Move checked ChatGPT context to Gemini, then verify what arrived

Moving from ChatGPT to Gemini involves more than importing conversations. Your saved preferences, custom instructions, owned GPTs, Project files and chat history serve different purposes. This guide uses the current Gemini import instructions, ChatGPT export instructions and feature manuals checked on October 26, 2026. It gives you a private record to compare with what Gemini actually uses. BIG CHANGE did not access an account or perform a migration.

The big change

• Capability: Eligible personal accounts can import memory and a ChatGPT chat ZIP into Gemini; Skills and optional Notebooks can hold selected instructions and project context. GPT actions and Project membership need separate rebuilding.
• Reader impact: You can preserve an owned source copy, move only authorized material and test each selected item. An import confirmation or fluent answer alone does not establish that the original context survived.
• Decision: Check account eligibility and Google's Activity, retention and Notebook storage terms before any upload or paste. Then choose what to import, rebuild, exclude or keep in ChatGPT, and record the result against your own inventory.

Before you transfer anything

This procedure is for a person with access and rights to the source material. Get the relevant owner's permission before moving work, school, team, customer or licensed content into a personal account. An export can contain other people's information. Keep the original ZIP in restricted local storage and leave passwords, API keys and unnecessary private details out of Gemini instructions and reference files.

Native import requires a personal Google Account and age 18+. It excludes the EEA, Switzerland and UK; work, school and supervised accounts; and Gemini in Messages, Chrome and Android XR. Check for Settings & help → Import memory to Gemini in Gemini web. If absent, mark native import blocked.

Make the data choice before importing or manually entering context. Google's Gemini Apps Privacy Hub says imported chats and memory are saved in Gemini Apps Activity and used to improve services, including generative model training. Keep Activity also stores prompts and uploads. Activity auto-deletes after 18 months by default; the listed choices are 3 months, 36 months or no automatic deletion. Turning Keep Activity off means future chats do not appear in Activity or train models unless you submit feedback, but Google retains those chats with your account for 72 hours. Deleting Activity does not delete chats disconnected from the account for human review, which may be retained for up to three years, or records stored by other services. Check the controls shown for your account and region.

Skills require Keep Activity. Notebook sources are saved separately in Gemini Notebook; the Privacy Hub says they are not used directly to train generative models, while Notebook chats follow Gemini Apps Activity handling and may be reviewed for improvement. With Keep Activity off, Notebook has reduced history, memory and Drive-source functions. Manual paste and uploads remain disclosures; they do not bypass these terms. If the terms for a route are unacceptable, keep that item locally and mark the route blocked. Feature rollout, plan, account and region affect access and limits. Check the charges and usage limits shown for your own account before transferring data.

1. Write a private source inventory

Make one row per item you might move. Use this compact template in a private local document; replace the brackets with your own facts, and do not publish the filled record.

Record your ChatGPT account type, Gemini account/region eligibility, Keep Activity choice, Activity auto-delete period and the date of that decision above the table. For any export, later add its filename, size, download date and local SHA-256 if available. Keep the file private.

In ChatGPT, review Settings → Personalization → Custom Instructions and the saved-memory controls. Record the particular preferences worth moving. A model's reply to “what do you remember?” may help locate context, but it is not a full inventory; OpenAI distinguishes saved memories from chat history. Exclude stale or incorrect memories.

For each owned GPT, inspect its editor and record its description, instructions, conversation starters, knowledge files, built-in capabilities, connected apps and external API actions. OpenAI's GPT manual separates these components. If you cannot inspect someone else's GPT, mark it inaccessible and ask its owner for an authorized source. For each ChatGPT Project, record its instructions, files, sharing, memory setting and selected chats separately from global preferences; Project instructions can override global instructions. Select two or three non-sensitive conversations and note what their continuation would need to retain. Keep the ZIP as your source record; rebuild GPT and Project settings separately.

2. Export and inspect the ChatGPT record

For an eligible ChatGPT web account, use profile → Settings → Data controls → Export → Confirm export. OpenAI's export guide covers Free, Go, Plus, Pro and some Edu accounts; Business, Enterprise and Healthcare workspaces do not have this self-service path. An export can take up to seven days, and its download link expires after 24 hours. Use the Privacy Portal or your workspace owner when the self-service path does not apply.

Download the ZIP while signed into the requesting account, retain the original in restricted storage and inspect it locally. Confirm that the representative conversations you selected are actually present. OpenAI says custom instructions are included in exports, but compare with the live setting. Write missing, deleted or inaccessible material in the inventory as unresolved. A partial ZIP is not evidence that there was nothing else to preserve.

3. Import memory and chats only when eligible

For memory, copy Gemini's prompt into ChatGPT. Compare its response with your inventory, remove wrong or unauthorized facts, then paste the approved text into Gemini and choose Add memory. Keep a private copy of exactly what you submitted. The intermediate response was generated by a model and can omit or invent facts.

