Google simplified the transition from ChatGPT to Gemini: now you can transfer memory and chats

Google has effectively started a war for AI-context portability: Gemini can now take from ChatGPT and other services not just individual prompts, but memory, user preferences, and full chat history. For people who have spent months accumulating work habits, personal details, and long project threads in one bot, this removes one of the main barriers when switching assistants. The new service no longer starts with a blank slate and doesn't force users to re-explain who they are, what they're working on, and in what style they want answers.

Google announced the launch on March 26, 2026. The tool is rolling out for consumer Gemini accounts and appears right in the settings. Essentially, the company divided the transfer into two scenarios.

The first concerns memory: stable facts about the user, their interests, relationships, recurring tasks, preferred tone, and rules that they previously set for another assistant. The second scenario is importing a complete chat archive so you can search old threads and continue them within Gemini. In parallel, Google is renaming the past chats section to memory, showing that chat history is now considered part of the overall personal context.

The mechanics of memory import are arranged without direct synchronization between platforms. Gemini offers a ready-made prompt that needs to be inserted into the current AI service, for example into ChatGPT. This prompt asks to collect a structured summary about the user: basic data, interests, important relationships, recent projects and plans, as well as explicit instructions that the person gave to the bot.

After that, the user copies the received response and pastes it back into Gemini. Next, the system analyzes the text and saves relevant details to its own memory. This approach looks slightly less seamless than automatic transfer via API, but gives the user a clear point of control: they can see exactly what information will be transferred to the new service.

With full chat history, the scheme is different. For ChatGPT, you need to open your profile, go to Settings, then to Data Controls and request Export Data. OpenAI sends an email with a link to a ZIP archive containing conversation history and associated account data.

This file is then uploaded to Gemini through the Chat History Import section. According to Google, the service accepts ZIP files up to 5 GB in size. Imported conversations appear in the regular chat list, can be searched, opened, and used as a continuation of old work.

But not everything is transferred: in Gemini, conversation texts are transferred, while images, attachments, and project files from another assistant are not imported. The function has important limitations. It is designed for free and paid personal accounts and is not supported for work, educational, corporate, and children's profiles.

Additionally, the rollout does not currently extend to the United Kingdom, Switzerland, and countries of the European Economic Area. For the import to work, users must be at least 18 years old, and personalization in Gemini must be enabled. After the transfer, you can delete individual dialogs or an entire imported batch.

But the very meaning of the function raises an obvious question about privacy: if old chats contain sensitive data about work, family, health, or finances, it's hardly worth transferring the entire archive indiscriminately. Reducing friction when switching between bots simultaneously means that users will more frequently move large chunks of their digital biography between platforms. The main conclusion is simple: competition between AI assistants is shifting from raw model power to a struggle for accumulated user context.

Previously, choosing a new bot almost always meant losing memory, habits, and a long history of interaction, which strengthened attachment to one platform. Now Google is trying to weaken that attachment and turn Gemini into a more convenient entry point for those who already lived inside ChatGPT or another service. For the market, this is a signal that data portability is becoming a separate product feature, and for users, that you can experiment with different models without completely zeroing out experience.

But the easier such transfer becomes, the more important filters, deletion settings, and a conscious approach to what personal context AI should remember at all become.