Export WhatsApp chat: step-by-step guide and chat cleaner

How do you export a WhatsApp chat? Step by step

WhatsApp exports a chat as a text file (up to 40,000 messages) or with media as a ZIP (up to about 10,000 messages). The route is almost the same on Android and iPhone, only the entry point differs. The pictures show a recreated interface as of October 2026.

The screenshots show the German interface. In English the menu items are called: "Mehr" = "More", "Chat exportieren" = "Export chat", "Ohne Medien" = "Without media", "Medien hinzufügen" = "Include media", "Medien anhängen" = "Attach media", "In Dateien sichern" = "Save to Files".

Android: menu, "More", "Export chat"

1. Open the chat, tap the three dots at the top right (more options), then "More"
2. In the submenu tap "Export chat"
3. Answer the prompt: "Without media" for the small .txt file or "Include media" for the ZIP with photos, videos and voice messages
4. In the share sheet pick a destination such as email to yourself, Drive or Files, then load the file into the cleaner below

iPhone: tap the contact name, "Export chat"

1. Open the chat and tap the name of the contact or group at the top
2. In the contact or group info scroll down and choose "Export chat"
3. Answer the prompt: "Without media" or "Attach media"
4. In the share sheet choose "Save to Files", Mail or AirDrop and load the .txt file into the cleaner below

Note: view-once messages are not exported. With media the export takes much longer and the ZIP quickly grows to several hundred megabytes. For PDF, Markdown or CSV the text file is enough.

How do you export a Telegram chat?

Telegram exports individual chats only in the desktop app (Windows, Mac, Linux), not on the phone. Open the chat, click the three dots at the top right and choose "Export chat history". In the dialog you decide which media to include (photos, video files, voice messages, files), the size limit per file, the format (HTML for reading or JSON for processing) and the period. Telegram creates a folder with messages.html, which you open in the browser and save as PDF via the print dialog. All chats at once: "Settings", "Advanced", "Export Telegram data". After a fresh login on the desktop, Telegram allows the export only after 24 hours for security reasons.

How do you export a Microsoft Teams chat?

Teams has no "Export chat" button for regular users. The menu of a message (three dots on hover) only offers "Copy", "Save", "Forward" and "Share to Outlook". The pragmatic way for a whole chat: open it, scroll up until everything is loaded, Ctrl+A, Ctrl+C, paste into Word and save as PDF. Individual important messages go to your own inbox with "Share to Outlook". In companies a complete export runs through IT: Microsoft Purview (eDiscovery) searches the chats in the mailboxes of the participants and exports them as PST, which requires the eDiscovery Manager role. For personal Microsoft accounts, the privacy dashboard at account.microsoft.com offers an export of Teams chat data as JSON.

How do you export a ChatGPT chat?

All chats: click your profile at the bottom left, "Settings", "Data controls", at "Export data" click "Export" and confirm with "Confirm export". The download link arrives by email and is valid for 24 hours. According to OpenAI the export can take up to 7 days, usually it is minutes. The ZIP contains conversations.json with all conversations and chat.html for reading in the browser. Single chats: click "Share" at the top right, "Create link", open the shared page and save it as PDF with Ctrl+P. For Markdown, copying from the answer is often enough, ChatGPT puts the formatting as Markdown into the clipboard.

How do you export a Claude chat?

Claude offers two routes. First the complete data export: "Settings", "Privacy", "Export data". This works in the web app and in Claude Desktop, not in the iOS or Android app. The download link arrives by email at the address of your account and is valid for 24 hours, the ZIP contains conversations.json among other files. Second, "Share" at the top of the chat. For that link we built our own tool: Export a Claude chat turns a shared Claude chat into Markdown, PDF, Word or HTML, code blocks included, in 20 languages.

Why is "Export chat" not available in WhatsApp Desktop or WhatsApp Web?

Because the feature only exists in the phone apps. WhatsApp Desktop, the Windows and Mac apps and WhatsApp Web mirror your chats but have no export option, and nothing in the settings will make one appear. The same is true for WhatsApp channels. If you mainly work at the computer, export the chat on your phone, choose email or Drive as the destination and open the file on the desktop. WhatsApp Business behaves exactly like the regular app: open the chat, three dots, "More", "Export chat" on Android, or the contact name and "Export chat" on iPhone.

What does "Export chat" mean on WhatsApp and what is in the file?

"Export chat" creates a copy of a single conversation outside WhatsApp. Your chat stays untouched, the other person is not notified. The export is a plain text file in which every message is one line: date, time, sender name, message text. System events like "Messages are end-to-end encrypted" and changes to the group name are included too. If you choose to include media, WhatsApp adds the photos, videos, voice messages and documents from the chat to a ZIP file and references them by file name in the text. The export covers the most recent 40,000 messages without media and about 10,000 with media.

How do you export a WhatsApp chat to PDF?

WhatsApp itself has no PDF option, but the detour takes a minute. Export the chat without media, open this page, load the .txt file into the cleaner and click "Save as PDF". Your browser opens the print dialog, where you choose "Save as PDF" as the destination. The PDF shows a clean conversation view with date separators, sender names and times, your own messages on the right if you enter your name. That is what insurers, lawyers, landlords and HR departments usually ask for when a chat has to be documented.

What does the WhatsApp chat cleaner do with the text file?

The raw export file is one line per message, hard to read and not printable. The cleaner detects date, time, sender and message in all common formats (day first with dots, US format with slashes and AM/PM, year first, Android and iPhone), merges multi-line messages and separates system messages. You get a conversation view like in WhatsApp, enter your name and your messages move to the right. The statistics show messages per person, the most active days and the period. Export as Markdown for notes, CSV for Excel or print-ready HTML that you save as PDF via the browser.

Are my chats safe here?

Yes. The file stays on your device. The cleaner reads it with JavaScript directly in your browser, there is no upload and no processing on our server. That matters for private chats and customer conversations, because an export file often contains phone numbers, addresses and confidential details. All our tools follow this rule, including the word counter and the password generator.