WhatsApp's own Export chat is in the phone app (its help page gives steps for Android and iOS). If you just want the open chat from https://web.whatsapp.com as a file you can open later, this is the short path I use with WA Folders (Chrome only).
I built the extension. WhatsApp's built-in Lists filter chats; they do not download one conversation as HTML, CSV, Markdown, or JSON from the browser.
What you need
- Chrome
- WhatsApp Web signed in at https://web.whatsapp.com
- WA Folders from the Chrome Web Store: https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/wa-folders/hahfpdlfieloofgjhanljbbnakinfhil?utm_source=devto&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=dl8
Written against WA Folders 1.2.4. The current Chrome Web Store version is 1.2.9.
Steps
- Open the chat you want. Export only covers that open conversation.
- Open the WA Folders panel on the page (This chat).
- Pick a format: HTML, CSV, Markdown, or JSON.
- Export. The file downloads in this browser. Filename keeps the chat name and date.
Free tier: 3 exports per day (counted on device). Pro has no plan limits, so exports are unlimited, and it adds Load whole chat.
What lands in the file
Export uses the messages currently loaded in that conversation. Photos, videos, voice notes and files show up as labels such as [photo] or [voice message]; the media files themselves are not included. WhatsApp Web virtualizes history, so older messages that were never scrolled into view are not in the file unless you load more first.
Pro Load whole chat scrolls that same open chat toward older messages, merges by message id (it stops at 20,000 messages, a technical limit on every plan, not a plan cap), then exports. There is a Stop control. Opening another chat during the load cancels it so you do not get a mixed file.
Private notes you wrote on that chat in WA Folders can appear in HTML, Markdown, and JSON exports. Notes stay in chrome.storage.local; they are not sent to the other person.
CSV is formula-safe (leading = + - @ neutralized), UTF-8 with BOM, and includes time and sender columns. Where the system uses a comma as the decimal mark (pt-BR, most of Europe), columns are separated with semicolons so Excel opens them correctly.
What this is not
- Not the phone app
- Not a full account backup
- Not bulk send, auto-reply, or a CRM
- Not affiliated with WhatsApp or Meta
Folder data and the local search index also stay in chrome.storage.local. There is no WA Folders account for your chats.
Soft ask
If you try the export and it saves you a zip dig later, a one-line Chrome Web Store review helps the next person decide. No perk for writing one.
Related: the longer walkthrough, How to export a WhatsApp Web chat, and what ends up in the file, covers the phone's built-in export and what each file format contains.
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