Guide · Updated August 2026
Switch from ChatGPT to Le Chat without starting over
Le Chat has no import feature for ChatGPT data — nothing pulls your history in for you. The good news: Mistral gives your context more places to live than most assistants. The working path has three steps: export your data from ChatGPT (Settings → Data controls → Export data; the download link arrives by email and expires after 24 hours), distill that history into one compact document, and spread it across Le Chat's three homes — custom instructions for the durable essentials, Memories for the key facts about you and your work, and a Project per ongoing project. What transfers is the substance of your work: projects, preferences, decisions, people, and how you like answers written. What doesn't is ChatGPT-specific plumbing — custom GPTs and Project files need re-creating on the Mistral side, and the conversations themselves stay behind. This guide walks each step, maps where every ChatGPT concept lives in Le Chat, and ends with a practical suggestion: run both assistants for two weeks before you commit.
Step 1 — Export your ChatGPT data
- In ChatGPT, open Settings → Data controls.
- Click Export data and confirm.
- OpenAI emails you a download link — it expires after 24 hours, so download the ZIP promptly.
Every export option, timing, and troubleshooting: full ChatGPT export walkthrough →
Step 2 — What transfers, what doesn't
- Transfers as context: who you are, your projects and their state, preferences, standing instructions, people and companies, decisions, writing style.
- Needs manual rebuild: Projects and custom GPTs — re-create the important ones as Le Chat Projects (or agents), paste their instructions, re-upload their files.
- Doesn't transfer: the conversations themselves — Le Chat can't ingest a chat archive.
Step 3 — Get your context into Le Chat
A. Custom instructions Free · durable
In Le Chat's settings, add custom instructions with the essentials: who you are, what you work on, how you want answers written. Mistral's own guidance is to keep them to a few focused sentences — instructions, not a project brief.
B. Memories & Projects Free · organized
Ask Le Chat to remember the key facts ("Remember that I…") and they land in Memories, applied across conversations. For each ongoing project, create a Project and paste its context there — Projects are Le Chat's context-rich folders, built exactly for this.
C. Build the document from your full history Complete
Upload your ChatGPT export ZIP as-is. Every conversation is analyzed and distilled into one Le Chat-ready context document — the input that makes options A and B actually good.
Where each ChatGPT thing lives in Le Chat
| In ChatGPT | Le Chat equivalent |
|---|---|
| Custom Instructions | Le Chat custom instructions, in settings |
| Memory (stored facts) | Memories — ask Le Chat to remember them (“Remember that I…”) |
| A Project with instructions + files | A Le Chat Project — paste the context, add the files |
| Custom GPTs | A Mistral agent or a Project, depending on how task-specific it was |
| Conversations | Not importable — distill them into a context document instead |
Run both for two weeks before you commit
Keep your ChatGPT account alive during the transition. Before you cancel anything: your export ZIP is downloaded and stored, the custom GPTs and Projects you care about are re-created as Le Chat Projects, and a week of real work has gone through Le Chat without you reaching back for ChatGPT — the only test that matters.
Frequently asked questions
Does Le Chat have an import feature for ChatGPT data?+
No. Le Chat can't ingest a ChatGPT export. Your context comes in through custom instructions, Memories, Projects, or pasted into a conversation.
What's the difference between Le Chat's Memories and custom instructions?+
Memories are facts Le Chat picks up from conversations (or that you explicitly ask it to remember); custom instructions are preferences you set yourself. Both apply together, and instructions win if they conflict. The practical split: durable preferences into instructions, facts about you and your work into Memories.
Do my custom GPTs and Projects transfer to Le Chat?+
Not automatically, but Le Chat Projects are a close equivalent: create a Project per important project, paste its context in, and add its files. The accumulated understanding from the conversations themselves is what the context document covers.
How much should go into custom instructions?+
Mistral recommends a few well-written sentences, not paragraphs. Put only the durable essentials there, seed Memories with the key facts, give each Project its own context, and paste the full document into a conversation when a session needs the complete picture.
Can I move my Le Chat history out later?+
This tool takes ChatGPT and Claude exports as input today, so Le Chat is a destination, not yet a source. The document you paste in is plain Markdown though — keep a copy and you can hand it to any assistant.
Coming from Claude instead? · ChatGPT → DeepSeek · ChatGPT → Claude