Which tool to choose
To archive your data, use the native export: ChatGPT lets you download everything from settings and data controls, Gemini has a sharing feature, Claude is further ahead on importing than on exporting. To transfer from one tool to another, some AIs have an import that draws from the exports of ChatGPT, Gemini or other assistants. But the method that always works, whatever the tool, is the summary or context document: you paste it and you're up and running anywhere.
How it's done
- To keep a record: use the data export in the settings, which produces a file with your conversations.
- To transfer the context you really need: ask the AI for a summary of the project or bring along your context document, and paste it into the new tool.
- If the new AI has an import tool, try it: it can read another's export and reconstruct part of the memory.
- Always verify that the context arrived correct, because automatic transfers can lose pieces.
A concrete example
Davide wanted to move his work from one assistant to another without starting over. He soon discovered that downloading the whole record and trying to give it to the new AI didn't work: the file was huge, full of useless conversations, and didn't fit in the context. So he changed approach: he asked the old tool for a summary of the two projects he cared about — goals, decisions, state — and pasted them into the new one as a starting point. In five minutes the new assistant was operational on both, without the dead weight of months of chatter.
When it does NOT work (and how to fix it)
If you load the raw export into another AI
The export file is large and full of casual conversations and details you wouldn't want to carry along, and often it doesn't even fit in the new tool's context. The fix is not to transfer everything: extract a summary of just the context that matters and paste that.
If the platform doesn't offer an export
Some tools give only a sharing feature or nothing. In that case you manually copy the conversations that interest you, or better have a summary made to paste elsewhere. The content that's worth it you recover by hand; the rest isn't worth the effort.
If the automatic import loses pieces
Import tools help, but they're not perfect and take time to absorb the data. After an import, check what arrived and fill in by hand, with your context document, what's missing.
A tip from someone who really uses it
Real portability isn't given to you by the exports, it's given to you by a context document that you own. If you keep a file updated with who you are, the rules and the state of your projects, switching AI becomes trivial: you open the new tool, paste the document, and you're back where you were. That way you're not held hostage by the internal memory of a single platform, and the migrations that scare others are, for you, a copy-paste.
Frequently asked questions
Can I move the whole history from one AI to another?
You can export it, but transferring it usefully is another thing: the raw record is too big and disordered to be loaded into a new tool. What transfers well is the summarized context, not the entire history word for word.
Do the import tools between AIs really work?
They help, and they're improving: some platforms read others' exports and reconstruct part of the memory. But they have limits and absorption times, and they don't guarantee a complete transfer. Treat them as a useful shortcut to verify, not as a perfect migration.
Why isn't there a perfect, immediate transfer?
Because every platform uses different formats and memory systems, born for their own purposes, not to talk to each other. The exports are meant for compliance and archiving, not for migration. It's a field that's moving, but for now the most reliable bridge remains a summary readable by any tool.
Does changing AI mean losing all the work done?
No, and it's the fear that keeps people tied to a tool for no reason. With a summary or a context document you carry along the gist of the work in a minute, whatever the destination platform. What matters — goals, decisions, rules — is in your notes, not in the memory of a single AI. If you keep that document, you're tied to your work, not to the platform, and you can switch whenever you want.