Open and read your Character.AI export (ZIP or JSON) in your browser

Open your export

Nothing leaves your browser

This page has no upload button because it has nothing to upload to. It reads the file on your device, and it is built to make no network requests at all after it loads.

You can check that yourself: open your browser's developer tools, choose the Network tab, drop your file in, and watch the list stay empty. The page also tells your browser to block every connection (a Content-Security-Policy with connect-src 'none').

The only time anything leaves this page is when you press Continue on Castmanor. Your browser then hands the one character you picked to a new Castmanor tab, and Castmanor asks you to confirm before it does anything with it.

Where do I get the file?

In the Character.AI app or on the website: Profile, then Settings, then Account, then Manage Account and Data, then Export Data. Character.AI emails you a link. It usually takes three to four weeks, and the link stops working after 7 days, so download the file the day it arrives.

You get a ZIP file. Drop the whole ZIP here, or the message.json inside it together with character.json, which holds the characters' names.

A step-by-step guide to saving and deleting your Character.AI data

Do not want to wait three to four weeks?

You can save your chats today, from the Character.AI page you already have open. It is a small free script that reads your own chats while you are logged in and saves them as a file. It runs on your device, makes requests only to character.ai (the same ones the page makes itself), and sends nothing anywhere else. It is MIT-licensed, so you can read every line.

1. Install a userscript manager such as Tampermonkey or Violentmonkey in your desktop browser.
2. Open the script with the link below and confirm the install.
3. Open character.ai and log in. A button called Save my chats appears in a corner of the page.
4. Press it. The script saves a ZIP with one file per chat. Drop that ZIP into the box at the top of this page.

Install the userscript

No userscript manager? Drag this link to your bookmarks bar, open character.ai, log in and click the bookmark: Save my Character.AI chats

Questions

What is message.json?

It is the main file in the export Character.AI sends you. It holds the messages of all your chats one after another, without saying who wrote them. This page puts the messages back into chats, grouped by character.

How do I open a Character.AI export ZIP?

Drop the ZIP on this page without unzipping it. The page opens it on your device, finds message.json inside and shows your chats grouped by character. If the ZIP asks for a password, try the email address of your Character.AI account in lowercase: some exports are protected that way.

What is inside a Character.AI export? The export format, explained

Character.AI does not publish the format, so this comes from files people have shared. The ZIP has a folder named after your username with a data folder inside it. There, user.json holds your account details (this page ignores it), character.json holds your characters and message.json holds your messages. A message row has a chat id, a candidate id, the text and the time it was written. It has no field for who wrote it, and edited or regenerated replies can leave extra or empty rows, which is why this page rebuilds the turns itself and lets you swap who is who. We have not seen memories in the files. If your export looks different, this page still tries to read it.

How do I turn my Character.AI JSON into text?

Drop the ZIP or message.json on this page, pick a character, and press Download text (.txt). You get one plain text file with a block for each message, with the name of the speaker and the date, or a web page (.html) that opens in any browser. Download everything gives you a ZIP with a text file and a web page for every character.

How long does the export take?

Character.AI says it can take three to four weeks. Some people get theirs sooner. The emailed link stops working after 7 days.

Is my file uploaded?

No. The page reads it on your device. Under Nothing leaves your browser you can see how to check that yourself.

Why are some messages on the wrong side?

The export does not say who wrote each message. The page assumes each chat starts with the character's greeting and that the two of you take turns. If a chat looks reversed, press Swap who is who.

Can I use this for other apps?

Yes, for several. It also opens CAI Tools exports, SillyTavern chats and files from Kindroid, Janitor AI and Grok. Drop the file the same way.

Can I paste a chat instead of a file?

Yes. Under the drop box, choose Or paste a chat, paste the text and press Read it. It opens when each message starts with who said it and a colon, and for copies of a Character.AI page or a Grok share page. A copy with no names in it, such as many copies from PolyBuzz or Chai, is refused at first, because this page does not guess unless you ask it to. Then you can choose Read it by taking turns: the page cuts the text into messages at the blank lines and takes them to alternate between the character and you, starting with whoever you name, and shows a Swap button in case it comes out reversed. That is still a guess, and it can go wrong if a message had blank lines in it. The Castmanor app can read such copies with a model, but that sends the text to Castmanor.

What does Continue on Castmanor do?

It opens Castmanor in a new tab and hands it the chats of that one character, straight from this page to the new tab. Castmanor asks you to confirm, then builds a character who remembers your chats. Characters in Castmanor are AI, not people.

About this page

This page is run by Castmanor, an app where AI characters chat with you. Characters in Castmanor are AI, not people. The viewer is a free tool: it is MIT-licensed, the script you are running is the readable file /static/viewer.js, and it is not affiliated with Character Technologies, Inc.

Free to use and copy under the MIT licence.