How I export ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini chats locally

i keep good stuff in ai chats (code, prompts, notes) and kept losing it. here's what actually works for getting chats out, without sending them to some third party service.

ChatGPT: Settings > Data controls > Export data. it emails you a download link to a zip with chat.html and conversations.json. the html file opens in any browser and is searchable with ctrl+f. the json is every chat in one big file, fine for scripts, not fun to read. the link expires, so download it soon.

Claude: Settings > Privacy > Export data. same idea, you get an emailed link to a zip with your conversations as json.

Gemini: no one-click full export in the app that i know of. use Google Takeout (takeout.google.com), pick the Gemini / "My Activity" data. for single answers there is a share/export to Docs option under the response menu.

how do you save your chats now? copy paste, screenshots, something else? curious what works for people.

I'm building a small local-only extension for this (I built it): https://vo-waitlist.pages.dev/extension/?src=devto2