Switching AI providers is a staged transfer, not a one-click migration. Export the old account, then separately preserve your prompts, preferences, memory, project instructions, files, integrations and access rules. Rebuild the supported pieces on the new service, test important tasks and permissions, and keep the old account until the replacement works.
What actually moves when you change AI providers?
An account export is an archive of data, not a reconstruction of your old workspace. A downloaded conversation file may preserve messages, but it normally does not recreate the old sidebar, settings, persistent memory, custom assistants, uploaded files, subscriptions or organization access.
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OpenAI states this limitation plainly for a ChatGPT export: This is not a full account migration.
Uploading an export into a new personal conversation can give the new assistant context, but it does not restore separate chats or the original account structure. See OpenAI’s conversation-transfer instructions for the documented behavior.
Think of the move as several separate transfers:
- Conversation history: an archive you can search or summarize, rather than a live copy of every chat.
- Reusable instructions: custom instructions, prompt templates, style rules and examples that must usually be copied into the destination’s equivalent fields.
- Memory and preferences: facts or preferences retained by the provider, which may require manual review or an experimental import.
- Projects and reference material: project instructions, uploaded documents and the files used for retrieval.
- Assistants and workflows: custom bots, skills, tools, actions, automations and their configuration.
- Identity and access: sharing, workspace membership, app authorizations and permissions that generally need to be granted again.
Separating these categories prevents the most common mistake: assuming that one ZIP file contains everything needed to reproduce a working process.
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Inventory your working setup before requesting an export
Spend time on the inventory while the original account still works. List the things you use often enough that losing them would interrupt work, not just the conversations you remember.
Record reusable instructions and prompts
- Global response preferences and custom instructions.
- Frequently reused prompts, copied verbatim where small wording changes affect the output.
- Project-specific directions, terminology, formatting rules and audience definitions.
- Conversation starters, templates and examples of an acceptable result.
- Prompts that call for a strict format, such as JSON, a table, a checklist or valid HTML.
For each important prompt, add a short label describing its purpose and save one successful output. Also keep a deliberately difficult example: a long input, an ambiguous request or a case with several constraints. That example will be more useful than a generic “hello” test after the move.
List files, tools and access dependencies
- Uploaded reference files and the project or assistant that uses each one.
- Connected applications, actions, APIs, webhooks and the data each connection can read or change.
- Required model capabilities, such as file handling, browsing, code execution or structured output.
- People who need to use the workflow and the access level each person requires.
- Any retention, regional or organizational policy that limits where content may be stored.
Do not place secrets, customer records or unnecessary personal information in a transfer package. Redact or replace sensitive values in examples, and keep credentials out of prompts and exported notes. Reauthorize integrations directly in the destination rather than copying tokens.
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ChatGPT export procedure
For eligible personal accounts, OpenAI currently places the export control at Settings → Data controls → Export. The documented export is available for Free, Go, Plus and Pro accounts, as well as eligible Edu workspaces. OpenAI says the setting is not available for Business, Enterprise or ChatGPT for Healthcare workspaces; those organizations have their own administrative rules.
- Sign in to the account that owns the conversations.
- Open Settings, choose Data controls, and select Export.
- Submit the request and wait for the email or download notification. OpenAI says delivery can take up to seven days.
- Download the ZIP while signed in to the requesting account. The download link expires 24 hours after delivery.
- Open the archive and verify that the conversations and other account data you need are present before changing accounts.
The timing and eligibility above are the limits stated in OpenAI’s current export instructions, accessed October 13, 2026. They can change, so check the live help page when you begin.
Claude export procedure
Anthropic’s individual Free, Pro and Max users can request a data export from the web app or Claude Desktop. The request cannot be started from the iOS or Android apps.
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- Open Claude on the web or in Claude Desktop.
- Go to Settings → Privacy and start the export request.
- Wait for the email, then open the link while signed in to the requesting account.
- Download the archive and check that the conversations and account data you need are included.
Anthropic says the emailed download link expires after 24 hours. Team and Enterprise exports follow organization-owner rules rather than the individual procedure. The current eligibility and mobile limitation are described in Claude’s export instructions.
Validate the download before you rely on it
Keep the original ZIP unchanged as an archival copy, then make a working copy for inspection. Search for several known conversation titles or distinctive phrases, open files in a text editor or browser, and confirm that dates, attachments or metadata you need are actually present. If a critical chat is missing, request help from the provider while the old account remains available; do not assume a later import will recover it.
An optional external SSD can hold the archive and your prompt library when you need an offline backup, but no special hardware is required and a drive does not make the data importable.
