Export your WhatsApp Web chats to readable files on your computer

WA Chat Export & Backup is a browser extension for Chrome, Edge, and Firefox. Open a chat in WhatsApp Web, click the extension, and save the chat as TXT, JSON, CSV, and an offline HTML page.

  • TXT, JSON, CSV, and HTML
  • Chrome, Edge, and Firefox
  • 3 exports a day
  • Search works offline

How it works

  1. Open web.whatsapp.com in your browser and open the chat you want to keep.

  2. Click the extension and choose Export this chat. The export page opens in its own window.

  3. Press Start. The extension scrolls the open chat and reads the messages the page shows. You can press Stop at any time.

  4. The files are saved on your computer, and the export is added to your library as its own entry.

Every export starts with your click. The extension never sends messages, never types into WhatsApp Web, and never exports your contact list.

What an export holds

  • The messages WhatsApp Web loads for the open chat, from the oldest one it loads to the newest. WhatsApp Web may not load a chat's oldest messages, and the export says where it stopped.

  • A completeness report in every file: the dates covered, and counts of messages and media that are not available, such as view-once and disappearing messages.

  • An offline HTML page that opens in any browser and loads nothing from the internet.

  • TXT, JSON, CSV and an offline HTML page. CSV has one row per message, for Excel or any other spreadsheet.

Search your exports

The library keeps each export as its own entry in the browser on this computer, with a short label that tells two exports of the same chat apart. Search across them by word, sender, and date. A result whose photo or file was not saved says why, such as needing All tools. Search works offline, and opening a result shows the message in its chat.

Plans

Free

3 exports a day

  • 3 exports a day, any chat, to TXT, JSON, CSV, and HTML. An export counts when it saves its first file; one that saves no file doesn't count.
  • No media files. The missing-media report lists each item as needing All tools.
  • Search every export in the library.

Buy from the extension's upgrade page. Payment runs on Stripe's checkout page, and the license key arrives by email. Activating it sends only the key to the license server.

Known limits

  • Videos, voice notes, and documents are reported as missing when WhatsApp Web does not hold the full file in the page.
  • In Firefox, saving very large media files uses a lot of memory.
  • In Firefox, unlocking a locked archive with very large files uses a lot of memory. Chrome and Edge unlock them more efficiently.
  • The extension tells a group from a direct chat by a header label it recognizes only in some WhatsApp Web display languages. In other display languages, exporting a direct chat, or a group where only you wrote, stops with a message and saves nothing. The messages themselves can be in any language.
  • Loading older messages that are only on your phone works only in some WhatsApp Web display languages. In the others, the export ends at what the browser holds and says so.
  • The free daily limit is counted on this device, in the browser's extension storage, not on a server.
  • Restricted chats can't be exported.
  • If the WhatsApp Web tab closes or reloads during an export, nothing is saved. Pressing Stop saves a partial export, and a queue pauses instead of failing.
  • A lost passphrase can't be recovered, and a locked archive can't be opened without it.
  • Unlocking may leave unencrypted temporary copies in browser-managed storage, which the extension can't erase.
  • In Firefox, PDF page numbers may be replaced by Firefox's own footer when its direct PDF save isn't available.
  • If WhatsApp Web changes in a way that breaks export, the extension pauses export until an update ships. See the help page.

Read the help page for more, and the privacy policy for what the extension handles and sends.