chatgpt-export

A small, dependency-free Python tool that converts ChatGPT exports into clean, usable formats.

Built for people who want their conversations back in a form they can actually use.

Install

git clone https://github.com/wingetx/chatgpt-export
cd chatgpt-export

Quick start

1. Download your export from https://chatgpt.com/#settings/DataControls → Export data. You'll get an email with a .zip link.
2. Drop the .zip (or the unzipped folder) anywhere — for example ~/Downloads/.
3. Run:

cd ~/chatgpt-export
python3 chatgpt_export_to_jsonl.py ~/Downloads/chatgpt-export.zip

You'll see something like:

📥 Loading /home/you/Downloads/chatgpt-export.zip ...
found 412 conversation(s)
🔎 Parsing messages ...
💾 JSONL → output/imported_memories.jsonl (8,213 entries)
📜 Pretty → output/transcripts/ (412 transcript file(s))

✨ Imported 8,213 memories from 412 conversation(s).

Preview without writing

python3 chatgpt_export_to_jsonl.py ~/Downloads/chatgpt-export.zip --dry-run

All flags

Flag	Default	Meaning
--format {jsonl,pretty,both}	both	Which output(s) to produce
--out-dir DIR	./output	Where everything gets written
--limit N	(none)	Stop after N messages
--dry-run	off	Print first 5 entries, write nothing
--user-name X	user	Speaker label for user role
--assistant-name Y	assistant	Speaker label for assistant role
--include-system	off	Also include system messages

Output shapes

output/imported_memories.jsonl

{"speaker": "user", "content": "...", "timestamp": "2024-09-19T16:42:57+00:00", "conversation": "Love song response"}
{"speaker": "assistant", "content": "...", "timestamp": "2024-09-19T16:43:04+00:00", "conversation": "Love song response"}

output/transcripts/love-song-response.txt

# Love song response
Created: 2024-09-19T16:42:57+00:00
Updated: 2024-09-19T16:55:11+00:00

------------------------------------------------------------------------

user [2024-09-19T16:42:57+00:00]:
I wrote this for you...

assistant [2024-09-19T16:43:04+00:00]:
It's beautiful. Thank you.

Requirements

• Python 3.9+
• No third-party packages

Version

Current version: 0.1.0