Build a portable prompt and context library
Conversation history is a poor substitute for reusable instructions. Create a small, provider-neutral folder or document set that you can edit and audit independently of either account.
Use a simple structure
- 00-index: a list of workflows, owners, dependencies and the date each item was last checked.
- 01-global-preferences: tone, spelling, audience, formatting and safety preferences.
- 02-prompts: one file per repeatable task, including purpose, inputs, exact prompt, variables and an example output.
- 03-projects: project instructions, decisions, unresolved questions, important file names and next steps.
- 04-reference-files: clean copies of documents that the workflow is allowed to use.
- 05-integrations: the required app, permission scope, setup owner and a description of the action; never store access tokens here.
- 06-tests: normal prompts, edge cases and the expected properties of a correct result.
For a long conversation, write a handoff note rather than pasting the entire transcript into every new chat. Include the current goal, decisions already made, unresolved questions, definitions, source files and the next action. Retain the original wording separately for prompts where phrasing is important.
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Mark information as either a durable preference, a project fact or a one-time instruction. This prevents a destination’s memory feature from retaining a temporary deadline or an obsolete assumption. Remove private data that the new provider does not need, and confirm that your organization permits the destination to receive the remaining material.
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Rebuild destination features instead of assuming equivalents
Importing memory into Claude
Claude provides a memory import flow for pasted memories from another provider. In Claude, open Settings → Memory, choose the import option, paste the memory text you prepared, and inspect the entries it creates. Anthropic describes this feature as experimental and warns that it may not incorporate every imported memory. Correct omissions and delete entries that are outdated or too sensitive. The documented process is in Anthropic’s memory import and export guide.
Do not treat a successful import notice as proof that every preference transferred. Run a prompt that depends on each important memory and verify the response.
Moving a custom GPT into the documented plugin path
OpenAI’s migration documentation describes a specific custom-GPT-to-plugin path, not a universal provider-to-provider import. In that process, the latest published version of the custom GPT is used; drafts and unpublished edits do not transfer directly.
| Original custom-GPT component | Documented destination treatment | What you must check |
|---|---|---|
| Instructions | Become a skill | Run the original prompts and check that ordering, tone and constraints still apply. |
| Knowledge files | Copied as reference files | Confirm every file is present and that retrieval returns the right passage. |
| Connected apps | Included in the plugin | Reauthorize access and verify the permitted data scope. |
| Custom actions | Do not transfer automatically | Rebuild each action and test authentication, inputs and error handling. |
| Selected model | Does not carry over | Choose an available model and retest quality, speed and format compliance. |
| Sharing settings | Do not carry over automatically | Set the intended visibility and ask a normal user to test access. |
The resulting plugin starts private, so sharing and user access require a separate review. OpenAI recommends checking instructions, reference materials, tools and outputs because the migrated workflow may behave differently. See the migration FAQ and migration guide.
When there is no matching feature
If the destination has no persistent memory, project container or custom-assistant feature, represent the missing behavior explicitly: keep a short context brief, attach approved reference files at the start of a session, and use a versioned prompt template. That is less convenient than native storage, but it is inspectable and portable.
Recreate integrations, permissions and sharing
Connections are both functionality and an access boundary. For each integration, create a new authorization in the destination, select the minimum required scope, and record who owns the connection. A copied prompt cannot grant permission to an application, and an imported file cannot reproduce a webhook or scheduled job.
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- List every tool the old workflow called and the data it read or changed.
- Confirm that the destination supports the same operation; an app with a similar name may expose different actions.
- Authorize the connection with a test account or limited scope where possible.
- Run a harmless read test before allowing writes, messages, deletions or purchases.
- Check organization sharing, workspace membership and seat limits with a second user who has ordinary access.
Keep an audit note with the authorization date, owner, scope and revocation method. This makes it possible to remove the old provider’s access after the migration without guessing which connection is still in use.
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Use a side-by-side test set rather than relying on a single impressive answer. Keep the old account available while you compare results, subject to any retirement deadline or organization policy.
| Test category | Example check | Pass condition |
|---|---|---|
| Basic prompt | Run a familiar, frequently used request. | The response follows the intended role, tone and structure. |
| Strict format | Request valid JSON, HTML, a table or a fixed checklist. | Output is syntactically usable without manual repair. |
| Reference retrieval | Ask for a fact that exists only in an imported document. | The correct document and passage are used, with no invented source. |
| Memory or preferences | Use a prompt that depends on a deliberately saved preference. | The preference is applied, and temporary context is not treated as permanent. |
| Tool permission | Perform a harmless read through each required integration. | The intended account and scope are used; unauthorized data is not exposed. |
| Hard case | Repeat an ambiguous, long or multi-constraint task. | The result remains acceptable, or the workflow has a documented fallback. |
| Shared access | Have another user open and run the workflow. | Visibility, permissions and file access match the requirement. |
Record differences, not just pass or fail. A new model may be more literal, omit a tool call, retrieve a different section of a file or format a response differently. Update the prompt or process only after you understand which change caused the difference. OpenAI’s migration guidance specifically recommends testing instructions, reference materials, tools and outputs, including a harder case.
