Free tools · ChatGPT → Markdown
Convert a ChatGPT export to Markdown, in your browser.
One file per conversation, wikilinked topic pages for Obsidian, and nothing leaves the tab. Drop the ZIP OpenAI emailed you.
Drop your export here
ChatGPT export ZIP · or a bare conversations.json
Tap to choose a file. Nothing is uploaded.
Tap to choose a file. Nothing is uploaded.
Three steps
1. Export from ChatGPT
Settings → Data controls → Export data. The ZIP arrives by email, usually within minutes.
2. Drop it above
The ZIP or the conversations.json inside it. Large exports take a few seconds; everything runs in this tab.
3. Open the folder in Obsidian
Unzip anywhere. Obsidian: Open folder as vault. The topic pages light up the graph view.
Now give those files a brain that reads them.
One line on a Mac installs a small local model that answers from your notes at $0, holds the hard questions for tonight, and shows you what every answer cost. Put the unzipped folder in ~/chanio/notes and ask it something.
Questions people ask
Where is the ChatGPT export?
In ChatGPT: Settings → Data controls → Export data. OpenAI emails a ZIP that contains conversations.json (all your conversations), plus a few other JSON files. Drop the whole ZIP here, or just conversations.json.
What do I get?
A ZIP of Markdown files: one file per conversation with a YAML frontmatter block (title, date, source), your messages and the assistant's, plus topic hub pages that link to the conversations that mention them. Unzip it into any folder; open that folder in Obsidian and it is a vault.
Is anything uploaded?
No. The ZIP is read with web-standard APIs in this tab, the Markdown is generated in this tab, and the download is built from memory. Close the tab and nothing persists. You can turn off wi-fi after the page loads and it still works.
What about images, files and shared links?
The export includes only text for most conversations. Images you generated are not in conversations.json, and tool outputs vary. The converter keeps what is there and skips what is not; it does not invent anything.
Why Markdown?
Because a decade of thinking should not depend on one company's account. Plain files open in any editor, survive every model change, and are what chanio reads from on your own machine.