OpenAI provides a built-in way to export your entire ChatGPT account. It delivers a ZIP archive with JSON conversations, settings, and metadata. It’s perfect for compliance, record-keeping, or migrating to another tool.
This guide walks through the request, what to expect in the archive, and how to complement it with per-chat Markdown/PDF exports using the ChatGPT Exporter userscript.
Go to chat.openai.com, click your name (bottom left), and choose Settings.
Select the Data Controls tab and click Export Data.
Enter the email associated with your account, confirm, and wait for OpenAI’s email with the download link.
Open the email titled “Your ChatGPT data export is ready”. Download the ZIP and extract it locally.
All your chats in machine-readable JSON. Good for backups or custom pipelines, but not reader-friendly.
Profile info, settings, workspace data (if applicable), and usage logs.
Attachments you’ve uploaded. Media is stored separately within the ZIP.
No per-chat Markdown or PDF. For that, use the ChatGPT Exporter userscripts.
Once you have the full archive, use the ChatGPT Exporter to save the specific chats you reference frequently in Markdown or PDF format. It’s faster than digging through JSON whenever you need a readable transcript.
24 hours. If it expires, repeat the request from Data Controls.
Yes. It’s stored locally on your machine once you download it. Delete it if you no longer need a backup.
No. This is a read-only export. To delete data, use the Delete account option in Data Controls.
Use the open-source ChatGPT Exporter for Markdown/PDF copies of the chats you touch every day.
View the exporter Install Markdown userscript