ChatShelf

Read, search and convert your ChatGPT and Claude exports

Open the .zip you downloaded from ChatGPT or Claude. Find any old answer in seconds and save chats as Markdown. Your files are read inside this browser tab and never uploaded.

Pick a conversation

Get your export

ChatGPT

  1. Click your profile picture, then Settings → Data controls.
  2. Choose Export data and confirm.
  3. Open the email from OpenAI and download the .zip. The link expires, so grab it soon.
  4. Drop the whole .zip here. It contains conversations.json.

Images you uploaded or generated are shown when their files are inside the same .zip.

Claude

  1. Open Settings → Privacy.
  2. Under your data, choose Export data.
  3. Download the .zip from the email Anthropic sends you.
  4. Drop the .zip here, or just its conversations.json.

Attachments are listed by file name. Tool calls and extended thinking are hidden until you tick "Show tool calls and reasoning".

What people use it for

Find an old answerFull-text search across every chat, with matches highlighted.
Move to Obsidian or NotionMarkdown files with titles, dates and front matter.
Switch assistantsKeep a readable copy before you cancel or change plans.
Keep a backupPlain files you can store anywhere, readable in any editor.

Questions

Are my chats uploaded anywhere?

No. The file is opened with your browser's own file reader and processed in this tab. Nothing is sent to a server, and closing the tab clears it.

My export is several hundred megabytes. Will it work?

Usually, yes. Large files take a few seconds to open. If the tab struggles, unzip the export and open conversations.json on its own, which skips the images.

Why do some chats show fewer messages than I remember?

When you edit a message or regenerate an answer, ChatGPT keeps every branch. ChatShelf shows the branch you last saw, the same one the app shows.

Can I open both a ChatGPT and a Claude export?

Yes. Open one, then the other: the second file is added to the shelf, and duplicates are skipped.