You're deep in a ChatGPT conversation, getting the perfect explanation for something technical. It clicks. You get it. Three weeks later you need that exact explanation again and... it's gone. Buried in your chat history somewhere. Or worse, it was in a temporary chat that vanished.

Happens all the time.

I've tried pretty much every method to save ChatGPT responses over the past year. Some work okay, most are annoying. Here's what actually works and what doesn't.

Method 1: Screenshots

This is what everyone does first. See a good response, hit screenshot, save to desktop or photos.

Pros:

• Dead simple. No setup needed
• Captures formatting and code blocks nicely
• Works on phone or desktop

Cons:

• Can't search through images later. You're scrolling through hundreds of screenshots trying to find that one explanation about JWT tokens
• Takes up storage space fast
• Zero organization unless you're really disciplined with folders

Best for: casual users who only save a few responses per month. If you're saving daily, this gets messy quick.

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Method 2: Copy-Paste to Notes

Grab the response text, paste into Apple Notes, Notion, Google Docs — wherever you keep stuff.

Pros:

• Searchable. Huge upgrade from screenshots
• Can add your own context or tags
• Works across all your devices if you use cloud notes

Cons:

• Manual every single time. Gets old fast
• Loses formatting. Code blocks become messy text
• Still have to remember to actually do it. I'd forget half the time

Best for: people who already live in Notion or Obsidian and don't mind the extra steps.

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Method 3: Bookmark Conversations

ChatGPT lets you bookmark chats. Just star the conversation and it stays at the top.

Pros:

• Built into ChatGPT, nothing to install
• Keeps the full conversation context
• Pretty fast to access

Cons:

• You're bookmarking entire chats, not specific responses. That 45-message conversation about React patterns? Good luck finding the exact response you need
• Bookmarks pile up. After a month you have 30 starred chats and you're back to searching
• Doesn't work for temporary chats at all

Best for: people who have focused conversations about one topic per chat and don't mind scrolling.

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Method 4: Chat Export Extensions

There are extensions that let you export entire ChatGPT conversations to text files or Markdown.

Pros:

• Backs up everything. Nothing gets lost
• Some let you export to Notion or other tools
• One-click for the whole chat

Cons:

• You're exporting massive walls of text. That productivity chat from Tuesday? It's now a 3000-word document
• Finding specific responses means Ctrl+F through files. Not much better than searching chat history
• Most don't handle temporary chats since those aren't saved in your history

Best for: people who want complete archives and don't mind manual searching later.

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Method 5: Response-Specific Savers

Instead of saving entire chats, what if you could save just the specific responses you care about — with tags and descriptions so you can actually find them later?

That's what I built Savelore for after getting frustrated with all the methods above.

How it works:

• See a response you want to keep, click save
• Add tags (like "javascript", "debugging", "react hooks")
• Add a quick description so future you remembers why you saved it
• Search through everything later with full text search

Pros:

• Saves specific responses, not entire conversation dumps. Your library stays clean
• Works in temporary chats — this was huge for me since I use those constantly
• Searchable by content, tags, or description
• Jump back to the original conversation if you need more context
• Local storage, nothing goes to external servers

Cons:

• Requires installing a Chrome extension
• Free tier caps at 25 saves
• Only works in Chrome/Edge for now

Best for: people who use ChatGPT or Claude daily and are tired of re-asking the same questions.

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Which Method Should You Use?

Depends what you need.

If you save maybe 5 responses per month and don't care about searching: screenshots work fine.

If you're already organized with Notion or Obsidian: copy-paste into your system.

If you want everything backed up and don't mind searching files: use an export extension.

If you're a power user who wants a searchable library of just the good stuff: something like Savelore makes more sense.

I'm obviously biased since I built Savelore, but honestly even the manual methods work if you're consistent. The key is actually picking one and using it instead of losing responses because you couldn't decide.

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Ready to never lose another ChatGPT gem again? Try Savelore — the browser extension that makes saving and organizing your favorite AI responses effortless.