Checked 22 October 2026. Every cell links its source.
What your AI remembers about you is hard to take with you. Claude and Gemini will both pull memory in from a rival. None of the big providers lets you take memory out as a structured file another AI can read. What does move today is what the AI tells you when you ask: a pasted list or summary, or a ZIP of old chats, and the details, dates and links between things get lost on the way. Each row below says what you can do. We make no recommendations and use no affiliate links.
Who lets memory in, and who lets it out
| AI | Import from rivals? | Export? And what you can do | Structured export a rival can read? | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT (OpenAI) | No. No memory import shipped through October 2026.(Source: ChatGPT changelog (Releasebot), checked 22 October 2026) | No memory file. The account export ZIP does not document memory as a part of it. What you can do: open Settings → Personalization → Manage memories and copy the list, or ask ChatGPT in a new chat to recite everything it remembers about you.(Source: DEV portability audit, checked 22 October 2026)(Source: Medium, Adi Leviim, checked 22 October 2026) | No.(Source: DEV portability audit, checked 22 October 2026) | “Sign in with ChatGPT” (29 September 2026) does not share your conversations or memory. Deleting a chat does not necessarily delete memories drawn from it. Some users saw saved memories go blank; the suggested backup is copying them into a text file.(Source: ChatGPT changelog (Releasebot), checked 22 October 2026)(Source: Medium, Adi Leviim, checked 22 October 2026)(Source: TechRadar, checked 22 October 2026) |
| Claude (Anthropic) | Yes, since about 3 March 2026. Claude gives you a prompt to run in your old AI, then you paste the answer back.(Source: PCWorld, checked 22 October 2026) | No structured file; a text summary inside a JSON file at most. What you can do: open Settings → Memory, or ask Claude in a new chat to write out your memories verbatim, and copy the text.(Source: DEV portability audit, checked 22 October 2026) | No. Claude’s own export cannot even be imported into another personal Claude account.(Source: Medium, Adi Leviim, checked 22 October 2026) | Import is labeled experimental and may not apply every memory; personal, non-work details may be dropped. It takes about a day to absorb, then you can view and edit what landed.(Source: MemoryLake (vendor), checked 22 October 2026)(Source: PCWorld, checked 22 October 2026) |
| Gemini (Google) | Yes, since 26 March 2026. Paste a memory summary from another AI, or upload a chat-history ZIP (up to 5GB). No direct link to the other service.(Source: Android Authority, checked 22 October 2026) | Saved info is not separately exportable. What you can do: ask Gemini in a new chat to list everything it has saved about you, and keep the pasted summary yourself.(Source: DEV portability audit, checked 22 October 2026) | No. Imported rival ZIPs are flattened to text.(Source: DEV portability audit, checked 22 October 2026) | A hands-on test found imported chats act “more like a reference library than a seamless memory”: you have to ask Gemini to recall them. There is no viewable memory list; you correct it by chatting.(Source: Tom's Guide, checked 22 October 2026)(Source: Medium, Adi Leviim, checked 22 October 2026) |
| Grok (xAI) | Not found. Our sources could not confirm any import feature. | Only as part of an export of the whole xAI account. What you can do: with memories on, ask Grok in a new chat to recite everything it remembers about you, and copy the answer.(Source: Medium, Adi Leviim, checked 22 October 2026) | Not documented. | Least covered of the four. Treat this row as incomplete. |
| Copilot (Microsoft) | No. Microsoft's memory page does not mention importing memory from another AI.(Source: Microsoft, Copilot privacy controls, checked 22 October 2026) | View only. Saved memories are listed under Settings → Personalization, and can be deleted, but Microsoft's page names no export. What you can do: copy the list from that page, or ask Copilot in a new chat to recite what it remembers.(Source: Microsoft, Copilot privacy controls, checked 22 October 2026) | No.(Source: Microsoft, Copilot privacy controls, checked 22 October 2026) | Memory is for personal Microsoft accounts. Graded on the Scorecard from the same page. |
Whatever your AI tells you, you can keep. Paste what it tells you at What your AI remembers and see it as a graph, with the numbers, the contradictions and one file you own. Nothing leaves your browser. The exit grade shown there for each AI comes from the Scorecard.
A July 2026 test of seven memory products found that none let a rival rebuild the memory with its structure, dates and scopes intact. Its title: all seven lock you in. (Source: DEV portability audit, checked 22 October 2026)
Your switch kit
People switch AI in a hurry, not on a schedule. In March 2026 many users left ChatGPT for Claude. (Source: TechCrunch, checked 22 October 2026) In June 2026 two Claude models were offline everywhere for about 19 days. (Source: MarketScale, checked 22 October 2026) A short note you keep yourself means a backup AI can pick up where you left off on day one. It is free: copy it, fill it in, and keep it somewhere you control.
Curate it, don't dump it. One user in a thread about moving memory complained of the “context goblin”: imported context that adds irrelevant filler. (Source: Reddit thread (snapshot), checked 22 October 2026) More is not better. Keep only what changes how the AI should help you now, and update it when a project or decision changes.
MY SWITCH KIT (last updated: ____) Paste this into a new AI at the start of a chat. Keep it short. Only what a new assistant needs to help me well. 1. WHO I AM - Name / what I go by: - What I do (one or two lines): - Where I am / time zone: 2. HOW I LIKE ANSWERS - Length: (short / detailed) - Format: (steps, bullets, plain prose) - Tone: - Spelling and units: 3. ACTIVE PROJECTS (name — status — next step) - - - 4. KEY DECISIONS ALREADY MADE (so you don't reopen them) - - 5. PEOPLE AND TOOLS - People who come up (name — who they are): - Tools and accounts I use: 6. WHAT TO AVOID - -
Moving between two specific AIs? Each switch kit walks through it step by step, from each provider's own help pages: ChatGPT to Claude.
Providers change these features without much notice; each cell carries the day we checked it. For open tools you can run and keep yourself, see the open side of the map. For dated changes, see Did it change?.