What Can You Do With Your Raw DNA Data? 12 Uses, and Which Ones Upload Your File

A raw DNA file from 23andMe, AncestryDNA or MyHeritage can produce health and nutrition reports, find relatives on GEDmatch, answer a single-variant question, feed a research project, or sit in an encrypted backup for your children. The twelve uses below fall into three groups: upload to a server, on-device in your browser, or offline with no internet at all. The table marks each one.

1. Generate a health report#

Full Human Health reads the file in your browser tab and writes a PDF on your device: 17 categories, each row with the rsID, your genotype, the effect size and a PubMed link, for $5 per report with no subscription. The sample report shows the format; the methodology page explains how each verdict is computed and why it is not a clinical polygenic risk score. Promethease does a similar job from SNPedia for $25 plus $4 per extra file, uploaded (promethease.com, checked 14 October 2026). 23andMe sells its own health reports in only eight countries: the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands and Sweden, at the time of writing (23andMe help centre, which blocked our automated request on 14 October 2026).

2. Get a nutrition report#

Nutrition reports cover lactose tolerance, caffeine and coffee intake, and vitamin D levels. Ours draws on 10,443 genome-wide significant associations across 292 traits from 157 GWAS Catalog studies, including rs4988235 for lactase persistence, about 907 rows for vitamin D and about 289 for caffeine, and it runs on-device at the same price. Genetic Lifehacks also runs in your browser and is more actionable, at $79.99 a year or $179 for life (geneticlifehacks.com, checked 14 October 2026); Xcode Life sells its Gene Nutrition report for $40 by upload, delivered by email within 24 hours (xcode.life, checked 14 October 2026). MTHFR rs1801133 and the other candidate-gene variants of nutrigenomics marketing (COMT rs4680, CYP1A2 rs762551) are not in our catalogue; our MTHFR guide explains why a GWAS-based report leaves them out.

3. Pharmacogenomics (we do not do it)#

Pharmacogenomics is how your genes affect drug processing. We do not cover it: a consumer array reads a few hundred thousand positions and cannot see the gene deletions and duplications that matter for enzymes such as CYP2D6. GenomeInsight has a pharmacogenomics scanner that runs in the browser ($49 one-time, checked 14 October 2026), Promethease lists drug-response entries, and ClinPGx, the successor to PharmGKB, looks up a gene-drug pair at no cost (checked 14 October 2026). Treat the output as a question for a pharmacist: the FDA says it has authorised no direct-to-consumer pharmacogenetic test that predicts drug response (page dated 20 December 2019, checked 14 October 2026).

4. Ancestry and relative matching#

Your file can find relatives at sites where you never tested. GEDmatch matches at no cost (checked 14 October 2026). It is operated by Verogen, a Qiagen subsidiary; its privacy policy (effective 21 October 2025) keeps your kit while the account exists and allows law-enforcement comparison only if you expressly opt in. Living DNA accepts uploads at no cost (checked 14 October 2026). FamilyTreeDNA still takes transfers for matching but retired its $19 unlock on 18 August 2026 (DNAeXplained, 13 August 2026). MyHeritage stopped accepting uploads in August 2025 (MyHeritage help centre, checked 14 October 2026); 23andMe and Ancestry never offered one (Genealogy Explained, checked 14 October 2026). Every option here is an upload.

5. Look up single variants yourself#

The file is plain text: one line per position with an rsID, chromosome, position and genotype (AncestryDNA splits the genotype into two allele columns). Open it in a text editor, search for an rsID and read your two letters; dbSNP, ClinVar, SNPedia and the GWAS Catalog explain what they mean. APOE is the classic case: rs429358 and rs7412 together define e2, e3 and e4. Without uploading, snp-browser queries SNPedia from your browser and Allelix is a Python command-line tool under the AGPL. Reading the health report explains risk alleles and odds ratios.

6. Donate it to research#

Open Humans, a programme of the 501(c)(3) Open Humans Foundation, has a 23andMe upload tool; you authorise each project separately, and its data use policy says only the recipients you select get access (checked 14 October 2026). The Harvard Personal Genome Project takes US citizens and permanent residents aged 18 or over who agree to publish their data non-anonymously. openSNP, by contrast, announced it would delete all user data by 30 April 2025 (The Register, 1 April 2025). Donation is an upload, often a permanent and public one.

7. Back it up and decide who inherits it#

Once you delete your provider account, your file is the only copy. Keep two, in two places, named with provider and date; AncestryDNA's download link expires after seven days (how to download your raw DNA data covers each provider). For inheritance, a password manager with emergency access works: Bitwarden's lets a trusted contact request your vault after a waiting period you set (premium plans, checked 14 October 2026). Store the archive passphrase from use 12 there. Offline, unless you choose a cloud drive.

8. Third-party trait tools#

Trait sites turn the file into eye colour, earwax and sleep entries. Genomelink shows 100 traits at no cost and charges about $14 a month for the rest; GenomeInsight's free tier covers 30 traits; Sequencing.com uploads for nothing and sells apps from $29 to $449 (all checked 14 October 2026). Most are uploads, and the file is a high price for an earwax entry. Our comparison of raw DNA analysis tools lists which ones run in your browser.

