site coverage.
• Annual billing for the good rates. The headline per-month prices assume you pay a year upfront.

Wondering if it is worth the spend at all? We answer that directly in is it worth it and are data removal services worth it.

Who Optery is for (and when something cheaper is enough)

Buy Optery if you want the strongest removals on the market and you want to see the proof. It is the right call for people who have been doxxed, who hold a public-facing role, or who simply want the job done thoroughly and documented. Read our full Optery review hub and the ranked best data removal services for 2026 before deciding.

But here is the honest part. If your only goal is to shave cost, EasyOptOuts removed about 65 percent in independent testing for roughly $20 a year, and it has no affiliate program, so we earn nothing recommending it. We still rank it second. See Optery vs EasyOptOuts and the plain EasyOptOuts site. And if you have a few hours and patience, free DIY opt-outs beat many paid services in the Consumer Reports study, our free vs paid guide walks you through it. Pay Optery for the removal rate and the screenshots, not because you have to.

Disclosure: our Optery, Incogni, and DeleteMe links are affiliate links; EasyOptOuts is not. Rankings reflect tested removal effectiveness, not commissions.