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| Item | Typical result | Action |
|---|---|---|
| Conversation archive | Downloadable data; not separate live chats in the new account. | Inspect it, keep an archive and create handoff notes for active projects. |
| Reusable prompts | Usually not restored as native templates. | Copy them into a versioned prompt library and destination fields. |
| Custom instructions | May have a destination equivalent, but wording and limits differ. | Re-enter them and test each important preference. |
| Persistent memory | Provider-specific; Claude’s import is experimental. | Prepare a reviewed memory list and verify every resulting entry. |
| Project instructions | Not guaranteed to appear in an account export. | Save project briefs and recreate the project container. |
| Uploaded files | May be included in account data or may need separate retrieval; availability varies. | Keep clean source copies and re-upload only approved files. |
| Custom assistants | Often require a provider-specific migration or manual rebuild. | Map instructions, files, tools, model and sharing separately. |
| Actions and integrations | Credentials and custom actions generally do not transfer automatically. | Rebuild, reauthorize and test with least privilege. |
| Model choice | Selected model may not exist or may not carry over. | Choose a destination model and rerun quality and edge-case tests. |
| Sharing and workspace access | Usually tied to the original organization or account. | Reinvite users, set visibility and verify with a second account. |
| Subscription and billing | Not restored by uploading conversations. | Manage the destination plan separately and cancel only after validation. |
Choose a destination by capability, not by brand equivalence
The reviewed provider documentation does not establish a universal “best provider.” The right destination is the one that supports the workflows and access conditions you actually need. Compare these questions before committing:
- Import and export: Can you download your data, and can the destination import an archive, selected context or only pasted memory?
- Instruction handling: Where do global preferences, reusable prompts and project directions live? Can you inspect and edit them?
- Files and retrieval: Can reference documents be moved, and does the new workflow retrieve the correct material?
- Tools and integrations: Are the required applications and actions available, and what must be authorized again?
- Access and sharing: Who owns the workflow, who may install or use it, and do permissions survive the move?
- Observed behavior: Do familiar prompts and difficult cases still produce acceptable, usable results?
Score each capability against your inventory. A provider with a convenient export but no equivalent tool may require more manual work than one with a smaller archive but the integrations your team depends on.
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The export email never arrives
Check that you requested the export from the correct account, search spam and confirm that the provider’s stated delivery window has not passed. For ChatGPT, the current stated maximum is seven days; for both documented download flows, the link is time-limited. If the link expires, submit a new request rather than forwarding an old message.
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The archive opens but the important chat is missing
Search by more than the visible title, check the archive’s other data files and compare several known dates. Preserve the original account and contact the provider before deleting anything. Do not claim that an absent conversation will be recreated by uploading the rest of the ZIP.
The new assistant ignores instructions
Reduce the prompt to a small test, place the highest-priority rules together, remove contradictory legacy text and confirm that the destination actually loaded the project or skill. Then rerun the strict-format and hard-case tests. Different providers may interpret the same wording differently.
Imported memory is incomplete or wrong
Review every generated memory entry, delete stale facts and add missing durable preferences manually. Claude’s documented import is experimental, so partial incorporation is an expected limitation rather than proof that the source text was formatted incorrectly.
A tool works for you but not for another user
Check whether the connection belongs to your personal account, whether the workflow is private and whether the second user has both the workflow permission and the underlying app permission. Reauthorize with the intended owner and repeat the harmless read test.
The replacement produces different answers
Compare the model, system instructions, available files, tool results and temperature or equivalent controls where exposed. Keep the old output as a reference, then decide whether the difference is acceptable, requires a prompt change or means the workflow should remain on the old provider.
Close the old account only after a rollback check
When the new workflow passes your tests, make one final offline or otherwise independent copy of the export, prompt library and project handoff notes. Confirm that you can access the destination without the old provider’s login, that shared users can work normally and that billing or retention obligations are understood.
Then revoke old integrations, remove unnecessary files and cancel the old subscription or account according to its provider and organization policy. Keep the archive only where your privacy, legal-retention and security rules allow. If a critical workflow fails later, the prompt library, reference files and test cases should let you repair or roll back without needing the old sidebar to reappear.
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