9. Verify a result in another tool#

Two tools will disagree on your file, and that is useful. Promethease reads SNPedia; we read the GWAS Catalog filtered to genome-wide significance; SelfDecode uses its own models. A finding that survives in two evidence bases deserves more attention. If the second tool runs on-device, the check costs nothing in privacy: generate our report, then search the same rsIDs in snp-browser or Allelix. An upload puts a second copy at a second company. Our Promethease review shows how the two differ.

10. Take it to a doctor or genetic counsellor#

Raw data is not a clinical test. A 2018 study at Ambry Genetics re-tested 49 samples that clinicians had sent in to confirm variants found in consumer raw data; 40% of those variants were false positives (Tandy-Connor et al., Genetics in Medicine 2018). The samples were pre-selected for confirmation, so the rate says nothing about the average file, but it says a lot about any single worrying row. So bring a printout, not a conclusion. The NSGC directory lists over 3,300 genetic counsellors in the US and Canada (checked 14 October 2026). A PDF with a study link on every row is easier to discuss than a long web list.

11. Delete the provider's copy#

Keeping the file does not require keeping the account. At 23andMe, deletion sits in the same Settings → 23andMe Data section as the download; about 1.9 million customers, around 15%, requested deletion after the March 2025 bankruptcy (TechCrunch, 14 June 2025). Ancestry's privacy statement says you can delete your DNA results or your account at any time and ask for the stored sample to be destroyed; its pages blocked our automated request, so read the current wording there before you rely on it (checked 14 October 2026). Download first, then delete; our 23andMe download-and-delete guide walks through each screen. This use removes an upload.

12. Keep an encrypted archive#

The file identifies you and your relatives for life, and the provider's zip is plain text. Encrypt it: a 7-Zip archive with AES-256, a VeraCrypt container or an encrypted disk image on macOS all work offline. Use a long passphrase, stored as in use 7. Do not email the file to yourself; a mailbox is a server, and the 2023 23andMe breach began with reused passwords.

Which uses upload your file#

"On-device" means the file is read in your browser and never sent; our security page shows how to confirm that in the network tab.

The risks of uploading#

Retention

An upload is a copy you no longer control. GEDmatch deletes the original file soon after processing but keeps the kit while the account exists. Promethease kept uploaded files until it deleted them all on 8 April 2025 and discontinued storage (promethease.com/privacy, checked 14 October 2026). SelfDecode stores the data. Read the retention clause and assume a copy survives in backups for as long as it allows.

Law enforcement

GEDmatch switched to express opt-in for police matching in 2019 (EFF, 10 December 2019). The same year a Florida judge granted a detective a warrant to search the entire database, opted-out users included (MIT Technology Review, 6 November 2019). FamilyTreeDNA's own toggle sits under Account Settings → Privacy & Sharing; when it introduced the setting in March 2019, EU customers were opted out by default and everyone else opted in (The Legal Genealogist, 13 March 2019), so check it.

Breaches

In October 2023, attackers logged into about 0.1% of 23andMe accounts with reused passwords and, through the DNA Relatives feature, reached the profiles of about 6.9 million people (NBC News, December 2023). The settlement fund is $46.75 million. In July 2020, an attack on GEDmatch reset every user's permissions for about three hours, exposing opted-out kits to law-enforcement matching (Verogen incident response).

Bankruptcies and shutdowns

23andMe filed for Chapter 11 on 23 March 2025; TTAM Research Institute bought it for $305 million and the sale closed on 14 July 2025. Nebula Genomics' consumer service was reported shut on 5 February 2025. openSNP deleted everything. A file on a server has the lifespan of the company holding it. Our 23andMe review and Is it safe to upload raw DNA data? go deeper.

FAQ#

What is raw DNA data?

The text file a consumer genotyping company produces from your saliva sample: several hundred thousand positions in your genome, each with an rsID, chromosome, position and your two alleles. It is not your whole genome; a chip reads a selection of known variants. Our download guide covers 23andMe, AncestryDNA and MyHeritage.

What is the first thing to do with raw DNA data?

Back it up and encrypt it, because every later step either copies the file somewhere or depends on still having it. Then pick one question: a health report, a single variant, relatives. Choose the tool by where it processes the file, and keep the provider account until you know the file opens.

Can raw DNA data tell me about my health?

It can tell you which published associations you carry and roughly how large each reported effect is. It cannot diagnose anything, and consumer chips produce false positives: in one study, 40% of variants sent for clinical confirmation did not hold up. Read a report as questions for a doctor or genetic counsellor, not as an answer.

Is it safe to upload raw DNA data to another service?

It depends on the service, and the risk is permanent because the file cannot be changed. Before uploading, read how long the file is kept, whether law enforcement can search it, and what happens if the company is sold. Browser-based tools avoid the question. Our checklist covers the points to check.

Can I upload my raw DNA data to 23andMe or MyHeritage?

No. 23andMe and AncestryDNA have never accepted files from other companies, and MyHeritage stopped accepting uploads in August 2025 (its help centre, checked 14 October 2026). GEDmatch, Living DNA and FamilyTreeDNA still accept uploads for matching; for health reports, use a browser-based tool or one of the upload tools above.