Claude Now Lets You Import Your ChatGPT Memories. Here's What That Actually Means.

Yesterday, Anthropic shipped a feature that makes switching AI chatbots easier. You can now export your stored memories from ChatGPT, Gemini, or Copilot and import them directly into Claude.

Memory is also now available on Claude's free tier for the first time. It launched as a paid feature last summer. Now everyone gets it.

How It Works

The process is simple, if slightly manual.

You paste a prompt into ChatGPT that asks it to list every memory it's stored about you. ChatGPT spits out a code block. You copy that, go to Claude's Settings, open the Memory section, hit "Start import," and paste it in.

Here's the prompt I use. Copy and paste it straight into ChatGPT:

Export all of my stored memories and any context you've learned about me from past conversations. Preserve my words verbatim where possible, especially for instructions and preferences.

## Categories (output in this order):

1. **Instructions**: Rules I've explicitly asked you to follow going forward — tone, format, style, "always do X", "never do Y", and corrections to your behavior. Only include rules from stored memories, not from conversations.
2. **Identity**: Name, age, location, education, family, relationships, languages, and personal interests.
3. **Career**: Current and past roles, companies, and general skill areas.
4. **Projects**: Projects I meaningfully built or committed to. Ideally ONE entry per project. Include what it does, current status, and any key decisions. Use the project name or a short descriptor as the first words of the entry.
5. **Preferences**: Opinions, tastes, and working-style preferences that apply broadly.

## Format:

Use section headers for each category. Within each category, list one entry per line, sorted by oldest date first. Format each line as:

[YYYY-MM-DD] - Entry content here.

If no date is known, use [unknown] instead.

## Output:
- Wrap the entire export in a single code block for easy copying.
- After the code block, state whether this is the complete set or if more remain.

Alternatively, you can go into ChatGPT's Settings > Personalisation > Manage Memories and copy them out directly. But the prompt gives you more structured output.

Claude then takes about 24 hours to fully absorb the context. After that, it picks up roughly where ChatGPT left off. Your preferences, your work context, the small details that stop every conversation feeling like a first date.

It works with Gemini and Copilot too. Same principle: get your memories out, paste them into Claude.

Why Now?

The timing here is hard to ignore.

Claude recently hit number one in the App Store's free apps chart, overtaking ChatGPT. Anthropic's free user base has grown 60% since January. And a significant chunk of that growth is coming from people actively leaving ChatGPT.

The backstory: Anthropic walked away from a Department of Defence contract over AI guardrails — specifically around mass surveillance and autonomous weapons. OpenAI picked up that same contract. The result has been a wave of ChatGPT cancellations and a minor exodus toward Claude.

So Anthropic made it easier to bring your stuff with you. Smart move.

The Honest Assessment

I've been telling people in my training sessions for months that the best approach to AI tools is model-agnostic. Don't marry one provider. Use the tool that's best for the task in front of you.

This feature is good because it reduces switching costs. That's a win for everyone. If you've spent months training ChatGPT to understand your work context, your writing style, your preferences, the thought of losing all that is one of the main reasons people stay even when they're curious about alternatives.

Now that friction is lower.

But let me be honest about the limitations.

First, this is experimental. Anthropic says so themselves. Claude may not always successfully incorporate imported memories.

I tried it. The experience was fine, but not seamless. Small annoyance: the prompt Claude gives you to paste into ChatGPT doesn't have a copy button. You have to manually select and copy it. Minor, but the kind of thing you'd expect them to polish before shipping.

The memories ChatGPT exported were vague. General preferences, broad context. Nothing that felt particularly detailed or useful. If you've been using ChatGPT casually, you might find there's less stored than you expected.

And here's the thing. I've been working with Claude for a while now. It already knows a lot about me from our conversations. The import didn't add much that Claude hadn't already picked up naturally. If you're already a regular Claude user, this feature is more of a nice-to-have than a necessity.

Second, there are reports that OpenAI may have started limiting what ChatGPT will export. Whether that's intentional or a coincidence, it's worth knowing. If you try the export prompt and get thin results, that might be why.

Third, memories aren't magic. They're useful shortcuts. Claude remembers you prefer UK English, or that you work in financial services, or that you hate bullet points in emails. But they don't replace the skill of knowing how to prompt well. A good prompt with no memory will always beat a lazy prompt with perfect context.

What I'd Actually Do

If you're already using Claude, turn memory on (if you haven't) and let it learn from your conversations naturally. That's the easiest path.

If you're on ChatGPT and curious about switching, try the import. It takes five minutes. The worst case is that some memories don't transfer cleanly and you correct them as you go.

If you're using both — which is what I recommend to most people I train — just let each tool build its own memory. They'll diverge anyway, because you'll use them for different things.

The bigger point isn't about which chatbot is better. It's that the walls between them are coming down. Google is reportedly building a similar import feature. The trend is obvious: AI companies will have to compete on quality, not lock-in.

That's good for you.

One More Thing

If you want someone to walk you through this stuff (memories, model switching, knowing which tool to use for what), that's what my training sessions are for. 90 minutes. Your tools, your workflow, your questions.

Not sure if it's right for you? Message me. I'll tell you honestly.

Riz Pabani is an AI trainer based in London, offering 1:1 and group AI training sessions for individuals and businesses worldwide. Learn more