How to Export a WhatsApp Group Chat

By Josep Mampel Marques, updated November 9, 2026

To export a WhatsApp group chat, open the group and use Export chat exactly as for a one to one chat: on iPhone, tap the group name and then Export chat; on Android, tap More options, More, Export chat. Choose whether to include media and save the file. The export holds every member's messages with their name, date and time, plus group events such as people joining or leaving. Open it in PrintChats to read it as a group conversation or save it as a PDF.

Steps to export a group chat

1. Open WhatsApp on your phone and open the group.
2. On iPhone: tap the group name at the top, scroll down the group info screen and tap Export chat. On Android: tap More options (three dots), then More, then Export chat.
3. Choose to include media or not. WhatsApp's help center says that with media, the most recent media sent is added as attachments.
4. Pick where the file goes: Files, iCloud Drive, Google Drive or another app in the share sheet. Busy groups produce big exports, so storage is safer than email.

On WhatsApp for Web, Windows and Mac, the help center describes the same Export chat option for individual and group chats, with a choice of all messages or a custom date range, but without media.

What is different about a group export

• Many senders. Each line carries the sender's name, so the text file reads as a list of messages from different people. How names appear for members you have not saved as contacts may vary by version; check your own export before relying on names.
• System messages. Group events, such as someone being added, leaving, or the group name or icon changing, appear as lines without a sender. They are useful context when you read the chat later.
• Size. Groups with many active members can have years of messages and a lot of media. WhatsApp attaches only recent media, and the export may not reach the first message. See export limits for how to check where yours starts.
• Privacy settings apply to everyone. If Advanced Chat Privacy is on for the group, WhatsApp blocks members from exporting it. Details in why Export chat is missing or blocked.

Read a group export with names and photos

The raw text of a busy group is hard to follow. PrintChats turns it back into a conversation in your browser:

1. Open PrintChats and choose the .zip (or the .txt) under Choose your WhatsApp export. Nothing is uploaded.
2. The status line shows how many messages and participants it found, and how many attachments are missing from the export.
3. Pick your own name under I am. Your messages move to the right and every other member's messages stay on the left with their name above the bubble.
4. Type a member's name in Search to see only messages that mention it or that person sent. Search matches the message text and the sender name.
5. Set From and To to narrow it to the days you care about, then tap Save as PDF. The steps for each browser are in how to print a WhatsApp chat.

Tips for long or busy groups

• Export without media first to get the longest text history, then export again with media if you also want the recent photos.
• Split the PDF by date. A group with thousands of messages makes a very long PDF. Print one period at a time; exporting only part of a chat explains the options.
• Keep the file as it came. The text refers to each photo by file name, so renaming or removing files inside the .zip breaks the link between a message and its picture.

Respect the other members

A group export contains other people's messages, names, phone numbers and photos. Before sharing a printout, think about who will see it and whether the members would expect that. If a member has turned on Advanced Chat Privacy precisely to stop exports, the setting is doing its job. PrintChats reads the export only in your browser tab, but whatever you save or print afterwards is yours to keep safe.