How to Back Up and Export Character.AI Creator Bots

The Character.AI help center articles we found do not describe a button that exports a character you made. The safe way to back one up is to copy its name, greeting, description and definition into a document, and save its picture. Browser extensions can also save a character as a card file, with risks.

Updated 2026-10-21

Backing up created characters and OCs

Do this for each character you made. It takes a few minutes, and it does not depend on the export that Character.AI emails to you. We found no statement saying whether that export includes the characters you created.

Open the character’s edit page.
Copy each field into one document per character: name, tagline, description, greeting, extra greetings, tags and the character definition.
Copy the dialogue examples too. In the definition editor they are built with the “+ User message” and “+ Character message” buttons.
Note the visibility setting (Public, Unlisted or Private) and the character’s link.
Save the avatar image to your device.
Save the document in two places.

The privacy policy says that if a character you created has been made available to other users, the company “reserve[s] the right to preserve that Character’s characteristics and to keep that Character active on the Services, even if you otherwise delete your data and your account.” Under the Terms of Service, as between you and the company, you own all rights in a character you create, and you give the company a broad license to use it.

Exporting bot definitions, greetings and settings

Character.AI’s creator guide lists these fields: name, avatar, voice, greeting (plus up to five more greetings), tags, visibility, and the optional tagline, description and character definition. The definition can be up to 32,000 characters, and the guide says it is “optionally visible” to others.

If you plan to rebuild a character somewhere else by hand, this table shows which field of two other tools matches which Character.AI field. It comes from each tool’s own documentation. The match is a guide, not a rule: other tools use their fields in slightly different ways.

Character.AI field	JanitorAI field	SillyTavern field
Name	Character Name (required)	Character Name (the only required field)
Greeting	Initial Message (required)	First message
Extra greetings	Not described in the help article	Alternate Greetings
Tagline and description, shown to users	Character Bio (for users, not used by the bot)	Creator’s Notes, under Advanced Definitions
Character definition and dialogue examples	Personality (required); the help article suggests putting dialogue examples here too	Character Description, and Examples of dialogue

Tags do not carry over by themselves. Add them again by hand. JanitorAI requires at least a Limited or Limitless tag and allows up to 10 tags.

Exporting user personas and memory profiles

The export help article does not say whether your personas or memories are included, so copy them by hand. If you use a persona, copy its text into your document.

Character.AI’s Pinned Memories feature lets you pin messages in a chat, and you can see them by opening Chat Details. The Pinned Memories article says up to 5 messages per chat, and a newer FAQ mentions memory pins with different limits by plan, so check the app. Copy the pinned messages of any chat that matters to you, since they hold the details the character is meant to remember.

Downloading characters as PNG cards

A character card is a common way to share a character between apps. It is either a PNG picture with the character’s text stored inside it, or a JSON file with the same text. SillyTavern’s documentation warns that some programs strip the stored text from a PNG when they re-save it, so keep the file exactly as it was made.

We found no Character.AI help article that offers a card download. A browser extension called CAI Tools (its guide is now published under the name Chatbot Manager) says it can download a character as a character card or as a JSON file. The guide says that all characters can be downloaded but that “definitions/example messages may be hidden,” and an older page of the guide says a character with a private definition cannot be copied. SpicyChat’s documentation describes using these files to import a character, and SillyTavern’s documentation says it can import characters made by other people.

Character.AI’s Terms of Service say users will not use “data mining, robots, scraping or similar automated data gathering or extraction methods.” An extension also gets access to the pages you open. Read what to check before you use one before you decide.

What about characters made by someone else?

You may not be able to see another creator’s definition, because it can be hidden. The Terms say the person who creates a character owns it, as between that person and the company. If you want a character that someone else made, ask the creator, and check the rules of the service you are moving to.

Questions and answers

How do I back up the Character.AI characters I made?

Open each character’s edit page and copy the name, tagline, description, greeting, extra greetings, tags, definition and dialogue examples into a document. Save the avatar image and note the character’s link.

How do I export a Character.AI bot definition and greeting?

We found no export button in the help center. Copy the definition and greeting by hand. A browser extension can also save a character as a card file, but read its permissions and the company’s Terms first.

How do I export my Character.AI persona and memory?

The help center does not say these are in the export. Copy your persona text by hand, and copy the pinned messages from each chat.

How do I download Character.AI characters as PNG cards?

Character.AI does not offer this in the help articles we found. The CAI Tools extension says it can save a character as a card (PNG) or JSON file, but a hidden definition is not included.

Do I keep my characters if Character.AI shuts down?

Only the copies you make. The company says the platform will be wound down if no bid lets it continue. Back up each character’s text now.

Related guides

Sources

We opened these pages on 2026-10-21. Pages can change after that.

This guide is not affiliated with Character Technologies, Inc. Corrections, and requests from services to be listed or changed, go to hello@castmanor.com.