Gemini Memory: How It Works and How to Manage It
Past Chats, Personal Intelligence, Importing from ChatGPT and How to Delete What Gemini Knows
Disclosure: Membase is our product. Gemini’s built-in memory works well, and you don’t need anything else to use it. We cover it first, then where a shared memory helps. Facts were checked against Google’s Gemini Apps Help in November 2026.
Quick answer
Yes, Gemini has memory. When Memory is on, Gemini learns from your past chats and uses what it learned to personalize answers. It can also use your instructions and, if you connect them, your Google apps.
- Where to find it: Settings & help > Personal Intelligence > Memory
- Who gets it: personal Google Accounts, 18 or older, with Keep Activity on. Not on work or school accounts.
- How to delete what it knows: delete the chats that contain it, or correct Gemini in a chat
- Coming from ChatGPT or Claude? Gemini can import your memory and even your full chat history
Gemini’s memory stays inside Gemini. ChatGPT, Claude and other assistants don’t see it. To keep one memory across all of them, add a shared memory such as the Membase Chrome extension.
In this guide: How Gemini memory works · Turn memory on or off · What you need · Delete or correct memory · Temporary chats · Import from ChatGPT or Claude · Where it stops · Gemini vs ChatGPT vs Claude · Share memory across AI · FAQ
How Gemini memory works
Gemini personalizes answers from three sources:
| Source | What it is |
|---|---|
| Memory of past chats | What Gemini learns about you from your earlier conversations |
| Connected Google apps | Your content in apps you connect, such as Gmail or Google Photos |
| Your instructions | Preferences you give Gemini about how to respond |
With Memory on, Gemini may also suggest things based on earlier chats, such as next steps for a project you mentioned or help planning a trip you talked about.
To check whether an answer used your past chats, ask: “Did you use any info from past chats?”
What you need
- A personal Google Account. Memory isn’t available on work, school or supervised accounts.
- To be 18 or older.
- Keep Activity turned on. Memory uses your saved Gemini chats, so it doesn’t work when activity isn’t kept.
Memory works in the Gemini app, at gemini.google.com, in Gemini in Chrome (where available) and on smartwatches. It doesn’t work in Gems or Live chats, but in a text chat you can ask Gemini to refer to a past Live conversation.
Turn Gemini memory on or off
- Go to gemini.google.com.
- At the bottom, open Settings & help > Personal Intelligence.
- Turn Memory on or off.
How to delete or correct what Gemini knows
Gemini doesn’t keep a separate list of facts you can delete one by one. What it knows comes from your chats, so:
| To | Do this |
|---|---|
| Delete something Gemini remembered | Delete every chat that contains it, in Gemini Apps Activity or Recent chats |
| Correct something | Keep Memory on and correct Gemini directly in a chat |
| Remove something from a connected app | Delete the chats that mention it and disconnect the app. Doing only one isn’t enough |
After you delete a chat, there may be a short delay before Gemini stops using it. Changes to data in connected apps, such as deleting an email, can take days to show up.
Temporary chats
A temporary chat isn’t used to personalize future answers, doesn’t appear in your recent chats, and isn’t used to train Google’s models. Google keeps it for up to 72 hours to respond and handle feedback. Use it for one-off questions you don’t want Gemini to remember.
Import your memory from ChatGPT or Claude
Gemini can bring over what another assistant knows about you, and even your full chat history.
Import memory (a summary):
- At gemini.google.com, open Settings > Import memory to Gemini.
- Copy the prompt Gemini gives you and paste it into ChatGPT or Claude.
- Copy the answer, paste it back into Gemini and select Add memory.
Import full chat history:
- Export your data. In ChatGPT: Settings > Data controls > Export data. In Claude: Settings > Privacy > Export data. You’ll get a download link by email.
- In Gemini, open Settings > Import memory to Gemini and, under Import chats, select Add.
- Upload the .zip file (up to 5 GB, up to 5 files a day). It can take up to a day.
Imported chats appear in your chat list with an import icon, and you can continue them in Gemini.
Import isn’t available in the EEA, Switzerland or the United Kingdom, or on work and school accounts. It’s a one-time copy: what you tell ChatGPT or Claude afterwards doesn’t reach Gemini.
Where Gemini memory stops
Gemini’s memory is good at one job: remembering you inside Gemini. Outside that, it doesn’t reach:
- Other AI assistants. ChatGPT, Claude, Grok, DeepSeek and Kimi keep their own memory. What you tell Gemini stays in Gemini, and the reverse.
- After an import. Importing from ChatGPT or Claude is a snapshot. The assistants drift apart again from the next day.
- Work and school accounts. Memory and import are for personal accounts only.
- Gems and Live chats. Memory doesn’t apply there.
- Without saved activity. Turn off Keep Activity, and memory stops.
If you only use Gemini, none of this matters much. If you switch between assistants, you end up explaining yourself again.
Gemini vs ChatGPT vs Claude memory
| Gemini | ChatGPT | Claude | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it learns from | Past chats, connected Google apps, your instructions | Past chats, saved memories, custom instructions | Topics saved as you chat, focused on work |
| Where to manage it | Settings & help > Personal Intelligence | Settings > Personalization > Memory | Settings > Your Claude |
| Delete one thing | Delete the chats that contain it | Delete the saved memory and the chat | Delete the topic |
| Skip memory for one chat | Temporary chat | Temporary chat | Incognito chat |
| Imports from other AI | Memory and full chat history | No | Memory summary |
| Reads the others’ memory | No | No | No |
More detail: ChatGPT Memory · Claude Memory.
Share one memory across Gemini, ChatGPT and Claude
You don’t have to replace Gemini’s memory. Keep it on, and add one memory that every assistant can use.
The Membase Chrome extension saves your conversations in Gemini, ChatGPT, Claude, Grok, DeepSeek and Kimi into one memory, and brings the relevant parts into whichever chat you’re in.
- Add the Membase Chrome extension (the Chrome Web Store may still list it as Unibase Memory).
- Sign in, or create a free account at app.membase.com.
- Chat as usual. Your conversations save to one memory, and what you told Gemini yesterday is there when you open ChatGPT or Claude today.
Unlike a one-time import, it keeps syncing, so no assistant falls behind.
| Gemini memory | Membase | |
|---|---|---|
| Works in | Gemini | Gemini, ChatGPT, Claude, Grok, DeepSeek, Kimi |
| Saves | What Gemini learns from your Gemini chats | Your conversations from every supported assistant, organized into Memories you choose |
| Stays in sync with other AI | No (one-time import) | Yes |
| Cost | Included with Gemini | Free in beta |
Stop starting over every time you switch AI
One memory for Gemini, ChatGPT, Claude, Grok, DeepSeek and Kimi.
Quick links
- Membase Chrome extension: install and see supported assistants
- Membase web app: review, edit or delete your memory
- ChatGPT Memory: How It Works and How to Manage It: the same guide for ChatGPT
- Claude Memory: How It Works and How to Manage It: the same guide for Claude
- How to Transfer ChatGPT Memory to Claude: move what ChatGPT knows into Claude
- Gemini memory of past chats: Google’s official help page
- Membase home