Written August 2026. Menus move, so if a button isn't exactly where I say it is, look nearby. The idea doesn't change.
A year in, ChatGPT knew things about me I don't tell people at parties. How I write. What I'm building. My kids' names. The way I talk about money when I'm being careful about it.
So when I wanted to move to Claude, I didn't. For weeks. It felt like walking out on a coworker who had finally figured me out.
It's a file. That's all it ever was. A file I hadn't copied yet.
Steps 1 to 3 move you from ChatGPT into Claude. Steps 4 to 6 go back the other way. Do both, even if you're only switching one direction. The point is knowing you can.
1. Get the export out of ChatGPT
Open a brand new ChatGPT chat, on a computer. Not your phone. You're about to copy a long block of text and phones make that miserable.
Paste this in. It's long, and the length is the point:
I'm moving to another service and need to export my data. List every memory you have stored about me, as well as any context you've learned about me from past conversations. Output everything in a single code block so I can easily copy it. Format each entry as: [date saved, if available] - memory content.
Make sure to cover all of the following - preserve my words verbatim where possible:
- Instructions I've given you about how to respond (tone, format, style, "always do X", "never do Y")
- Personal details: name, location, job, family, interests
- Projects, goals, and recurring topics
- Tools, languages, and frameworks I use
- Preferences and corrections I've made to your behavior
- Any other stored context not covered above
Do not summarize, group, or omit any entries. After the code block, confirm whether that is the complete set or if any remain.Then copy the block it gives you back. There's a copy button in the top corner of it.
The mistake that makes it fail: asking "what do you remember about me." You get a friendly paragraph and you've just lost half your context.
Every line in there is doing work. Stored memories and things it picked up from your conversations are two different piles. It only hands over the second pile if you ask.
The checklist is there because it skips whole categories otherwise, and the response instructions are the ones you'd miss most. "One code block" makes it copyable in one click. "Do not summarize, group, or omit" stops it being helpful at you. That last line, the one asking it to confirm whether that's everything, catches the entries it held back the first time.
2. Import it into Claude
Claude built a real import for this, so this part is four clicks.
The exact path:
- Click your initials in the bottom left, go to Settings.
- Go to Memory.
- Click Start import.
- Paste the block in, then click Add to memory.
No Memory tab? Look under Settings, then Capabilities. Where it sits depends on your plan and how far the rollout has reached you.
1 minute.
3. Read your entries and put back what got dropped
This is the step everyone skips. It decides what the other five got you.
Go back into Settings, Memory, and actually read what landed.
The import is experimental and it leans hard toward work. Mine came over knowing every business I run and almost nothing about my life. It kept the client names. It dropped the two kids under three, which is the single fact that changes every answer it gives me about scheduling anything.
Whatever it dropped that matters to you, type it back in. You can edit the entries right there on that screen.
2 minutes, and they're the 2 minutes that count.
4. Get your memory out of Claude
Now the other way. You should be able to walk out of any of them, including the one I like.
The exact path: click your initials in the bottom left, go to Settings, then Memory, then View and edit your memory. Select all, copy.
It's plain text. Read it on the way past. For most people this is the only time they ever see what their AI actually thinks of them.
1 minute.
5. Turn it into ChatGPT instructions
ChatGPT has no import button, so this side is by hand. Still only takes 3 minutes.
The exact path:
- Open a new ChatGPT chat and paste the whole export in.
- Underneath it, paste this:
Read this data export and summarize the most important facts and points so I can update my personalization settings. - Copy what it hands back.
- Go to Settings, then Personalization, then Custom instructions, and paste it in.
The mistake that makes it fail: pasting the raw Claude export straight into custom instructions. There's a character limit on that box and a year of memory is longer than it. The summarize step is what makes it fit.
6. Check what actually stuck
Open Settings, Personalization, Manage memories, and read the list.
It won't be everything. It's never everything. Custom instructions and saved memories are two separate systems and you only just filled in one of them.
So take the 3 or 4 facts you'd be annoyed to re-explain and just say them in a chat: "Remember that I run three businesses and one of them is physical." That writes a real memory instead of an instruction.
Your chats are a separate export
Your chats are not your memory. They're separate.
Neither import touches your conversation history. That's a separate export in a separate menu. It arrives as a zip file emailed to you. ChatGPT: Settings, Data controls, Export data. Claude: Settings, Privacy, Export data.
Do it once a quarter and forget about it until you need it.
What 10 minutes buys you
I'm not telling you to switch. I use both.
The point is that you can leave. A tool you can walk out of is a tool you're choosing. A tool you can't walk out of is one you're stuck with. A better one shows up every few months right now, so stuck gets expensive fast.
I run everything this way now. For every system I build I know what it takes to get my data back out. The answer tells me who's in charge of it.
If you only do one thing: step 3. An import you never read is a backup you never tested.
Copy the file. Then pick whichever one you actually want.