Migrating ChatGPT Data to Claude: A Basic Guide

Before you start

First, check what type of ChatGPT account you’re using. This determines how (or whether) you can export your data.

• Free, Plus or Pro – you can request a self-service export (see Step 1).
• ChatGPT Business (formerly Team) or Enterprise – the personal self-service export isn’t available. Instead, you’ll need to work with your workspace administrator to determine what data can be exported and how. Depending on your organisation’s OpenAI plan, data retention policies and administrative settings may restrict exports or require them to be requested through OpenAI. Before planning a migration, involve your IT or Information Security team to review any contractual, compliance or governance requirements, particularly if conversations contain client, commercial or regulated data. If you’re migrating an entire organisation rather than an individual user, plan for how shared resources, such as Projects, custom GPTs, user access and integrations, will be recreated or replaced in Claude.

If any of the content includes client data, contracts, or other confidential information, don’t move it into a personal Claude account. Use Claude Team or Enterprise instead, as those plans include the appropriate business data processing agreements.

Organisation migration?

If you’re moving an entire team or business rather than a single user, don’t treat this as just a data export exercise. Before anyone starts migrating, involve your IT, Information Security and workspace administrators to plan the transition.

A successful organisation-wide migration should include:

• Inventory your AI estate – identify users, Projects, shared prompts, custom GPTs, integrations and any business-critical workflows that rely on ChatGPT.
• Review governance and compliance – decide whether conversation history needs to be retained for legal, contractual or regulatory reasons, and confirm how client or confidential information will be handled during the migration.
• Plan your Claude workspace – decide whether users need Claude Team or Enterprise, configure identity management (such as SSO), and agree on workspace settings before onboarding users.
• Recreate shared resources – custom GPTs, project instructions, prompt libraries and integrations won’t automatically transfer to Claude and may need to be rebuilt.
• Support your users – provide guidance on what should and shouldn’t be migrated, and give users time to verify that their imported memories and workflows behave as expected.

Planning these activities before individual users begin exporting data will help avoid disruption and reduce the risk of losing important business knowledge.

Step 1: Export your ChatGPT data

1. Sign in to ChatGPT and go to Settings → Data Controls → Export Data, then confirm the request.
2. OpenAI will email you a download link. The export usually arrives within a few hours, although larger exports or periods of high demand may take longer.
3. The download link expires after 24 hours, so download it as soon as you receive it.
4. You’ll receive a ZIP file containing files including:
   • conversations.json – your conversation history and metadata
   • chat.html – a readable version you can open in your browser

Step 2: Review the export before doing anything else

Open chat.html and review what’s actually there.

The export isn’t filtered or sanitised. If you’ve ever pasted client names, confidential documents, contracts or sensitive information into ChatGPT, it will generally appear in the export exactly as it was entered.

This is the best point to remove anything you don’t want to transfer elsewhere—not after you’ve uploaded it into another AI service.

Step 3: Decide what you actually want to bring across

There are two different things you might want to migrate.

• Memory import – transfers your preferences, working style, recurring projects and other long-term context. For most people, this is all that’s needed.
• Full archive – keep your exported files if you need a complete historical record for compliance or reference. There’s usually little benefit in uploading your entire conversation history into Claude.

Step 4: Import your memory into Claude

1. Generate a summary from ChatGPT

Start a new ChatGPT conversation and paste:

I’m moving to another AI assistant. Summarise the preferences, recurring projects, working style and other information you currently remember about me that would be useful to carry over. Output everything in a single code block so I can easily copy it.

2. Review your saved Memory settings

Also check Settings → Personalisation → Memory in ChatGPT.

The summary generated by ChatGPT is useful, but it may not include every saved memory or every piece of long-term context. Review your saved memories directly and decide what you actually want to keep.

3. Clean everything up

Combine the information from the summary and your saved memories, then remove anything that’s:

• outdated
• inaccurate
• too personal
• confidential
• no longer useful

This is your opportunity to start with a cleaner memory rather than carrying everything across.

4. Import your memory into Claude

If Memory Import is available on your Claude account:

1. Open Settings → Capabilities.
2. Find Memory.
3. Select Start import.
4. Claude will display a pre-written prompt. Copy it.
5. Switch to ChatGPT, start a new conversation, and paste Claude’s prompt.
6. Copy ChatGPT’s response and return to Claude.
7. Review the generated text before importing it. If necessary, also check ChatGPT → Settings → Personalisation → Memory to ensure nothing important has been missed or anything sensitive included.
8. Paste the reviewed text into Claude and select Add to memory.
9. Memory imports are experimental and may take up to 24 hours to complete. Once finished, start a new conversation and ask:

“I updated my memory. What did you learn about me?”

This is the wording Anthropic recommends for verifying the import.

5. Check the results

Memory imports are still considered experimental by Anthropic and may not capture everything perfectly.

After the import finishes (this may take up to 24 hours), start a new Claude conversation and ask:

What do you currently remember about me?

Review the response and add or remove memories if necessary.

Step 5: Choose the right Claude account for the content

If you’re only importing your own preferences and working style, a personal Claude account is generally appropriate.

If the information relates to clients, customers or your business, use Claude Team or Enterprise instead so the appropriate contractual protections are in place.

Also remember that no Claude plan currently provides Zero Data Retention for the standard chat interface or Memory import process. Even on Enterprise, Zero Data Retention currently applies only to eligible Claude Code environments after approval by Anthropic.

That makes Step 2 the most important safeguard: review and remove anything sensitive before importing it.

Step 6: Decide what to do with your ChatGPT account

Don’t simply abandon your old account.

Decide whether you want to:

• keep it active alongside Claude
• downgrade to a free plan
• close the account completely

If you no longer need it, follow OpenAI’s account deletion process rather than assuming the account or its data will disappear automatically.

Optional: Don’t forget these other items

Your exported conversations aren’t the only things worth preserving.

Before leaving ChatGPT, consider whether you also want to copy across:

• Custom Instructions
• Saved Memories
• Project instructions
• Prompts or knowledge stored inside any Custom GPTs you’ve created

These may not be represented in your exported conversations in the way you expect, but they often contain the information that’s most valuable to recreate in another AI assistant.