Character.AI bankruptcy: how to save your chats
Character.AI filed for bankruptcy on October 12, 2026, but the app has not shut down: the company says it keeps running while it looks for a buyer. Nobody outside the company knows yet what a buyer will keep, so the one safe step costs nothing — download a copy of your characters and conversations now.
What is known about the Character.AI bankruptcy
Character Technologies, the company behind Character.AI, filed for Chapter 11 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. It wants a court-supervised sale of all or most of its assets. In its own announcement the company says the platform is up and running, paid subscriptions continue, and it expects the sale to be finished by the end of November or in early December 2026.
The same announcement is plain about the other outcome: if the sale does not bring a buyer who keeps the platform going, the platform will be wound down.
Reports on the court filings add two details. The opening bid, $20 million from a Disney affiliate, is for a non-exclusive license to some of the company's intellectual property and legal claims — on its own it does not mean anyone will keep running the app, and other buyers can still bid more. Under the schedule the company proposed to the court, bids are due on November 20 and an auction would follow on November 23. The court still has to approve that schedule, and state attorneys general have asked it to protect users' data in any sale, so the dates can move.
What happens to your chats
The company says user information stays protected under its Privacy Policy and that its privacy and security practices have not changed. It also says you can still export or delete your data in the app or on the website.
What nobody outside the company knows yet: whether your conversations are part of what gets sold, what a new owner would do with them, and whether the service you use today will exist in the same form next year. You do not have to guess. A copy of your data on your own device stays yours, whatever the court decides.
How to download your Character.AI chats
- Open Character.AI and go to Settings, then Account, then Manage Account & Data.
- Choose Export Data. Character.AI prepares an archive of your account and sends it to your email — it can take a while, so ask for it today rather than the week of the auction.
- Save the ZIP file and keep two copies: one on your computer and one in a cloud folder you trust.
Menu names change over time. If you cannot find the option, search Character.AI's help pages for "export data". And never give your Character.AI password to another website or app: no tool needs it to read your export, and Amavie never asks for it.
What is inside the export file
The archive is a ZIP with JSON files inside: the characters you made yourself and your conversations. Two limits are worth knowing before you rely on it:
- The export keeps the text of every line, but it does not mark who wrote each one — your lines and the character's lines are not labelled.
- It does not include the hidden definition of characters someone else created. You keep your conversations with them, not their recipe.
JSON is easy for programs and hard for people, which is why it is worth opening the file once now and making sure the conversations you care about are really there.
How to read your export and keep it as text
Our free Character.AI export viewer opens the ZIP right in your browser. Reading it uploads nothing: the file is opened on your device. You see your characters and conversations as readable chats, and you can save any conversation as a plain text file — the kind any editor will still open in twenty years.
A simple routine works best: request the export, open it in the viewer, save the conversations that matter most as text, and keep the ZIP and the text files together.
How to keep talking to a character elsewhere
Some people want an archive. Others want the conversation to go on. On Amavie you can bring a character over from your Character.AI export together with one conversation, and the character starts with that conversation in its memory instead of a blank page. Only the character and the conversation you picked are sent, and a character you bring over is visible only to you unless you decide otherwise. For characters someone else made, the export has no hidden definition, so Amavie drafts the character from your conversation, and you can edit the draft before creating it.
Amavie's characters remember what you told them, can write to you first, and many of them live a day of their own between your chats. If you want to see how that feels before moving anyone, say hello to Lina or Mara Solein, two of the ambassadors who live on Amavie every day, read how AI character memory works, or see what to look for in a Character AI alternative.
Your data should stay yours here too: Download My Data in your Amavie account settings gives you one ZIP with everything your account holds, at any time.
Whatever happens next, the steps are the same: export today, check the file in the Character.AI export viewer, and keep a copy you control.
Frequently asked questions
Is Character.AI shutting down?
Not right now. Character.AI filed for bankruptcy protection on October 12, 2026, and says the platform keeps running while the company is sold, with the sale expected by the end of November or in early December. The company has also said the platform will be wound down if no buyer keeps it running, so it makes sense to save a copy of your data now.
How do I download my Character.AI chats?
In Character.AI, open Settings, then Account, then Manage Account & Data, and choose Export Data. The archive arrives by email as a ZIP file with JSON inside. Open it in a viewer that works in your browser, check that your conversations are there, and keep two copies of the file.
What is inside the Character.AI export file?
A ZIP archive with JSON files: the characters you created and your conversations. The text of every line is there, but the lines are not marked with who wrote them, and characters made by other people come without their hidden definition.
Can I move a character from Character.AI to another app?
Yes. Export your data, then bring the character over with a conversation. On Amavie this starts from your export file, and the character remembers the conversation you brought. You never need to share your Character.AI password to do it.
