How to Save a ChatGPT Conversation

ChatGPT saves your prompts and its replies automatically, but you can rename threads in the left pane

What to Know

  • ChatGPT saves your conversations automatically. Click New chat, enter a prompt, and it'll appear in list on left.
  • Open saved conversation: Click its name. Or click the pencil to rename conversation, or use trash to delete.
  • Server congestion and other issues can prevent ChatGPT from saving your conversations.

This article explains how to save a ChatGPT conversation, including how to rename, delete, and copy conversation threads.

How to Save a ChatGPT Thread

ChatGPT works using conversation threads, which encompass the original prompt used to start the conversation, the initial response from the artificial intelligence (AI), any subsequent prompts sent to fine-tune the response, and the AI’s subsequent responses as well. These threads allow you to compartmentalize different tasks that you have used ChatGPT for, access them later, and even pick up an old conversation to fine tune it further.

Here’s how to save a conversation in ChatGPT:

  1. Once you are logged into ChatGPT, click + New chat.

    New chat highlighted in ChatGPT in order to start a new chat.
  2. Type a prompt into the input field, and click the send button (looks like a paper airplane).

    The new prompt field and send icon highlighted on ChatGPT.
  3. Your new chat thread will initially appear in the left column as New chat.

    New chat highlighted in the ChatGPT chat list.
  4. As ChatGPT responds to your prompt, it will automatically rename the chat thread to something related to your prompt.

    Hurricane bug out highlighted in the ChatGPT chat list.
  5. To change the name, move your mouse over the chat thread and click the pencil icon.

    The pencil icon highlighted in the ChatGPT chat list.
  6. Type a new name for the chat thread that will help you find it in the future.

    A renamed chat highlighted in the ChatGPT chat list.
  7. To open an old chat thread that you saved in the past, click its name in the list.

    The name of an old chat highlighted in the ChatGPT chat list.
  8. The old ChatGPT thread will open, allowing you to read it or submit new prompts to continue the conversation.

    An old saved chat displayed in ChatGPT.

How to Share a ChatGPT Thread or Save It Locally

ChatGPT doesn’t have any built-in functionality to save conversations locally, back up conversations, or share conversations. You can copy ChatGPT responses and your prompts to save or share using the app of your choice.

Copying and pasting doesn’t preserve the formatting of the conversation, but it does provide a local copy that you can use for reference in case your old conversations are ever lost due to a problem with ChatGPT or the OpenAI servers.

Here’s how to save a ChatGPT thread locally:

  1. On ChatGPT's site, click the title of a saved chat in the list of old chats on the left side of the site.

    The title of a saved chat highlighted in the list of chats in ChatGPT.
  2. Highlight the text you want to copy by clicking and dragging to select it.

    Highlighting text in ChatGPT.
  3. Right click the highlighted text, and click Copy.

    Copy highlighted in the right click context menu in ChatGPT.
  4. You can now paste the ChatGPT conversation into a text document using the app of your choice, paste it into an email, share it via social media, or do whatever else you want with it.

    A ChatGPT conversation pasted into a text document.

How to Delete ChatGPT Conversations

ChatGPT conversations are saved by default, but you can remove ones you no longer want. You can also delete all your conversations at once. Deletion removes the conversation or conversations from your list of topics, which can be useful if you’ve created a lot of them and are having trouble keeping track.

It doesn’t necessarily remove the content from OpenAI’s servers, but it can declutter your interface.

Deleting conversations is permanent, so make sure you really want to get rid of one before you remove it.

Here’s how to delete a ChatGPT conversation:

  1. On ChatGPT's site, click the title of a saved chat you want to delete.

    A chat you wish to delete highlighted on ChatGPT's site.
  2. Click the trash icon.

    The trash icon highlighted in the chat list in ChatGPT.
  3. Click the check icon to confirm.

    The check icon highlighted in the chat list in ChatGPT.

    If you clicked the wrong conversation, select the x icon to cancel.

  4. To remove everything at once instead, click Clear conversations.

    Clear conversations highlighted in ChatGPT.
  5. Select Confirm clear conversations to finalize the deletion.

    Confirm clear conversations checkmark highlighted in ChatGPT.
FAQ
  • Who owns ChatGPT?

    ChatGPT is a product of OpenAI, which also created the DALL-E AI image generator. The company has partnered with Microsoft to bring ChatGPT to the Bing search engine, and Microsoft owns a large stake, but OpenAI is technically an independent company.

  • What does "ChatGPT" stand for?

    The "GPT" part stands for "generative pre-trained transformer," which describes a specific kind of language model. These models make responses based on studying a huge amount of data that programmers use to "train" it.

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