Should You Switch From ChatGPT to Claude? My Honest Take

It feels like everyone is switching from ChatGPT to Claude at the moment. So why now, should you do it too, and how do you move across without losing everything ChatGPT has learned about you?

I give you my honest take on switching from ChatGPT to Claude, walk you through how to migrate your memory step by step, and share the one job I haven't moved over to Claude, and why.

Key Takeaways

• Don't switch because of headlines: test both tools on your own work and use whichever gives you the better experience and output.
• Claude's import memory tool lets you move what ChatGPT knows about you across in a few minutes using a single copy-and-paste prompt.
• I've moved most of my work to Claude, but I still use Google Gemini and NotebookLM for YouTube transcripts and data.

Why People Are Switching From ChatGPT to Claude

If you research this topic, you'll find plenty of headlines. Some claim Anthropic, the company behind Claude, has overtaken OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, in revenue. Others report around 1.5 million users leaving ChatGPT.

The reasons people give for switching:

• OpenAI's Pentagon deal: some users have left over OpenAI's agreement with the US military.
• Advertising: ChatGPT now supports advertising, and Claude doesn't.
• User experience: people who've tried both simply prefer how Claude works.

Google Trends backs up the interest. Searches for "switching from ChatGPT to Claude" and "ChatGPT vs Claude" spiked between 1 and 8 March 2026. The same thinking applies if you use Grok, Gemini or any other large language model.

Should You Switch From ChatGPT to Claude?

Do your own research, but more importantly, use the tools and test them. Whichever gives you the better experience and end result is the one to favour.

• Stick with ChatGPT if: you're getting your best results there, for example with images or video.
• Try Claude if: you do a lot of writing, copy and content creation.

I've personally moved a lot of my work to Claude because I found a better experience and a better end product. Both have free and paid versions, and you can open a Claude account at claude.com. If you're newer to AI tools, my post on why beginners get poor results applies to both.

How to Switch From ChatGPT to Claude Without Losing Your Data

If you've only just started with ChatGPT, you can simply start using Claude. But if you've used ChatGPT for years and it knows a lot about you, Claude has made a tool to move that memory across. Go to claude.com/import-memory, or search for "Claude import memory".

Check Your Privacy Settings First

Before importing anything, I go into Claude's privacy settings. This is my personal preference, but I switch off:

• "Help improve our AI models"
• Location metadata

Under capabilities, I also make sure memory is switched on: both "search and reference chats" and "generate memory from chat history". That gives you the best experience across your chats.

Import Your ChatGPT Memory Step by Step

1. In Claude, go to capabilities and click Start import.
2. Copy the prompt Claude gives you.
3. Paste it into ChatGPT and send it. ChatGPT will write out what it knows about you: your identity, career, projects, preferences and instructions.
4. Copy ChatGPT's response.
5. Paste it back into Claude and click Add to memory.

That's it. ChatGPT has told Claude everything it knows about you, and Claude has remembered it.

Review and Edit What Claude Remembers

Open Manage memory to read what Claude has saved: your work context, personal context, what's top of mind, a brief history, how to write like you and your boundaries, such as "never do this" or "always do that".

If anything is wrong, just tell Claude what to remember or forget. You can see every change you've made under managed edits. I'd also recommend downloading the Claude desktop app, which gives you more functionality than the browser version.

The One Job I Haven't Moved to Claude

I run my business mostly on Claude now, but I haven't blindly moved everything. Some jobs work better inside Google's ecosystem, and because so much of my work is on YouTube, I still use Google Gemini and NotebookLM for YouTube data and transcripts.

How I get a YouTube transcript with Gemini:

1. Copy the video's share link.
2. Ask Gemini for the full transcript of that video and paste in the link.
3. If the first answer is an overview, ask for the full transcript word for word.
4. Ask again for it word for word with timestamps, if you need them.

Each step takes a few seconds. I speak these requests using Wispr Flow rather than typing them, one of the tools I cover in the AI tools I actually pay for. For more on Google's research tools, see my NotebookLM guide and my post on Gemini Gems.

Conclusion

The switch from ChatGPT to Claude is happening for a mix of reasons, but the only one that should matter to you is which tool gives you better results on your own work.

Test both. If Claude wins, use the import memory tool to bring your ChatGPT history across in a few minutes, and keep using other tools like Gemini where they still do a job better.