openai-chat-exporter

CLI tool that takes a ChatGPT data export (.zip or extracted directory) and outputs a readable folder structure of markdown files organized by projects and single chats.

Install

npx openai-chat-exporter <input> <output>

Or install globally:

npm install -g openai-chat-exporter

Usage

openai-chat-exporter ./my-export.zip ./organized
openai-chat-exporter ./extracted-folder ./organized

Options

--no-single-chats     Skip standalone conversations
--no-projects         Skip project conversations
--no-media            Skip copying media files
-h, --help            Show help
-V, --version         Show version

Output structure

output/
  projects/
    project-slug/
      _project-info.md        ← project instructions & pinned files
      Conversation Title.md
      Another Chat.md
      audio/                  ← media files (if present)
      image/
  single-chats/
    Conversation Title.md
    Another Chat.md
    Chat With Media/
      audio/
      image/

Projects

Conversations belonging to ChatGPT Projects are grouped by project. Each project folder includes:

• A _project-info.md with the project's custom instructions and a list of pinned files (pinned files themselves cannot be recovered from the export)
• One .md file per conversation
• Media subdirectories if the conversations contain audio, images, or video

Single chats

Standalone conversations each get their own .md file. If a conversation has associated media, a directory with the same name is created alongside it.

What gets rendered

| Content type | Rendered as | |---|---| | Text messages | Raw markdown (passed through) | | Multimodal messages | Text + image references + audio transcriptions | | DALL-E images | Image reference + prompt in collapsible details | | Audio messages | Audio metadata reference | | Code (interpreter) | Fenced code block with language | | Code output | Fenced output block | | Web browsing | Blockquote with summary | | Extended thinking | Collapsible details block | | Reasoning recap | Italicized summary | | System errors | Blockquote with error | | Computer use | Screenshot reference |

Requirements

Node.js 20 or later.

License

MIT