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How to export a long WhatsApp chat

🔒 Your chat never leaves your device. Everything is processed inside your browser; nothing is uploaded.

ℹ️ Charlario only converts your own chat export file: the .txt or .zip that WhatsApp itself gives you through its official “Export chat” feature. The file is processed locally in your browser and never uploaded. Charlario is not a downloader or scraper: it does not connect to WhatsApp or to any account, and it cannot read chats from anyone's phone. Charlario is not affiliated with WhatsApp or Meta.

⚠️ Don't open or unzip the .zip file. Save it (iPhone: Save to Files), then tap Choose chat file in Charlario and pick the .zip.
📱 On iPhone, Charlario doesn't appear in the share menu. Use Save to Files, then pick the .zip here.

Chats that span years can hold tens of thousands of messages. Here's what to expect and how to keep everything.

WhatsApp's export limits

WhatsApp caps exports: its help pages have mentioned limits of about 40,000 messages without media and about 10,000 with media, keeping the most recent ones. If your chat is longer, the oldest messages may be missing from the export.

How to get as much as possible

  1. Export without media first. It reaches furthest back in time.
  2. Export again with media if you need recent photos.
  3. Check the first date in the file. Charlario shows the date range as soon as you load it.

Making a PDF from a huge chat

Charlario reads the whole file on your device in seconds (we tested 60,000 messages) and builds the PDF in steps, so the page doesn't freeze. A chat this long becomes thousands of pages. On older phones, close other apps first, or use a computer.

Keep the originals

Store the export .txt/.zip alongside the PDF. It's the source if you ever need to rebuild the PDF or prove where it came from.

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