Choose Import chats → Add and upload the original ZIP. Google permits 5 GB per ZIP and five uploads daily. Allow up to a day. In Gemini Chats, find the imported-chat icon and your selected conversations. Compare their actual content and usable continuation with the original. An icon, count or success notice does not verify completeness.

Interrupted imports may leave partial chats. Inspect the import entry and target conversations before Google's delete-entry and retry procedure. Reupload may add or overwrite chats. If the result is unclear, record it as unknown and inspect the destination before retrying. When native import is unavailable, you may manually select a minimal rights-cleared summary for an available feature below, subject to the same privacy decision. Google documents no ZIP route for excluded accounts.

4. Rebuild selected GPT behavior as a Skill

Use a Gemini Skill for reusable instructions you own. In Gemini web, open Customize in the sidebar (possibly under More) → Skills → Create → Create manually. Enter a name, description and instructions, then choose Create. Replace every bracket in this instruction pattern with approved text:

Name: [lowercase-hyphenated-task-name] Description: Use for [specific task and trigger]; avoid [adjacent task]. Instructions: Do [authorized task] using [named approved context]. Ask for [missing required input]. If a source fact is absent or disputed, say so. Return [output structure] with the source behind material claims. Stop before [external action, disclosure, purchase or publication] for human review. Unmapped GPT capability: [action, app or tool requiring a separate solution, or none].

This is text for the Create manually fields, not an upload-ready SKILL.md. If the original GPT depended on web search, code execution, an app or an external API action, mark that dependency unmapped until its replacement is separately documented, authorized and checked. Google says Skills do not work with some Gemini features, including Canvas and Deep Research; most default Gem tools do not carry into Skills. For explicit use, select the Skill with / or @; check automatic use. Google plans a Gem-to-Skill transition from November 2026 for eligible personal accounts; that plan is not an observed conversion of a ChatGPT GPT.

To include owned, approved reference files, first create the text-only Skill, then use that same Skill's More options → Download. Open its ZIP locally and take the actual generated SKILL.md. Create a folder whose lowercase-hyphenated name exactly matches the Skill. Put that downloaded SKILL.md at its root, alongside only the approved supported references. For example, the structure is owned-task-skill/SKILL.md and owned-task-skill/approved-reference.md; those names illustrate placement, not files supplied by this article. Inspect the folder for hidden or unintended files and check the current supported types and 100 MB total limit. Google excludes .docx, .xlsx and other unlisted binaries; convert only authorized files and recheck their meaning.

In the same Gemini Skill, choose More options → Replace skill → folder, select the prepared folder, then Upload → Upload. Google documents the download and replacement controls. This replaces the Skill rather than appending files. Reopen it and compare its name, description, instructions and file list with the approved inventory. Run a fresh-chat question against the real reference content. If the file is unsupported, cannot be inspected or the instructions changed unexpectedly, mark the dependency untransferred. A Skill does not inherit a GPT's OAuth connection or external action.

5. Map a Project to a Notebook where available

Gemini Notebooks can hold sources, instructions and ongoing chats, so they may suit a selected ChatGPT Project's purpose. A Notebook does not recreate Project members or memory. Check whether the Notebook connected app is available and enabled for your account; in the EEA it may need manual connection. Confirm the Activity choice and Notebook source storage before adding files.

In Gemini, choose Notebooks → New notebook, name it, use Add sources for each rights-cleared file, and set Notebook settings instructions. A starting pattern is: “Project purpose: [task and audience]. Use only attached sources for project facts; name the source for each material claim and state what is missing. Follow [approved Project rules]. Return [format]. Stop before [human-review boundary]. Do not disclose [private material or audience].” Remove every placeholder and compare it with the source Project instructions. Check sharing and file inventory after saving. If Notebook is unavailable, retain a local project folder; a narrowly scoped Skill or manually chosen file may cover some tasks, but persistent Project chat context and permissions remain unmapped.

6. Verify every selected item before relying on it

Use the inventory IDs to make a private acceptance record. For each moved instruction, memory, Skill, Notebook source and sample conversation, ask a fresh-session, non-sensitive question with an answer independently known from the source. Record the actual response, selected Skill or Notebook, attached file, imported chat and result: verified, partial, failed, blocked or intentionally excluded. Check action boundaries separately. Text that says an external action happened is not evidence that it did.

Mark an absent or truncated imported chat partial or failed even if the import icon appears. Reject a memory statement that differs from the source. Mark a Skill that cites an unattached file or claims an unimplemented GPT action failed. Check that Notebook files and audience are the intended ones. If a fresh chat does not use the chosen Skill reliably, record partial. Keep the ChatGPT account, ZIP, GPT and Project accessible until a human reviews unresolved rows and decides what to retain. This guide supplies the checklist; its steps have not been run on a BIG CHANGE account.

For related tasks, see our guides to moving a Gemini Gem into a Skill, creating a Gemini Skill and checking a Gemini Notebook plan. They cover components of this transfer, while the inventory and acceptance record here cover the cross-provider move.