Three ways to keep your chats
Character.AI filed for Chapter 11 on October 12, 2026, and says the platform will be wound down if no buyer keeps it going (where the case stands). If your chats matter to you, save them now. As of October 30, 2026, there are three ways:
| Way | What it saves | When you have it | Good to know |
|---|---|---|---|
| Export Data, Character.AI’s own | Your account’s data in one download | Can take 3 to 4 weeks | The emailed link is valid for 7 days, and the contents aren’t documented |
| CAI Tools, an unofficial extension | One chat, your whole chat history, or a character | Today | Runs in desktop browsers and in Firefox on Android |
| Copying by hand | Whatever you select and paste | Today | Slow for long chats, and it saves plain text |
Most people should start the official export today, since it takes weeks, and use CAI Tools in the meantime for the chats they can’t lose.
Export Data, step by step
Character.AI’s help center sends every question about exporting chats to the same tool, Export Data. It packages your account’s data and emails you a link to download it. The steps, checked October 30, 2026:
On the website
- Sign in at character.ai and open your Profile.
- Choose Profile Settings, then Account.
- Choose Manage Account & Data, then Export Data.
In the app
- Open your Profile.
- Tap the Settings icon.
- Choose Legal & Privacy, then Export Data.
Another Character.AI help article calls the app button “Export my data”, so look for either label.
What Character.AI documents
- Where the button is, on the web and in the app.
- That an export can take 3 to 4 weeks.
- That the download link arrives by email and is valid for 7 days.
- That deleting your account cannot be reversed.
What it doesn’t
- What the download contains, including whether your characters are in it.
- The file format. People who have received one report JSON files in a zip archive.
- Any limit on its size or on how many chats it holds.
While you wait
Download the file as soon as the email arrives, then keep a copy somewhere besides your downloads folder, such as a cloud drive. Keep your account until you have it, because deleting an account can’t be undone. If a month passes with no email, check your spam folder before contacting Character.AI support.
Save a single chat today with CAI Tools
Character.AI has no way to export one chat, and its export takes weeks. To save a chat today, you can use CAI Tools, an unofficial browser extension that isn’t made by Character.AI. As of October 30, 2026, its Chrome Web Store listing shows version 3.8.3, updated October 15, 2026, about 40,000 users, and in-app purchases; the Firefox version has about 5,900 users. It runs in desktop browsers and in Firefox on Android.
- Install CAI Tools from the Chrome Web Store or Firefox Add-ons.
- On character.ai, open the chat you want to keep, then open CAI Tools from its button on the page.
- Choose Download Chat. Pick .html for a copy any browser can open, or the SillyTavern (Tavern) format to import the chat into another app. An Oobabooga format is offered too.
- To save everything at once, use Download History. Press Start fetch first and wait for your history to load, which can take a while.
- To keep the character, download it as a Character Card, which needs the character to have an avatar, or as a .json file.
Two limits are worth knowing. CAI Tools can’t copy a character definition its creator kept private. And an extension that reads your chats can see everything in them, so install it only from the store pages linked here. Its feature guide describes each option in more detail.
Copy a chat by hand
Character.AI has no copy or print tool for a whole chat. When nothing else works, copy it yourself:
- Open the chat in a desktop browser and scroll up until the first message has loaded.
- Select from the first message to the last, copy, and paste into a document. Very long chats may take several passes.
- Check that every message still shows who sent it, and add names where the paste dropped them.
- Save the document, and keep a second copy somewhere else.
A pasted transcript keeps the story, but it’s plain text, so LoreWeaver can’t import it as a chat. Save the chats you plan to keep playing with CAI Tools instead.
Import your chats into LoreWeaver
LoreWeaver imports Character.AI chats on every plan, the free one included. The import lives in My Stuff:
- Sign in, or make a free account. Imported chats go into your library.
- Open My Stuff, press Import, then Choose files. You can also drop the files anywhere on the My Stuff page.
- Choose everything for a character at once: its chats and, if you saved it, its Character Card. The table below shows what each file brings.
- Check the preview. LoreWeaver reads the files in your browser first and lists each character with the number of chats and messages it found.
- Press the import button. Each character becomes a character world, and each chat a session with its messages in order. A long history goes up in parts, and if one stops, Send the rest carries on from there.
- Reply where you stopped. When the import finishes, a single character’s world opens; several characters wait for you in My Stuff.
Which files bring what
| File you saved | What LoreWeaver makes of it |
|---|---|
| CAI Tools chat, SillyTavern format (.jsonl) | A session with every message in order, in a world for that character |
| Several SillyTavern chats, or a zip of them | One world per character, with each chat as its own session |
| CAI Tools chat, Oobabooga format (.json) | A session in a world named after the character, read from the file name, so keep the name CAI Tools gave it |
| CAI Tools Character Card, chosen with the chats | The world’s portrait, description, and greetings, with each greeting as an opening |
| Character.AI’s data download (.zip) | A world for each character you talked to, with each chat as a session, when the download holds your chats |
| A chat saved as .html | Not imported, since it’s a copy for reading |
About Character.AI’s own download
Character.AI doesn’t document what its download contains. When it doesn’t say who sent each message, LoreWeaver reads each chat the way Character.AI writes one: the character’s greeting first, then you and the character in turn, keeping the reply you chose wherever there were several. Glance at the first few messages when a chat opens. If your download arrives without your chats, CAI Tools is the way to save them.
Pick up the story where you stopped
Once a chat is in, it plays like any story on LoreWeaver:
- The old chat becomes memory. As you play, LoreWeaver works through the imported messages and saves memories and a recap from them, within your plan’s memory limit, so the storyteller can draw on what happened before the move. You can read and edit both.
- The character gets a world. Add lore cards for the people and places in the character’s life, and each one returns whenever the story names it.
- Greetings become openings. With the character’s card imported, its greetings become openings you can start a fresh session from.
- The free plan keeps it going. The fast free storyteller has no daily limit, and the free plan includes 25 premium replies a day.
Want to look around first? Play any Hub world as a guest for 20 replies, with no account.
Sources
- Character.AI help center: How do I download my data?
- Character.AI help center: How do I export all my data? How can I export my chats?
- Character.AI help center on deleting an account
- Character.AI blog: An Update on Character.ai, October 12, 2026
- CAI Tools in the Chrome Web Store
- CAI Tools on Firefox Add-ons
- CAI Tools feature guide
All checked October 30, 2026.
