Export a ChatGPT Deep Research Report

Quick answer: ChatGPT lets you download a finished Deep Research report as PDF, Word or Markdown from the controls at the top of the report. That file contains the report with its citations. To export the report plus the follow-up questions and answers below it, or to create a Google Doc, use the ChatGPT to Word or PDF extension's toolbar button, which exports the whole conversation.

The official download: where it is and what you get

When a Deep Research task finishes, the report opens in ChatGPT's reader view with a table of contents, a Sources section and the activity history. OpenAI's Deep Research FAQ states that completed reports can be downloaded in Markdown, Word and PDF, and the download control sits with the share options at the top of the report. The exact label has changed over time; look for a download or share icon in the report's header rather than under the message.

What you get is the report as a document: headings, tables, and the citation links in the text. Which plans have Deep Research, and how many tasks you get, depends on your plan and country, so the FAQ is the place to check rather than any third-party post.

Three things the official download doesn't cover:

• The conversation around the report. Your original brief, the clarifying questions ChatGPT asked before starting, and any follow-up questions you asked after reading are not in the file.
• Google Docs. There is no Docs option. You can download Word and open that in Docs.
• Several reports at once. Each report is downloaded on its own.

Exporting the report with the follow-ups

Deep Research rarely ends with the report. (The ChatGPT export overview compares every route out of ChatGPT, if you're weighing options.) You ask for a shorter version, challenge a claim, or request a table, and those answers are often the part you actually use. The ChatGPT to Word or PDF extension exports the conversation as one document:

1. With the extension installed, open the chat that contains the report on chatgpt.com.
2. Click PDF or Word in the toolbar at the top of the chat. The extension fetches the complete conversation from ChatGPT's data, so a long report with a dozen follow-ups exports in full.
3. The file downloads, named after the chat.

In the export, the report's citation markers become clickable links, tables stay tables, and the report's Sources panel is left out because it's a viewer element rather than report text. If you only want the report and nothing else, the official download is the shorter route; the extension is for the thread.

To export only ChatGPT's side of the thread, tick Entire conversation exports under Include Only ChatGPT Responses in in the extension's settings. The export then contains the report and ChatGPT's follow-up answers without your prompts in between, which reads like a single document.

PDF, Word or Markdown: which download to pick

The three official formats suit different next steps, and the choice is easier if you decide what the report is for before downloading:

• PDF when the report is finished and will be read, filed or sent as-is. Citations stay clickable and nothing can shift.
• Word when you'll edit it: trimming sections, adding your own analysis, or restyling for a template. Tables stay editable and headings map to Word styles, so a table of contents can be generated in Word.
• Markdown when the report is going into a notes tool. Notion, Obsidian and most wikis import Markdown directly, and the citation links survive as ordinary Markdown links. It's also the format to choose if you want to feed the report back to another assistant as context.

The extension's exports map the same way: PDF to read, Word to edit, Google Docs to collaborate. Whichever you choose, open the file once and scan the tables and the first few citations before relying on it; a report that was still being written when you downloaded it can be missing its final sections.

Getting a report into Google Docs

Two routes, depending on what you've installed:

• No extension: download the report from ChatGPT as Word, upload the .docx to Google Drive, and open it with Google Docs. Drive converts it to a Doc.
• With the Google Docs extension: the Convert ChatGPT to Google Doc extension adds a Google Docs button to the chat. Click it and the report, or the whole thread, is created as a Doc in your Drive and opened. ChatGPT to Google Docs explains the permission it asks for and the size fallback.

Keeping the research report usable later

A few habits make exported reports worth more than a file in Downloads:

• Export Word for editing, PDF for sharing. The Word export keeps tables and equations editable; the PDF is what you send to someone who shouldn't change it.
• Rename the file. Exports are named after the chat's title, which is often ChatGPT's own summary of your prompt. Rename it to the report's subject and date before it joins a folder of similar names.
• Keep the citations. Both routes keep the citation links. If you only want the whole account archived, that's the official data export, which is a different thing. If you paste the report into another tool instead, the links are usually the first thing lost.
• Export before you continue. If you'll keep refining the report in the same chat, export the version you want to keep first; the next version overwrites nothing, but it makes the thread longer and the useful version harder to find.

Claude's research reports have the same shape and the same choice between a built-in download and a full-thread export; saving a Claude research report covers that side.