In the wake of Anthropic refusing to remove AI safeguards for the US military, and OpenAI stepping in to take its place, Claude shot to the top of the Apple App Store. If you are among the many who want to switch from ChatGPT to Anthropic’s more humane AI chatbot, it’s easy to transfer your memory and some settings. I explain exactly what you need to do below, along with what you’ll have to leave behind.
What Can You Transfer From Claude to ChatGPT?
You can transfer memory from ChatGPT to Claude, which includes a host of useful context and settings. Memory stores information about your career and identity, as well as the instructions you gave ChatGPT, the projects you worked on, and the preferences you expressed over the course of your chats.
(Credit: Anthropic/PCMag)
Some, but not all, of the above is self-explanatory. Your identity, for example, is a description of you based on your ChatGPT usage. For example, ChatGPT describes me as “highly engaged in gaming communities, including Warframe, Soulframe, Old School RuneScape, Nioh 3, and Where Winds Meet, often discussing builds, progression, and optimization.” Furthermore, I used ChatGPT as a tool when building my last computer, so “PC Watercooling Build Project” is one of my projects.
Preferences cover a range of contexts based on your conversations. In my case, this means a bunch of information about what I want from certain computer components, as well as the specific components I chose for my build. My preferences also include that, when asking for fashion advice on my Warframes, I take screenshots of my phone to avoid HDR-related color issues. It also notes that any such images I send still won’t perfectly represent how things look in the game.
Generally, you should expect a fairly wide range of top-level information about you and how you use a chatbot to transfer from ChatGPT to Claude.
What Won’t Survive the Switch?
Put simply, anything I didn’t specifically mention above won’t carry over. That includes apps you created, deep research reports, generated media, the text of your actual chats, and more. You can think of the process more like matching the settings of one app to another, rather than opening your music library in a different app.
You should also remember that this process isn’t perfect. Anthropic itself notes that “Memory imports are experimental and still in active development, and at this stage, Claude may not always successfully incorporate imported memories.” For example, I talked with ChatGPT a lot about skincare, but those discussions didn’t transfer.
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How to Transfer Memory and Settings to Claude
All you need is a ChatGPT account and a Claude account, and not even a premium version of either. After you sign in to Claude, open its settings page and navigate to the Capabilities tab. Within the Memory section at the top, click the Start Import button next to the “Important memory from other AI providers” heading.
(Credit: Anthropic/PCMag)
Claude then walks you through a very short process: copy a prompt, feed it to ChatGPT, and paste its response back into the open window on Claude. Next, simply click the Add to Memory button, and the transfer completes nearly instantly. Afterwards, you can prompt Claude to tell you what changed in its memory with the transfer.
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In the aforementioned Memory section, you can also edit Claude’s memory. So, if there’s something that transferred from ChatGPT you don’t want in Claude’s memory or vice versa, you can tell Claude directly. As you use Claude, it will automatically continue to build out its memory of you.
Moving to ChatGPT From Claude Isn’t Quite So Seamless
Transferring your memory from ChatGPT to Claude doesn’t remove anything from ChatGPT, so you can always resume using your ChatGPT account, but you can’t import anything from Claude. Just keep that in mind if you’re not sure whether you’ll stick with Claude.
Of course, ChatGPT’s memory isn’t set in stone. It’s entirely possible to view your memory in Claude, compare it with your memory in ChatGPT, and then tell ChatGPT to remember anything that Claude added to its memory as you used it. You really don’t have to worry about losing anything permanently.
About Our Expert
Ruben Circelli
Writer, Software
Experience
I’ve been writing about consumer technology and video games for over a decade at a variety of publications, including Destructoid, GamesRadar+, Lifewire, PCGamesN, Trusted Reviews, and What Hi-Fi?, among many others. At PCMag, I review AI and productivity software—everything from chatbots to to-do list apps. In my free time, I’m likely cooking something, playing a game, or tinkering with my computer.
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