Export AI Chat and Back Up Every Conversation
ChatVault is a local-first Chrome extension that lets you export AI chat history from ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini in bulk. Instead of saving one open conversation at a time, it scans every conversation your account can see, checks each one for completeness, and packs the results into a single ZIP archive on your device.
Everything runs inside your browser. There is no account to create, no cloud queue, and no server that reads your prompts or replies. The extension requests access to one AI platform at a time, and only after you choose to enable that platform.
Export AI chat from three platforms
If you work across ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, your history is split across three sidebars with three different export stories. ChatVault gives all three the same archiving pipeline: a platform adapter reads the page you are already signed into, normalizes the conversation into one versioned JSON schema, and validates the result before anything is written to disk.
Each platform is enabled separately. Grant access to ChatGPT today and Claude next week; declining one platform never disables the others. A dedicated page covers each workflow in detail:
- Export ChatGPT conversation history in bulk, including long threads and code-heavy chats.
- Export Claude conversation history with per-chat completeness states.
- Export Gemini chat history in bulk, including lazy-loaded long conversations.
- Back up ChatGPT chats whenever you choose, with resumable jobs.
- Organize ChatGPT conversations in a searchable local Vault.
Built for whole history, not single chats
Most exporter tools save the conversation you currently have open. That helps once, but it does not protect a history of hundreds of chats. ChatVault is built around four jobs that single-chat tools skip.
Bulk export
Scan the full list of conversations a platform shows you, select all of them or a filtered subset, and export everything in one job. Duplicate references are removed during the scan, and chats are processed sequentially with conservative pacing so the live platform tab stays stable.
Long-conversation completeness
Long threads load in batches as you scroll, and silent truncation is the most common way an archive quietly loses messages. ChatVault performs the loading steps each platform needs, compares expected and extracted message counts when a reliable count exists, and records a completeness state per conversation. A chat that cannot be proven complete is flagged as warning or incomplete. It is never reported as success.
Resumable jobs
A large backup can outlive a browser tab. ChatVault writes checkpoints to IndexedDB as it works, so you can pause, retry failed items, or restart the browser entirely and continue where the job stopped. Finished conversations are not processed twice.
Local privacy
Extraction, validation, rendering, and packaging all run on your device with deterministic code. Conversation content never leaves the machine: not to ChatVault servers, not to analytics, not to a support bundle. Optional diagnostics contain only status codes, versions, and error categories.
Export formats and completeness states
Every job produces a ZIP archive with deterministic file names and a versioned manifest.json. The manifest records the schema version, the adapter version, and the completeness state and reason for every conversation, so an archive can be audited months later.
PDF export is not available yet. It stays out of the product and out of this page until it passes its release gate for long content, tables, and code blocks.
| Format | What it is suited for |
|---|---|
| JSON | Lossless canonical archive with a versioned schema and content hashes |
| Markdown | Reading and editing, with code blocks, language tags, and tables preserved |
| TXT | Plain text that opens anywhere, including editors and search tools |
| HTML | A browsable, self-contained rendering of each conversation |
| ZIP | The bundle that packs all chosen formats plus the manifest |
How ChatVault works
A full backup takes a few minutes of setup and then runs on its own. The side panel shows the current item, completed count, warnings, and failures while the job runs, and the preflight check tells you how many conversations were found and which known limitations apply before you commit:
- Install ChatVault from the Chrome Web Store.
- Enable one platform and grant that platform's host permission.
- Open a tab where you are signed in to the platform.
- Run a scan to enumerate every discoverable conversation.
- Select all chats or a filtered subset and pick your formats.
- Start the job and watch progress, warnings, and retries in the side panel.
- Download the ZIP, and optionally keep a copy in the local Vault.
A searchable vault for your archive
After an export, you can keep the normalized archive in the built-in Vault. The Vault offers full-text search across retained conversations, filters by platform and date, a local preview, and re-export of selected items in any supported format. Entries show title, platform, date, message count, and completeness state.
The Vault lives in your browser profile's IndexedDB. That is convenient for searching, but a browser profile is not a substitute for file backups. Keep the exported ZIP files somewhere safe as well; the Vault is an index, not your only copy.
Privacy and permissions
ChatVault follows a minimum-permission model. It never requests access to all websites, never touches cookies, and never collects credentials or tokens. Content scripts are registered only for a platform you explicitly enable, and revoking that platform's permission unregisters them.
You must be signed in to each AI platform yourself, and ChatVault can only export what your own account can access. It does not bypass authentication, scrape from a server, or recover deleted chats. The privacy policy describes the full data flow, the optional content-free diagnostics, and how to delete every byte of local data.
Local data stays under your control after the export too. Retained Vault entries can be removed one by one, and a full wipe from the extension's settings clears every conversation, checkpoint, and setting ChatVault ever stored.
Frequently asked questions
Which AI platforms does ChatVault support?
ChatVault works with ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini. Each platform has its own adapter and is enabled separately with its own host permission, so you can use one, two, or all three. All three share the same archive schema, formats, and completeness reporting.
Does ChatVault upload my conversations anywhere?
No. There is no application backend. Extraction, validation, and file rendering run locally in your browser, and conversation content is never sent to a server, written to a console, or included in telemetry. Optional diagnostics carry only status codes, versions, and error categories, never content.
What export formats are available?
Canonical JSON, Markdown, TXT, and HTML, bundled into a ZIP archive with a versioned manifest and validation report. PDF is not available yet and will only ship after it passes a dedicated release gate.
What happens with very long conversations?
ChatVault performs the scrolling and expansion steps needed to load the full visible history, then compares expected and extracted message counts where a reliable count exists. If completeness cannot be proven, the conversation is marked warning or incomplete in the manifest, never reported as success.
Do I need an account to use ChatVault?
No ChatVault account exists. You do need to be signed in to the AI platform you want to export from, because the extension reads the same pages you can already see. It never asks for your platform password, cookies, or tokens.
Can I resume an interrupted export?
Yes. Job state, finished items, and checkpoints are persisted in IndexedDB. You can pause a job, retry failed conversations, or restart the browser and continue. Items already completed are skipped instead of processed twice.
Is ChatVault free?
The core local workflow, a complete manual backup of your supported platforms in all current formats, is free. There is no sign-in or paywall in front of your first full export.
Export AI chat and keep it on your device
Install ChatVault, enable a platform, and run your first complete backup in minutes.