Character.ai users who want their chats should request an export before the bankruptcy sale
Character.ai's parent filed Chapter 11 on Oct. 12 and expects a court-supervised sale to close in late November or early December. Exports take three to four weeks, so a user who files a request now has little slack before the sale closes.
The Product Desk
Key figures: exports take at least three weeks to process, up to four, per Character.ai's help center. The expected sale close falls at least six weeks after the Oct. 12 filing, roughly six to eight. Court filings put current and past users at about 163 million.
| Figure | Value | Note | Claim |
|---|---|---|---|
| Export processing time, at least | 3 weeks | up to four weeks, per help center | 16 |
| Filing to expected sale close, at least | 6 weeks | roughly six to eight weeks | 22 |
| Current and past users, about | 163,000,000 users | 13 |
What happened
- If no workable bid emerges, the company says, the platform will be wound down rather than sold.
- Forbes reports that Disney is the first bidder, putting up $20 million for a license to part of the company's intellectual property that is perpetual and non-exclusive.
- Disney's bid leaves out the app and the user accounts. Other bidders in the auction are still free to bid on those.
- Court filings put current and past users at about 163 million, PPC Land reports, and the company does not treat them as creditors who must be notified.
- Until the sale closes the service stays available, and paid subscriptions remain active with billing unchanged for now.
Why it matters
- What it limits constraint A four-week export uses half to two-thirds of the sale window. If the first file is missing something, there is little room left for a second request.
- Who has to decide decision A team using Character.ai for anything customer-facing has to plan for a wind-down as a live outcome, because the company itself names it as the fallback.
- Who's exposed exposure A buyer of the accounts would take chat histories whose protection rests on a privacy policy that allows transfers, with no ombudsman yet requested to test it.
- What's now possible capability EU users can invoke GDPR portability and erasure rights in addition to the in-app export tool.
A user who taps Export Data today will not have a file until early November at the earliest, shortly before the sale is expected to close [17]. The email carrying the download link expires after seven days [16]. Counting from the Oct. 12 filing [1], and taking late November as about Nov. 23 and early December as about Dec. 7, the expected close is roughly six to eight weeks out [22]. A four-week export uses between half and two-thirds of that window [23].
The steps are short. On the web, go to Profile Settings, then Account, then Manage Account & Data, then Export Data. In the app, open the settings icon and choose Export Data under Legal & Privacy [15]. The help page does not list what the export contains [18], so the first file that arrives is also the first time anyone learns whether it holds what they wanted.
The Disney bid covers intellectual property. The license quoted by PPC Land does not cover "end user data or databases" or "any input entered by Licensor end users," and it leaves out the responses generated for them [6]. That carve-out keeps chats away from Disney. Notebookcheck's account calls it unclear what happens to them if another bidder buys the accounts [14].
Character.ai says only that user information "continues to be protected under our Privacy Policy" [8]. That policy allows disclosure in a merger or an asset sale and does not say which information [9]. Bankruptcy law has a check for this: if selling personal data would go against what the company's privacy policy promises, a court appoints a consumer privacy ombudsman. Character.ai's policy names those transfers outright, so the company could argue it needs no ombudsman [10]. As of Tuesday, Straight Arrow News reported, no one had asked the court to appoint one [11]. Calli Schroeder of the Electronic Privacy Information Center said the clause is "a pretty weak protection" [12].
Order of operations matters. The help page says account deletion cannot be reversed, and deleting before the export arrives means losing access to the chats [19]. Anyone who pays through the App Store or Google Play should cancel there too. The help page gives no guidance on whether deleting the account also ends the subscription [20].
The export steps in the coverage are for individual profiles. A team that has built on the platform, whether through API access or for business use, should ask the company directly what it can get out.
To decide what to do tomorrow, sort each item you keep on the platform by two tests: can it be rebuilt elsewhere, and does losing it cost something this quarter.
- Cannot be rebuilt, costly to lose: request the export today and delete nothing until the file is downloaded. - Can be rebuilt, costly to lose: request the export as a backup and start the rebuild on another service now. - Cannot be rebuilt, cheap to lose: request the export and let it arrive when it arrives. - Can be rebuilt, cheap to lose: cancel store billing if you pay there, and leave it.
What to watch
- Whether anyone asks the Delaware court to appoint a consumer privacy ombudsman before the sale is approved.
- Whether bidders beyond Disney emerge for the app and accounts, and what they say about chat histories.
- Whether Character.ai updates its help page to list what an export contains or shortens the three-to-four-week estimate.
Clarity's read
What the record supports and how the coverage leans. The claims behind it follow.
Reality
- Evidence58
- Adoption50
- Hype gap−5
- Incentives
- Not scored
- Confidence62
Claim ledger
Ranked by verification strength, evidence, and original report placement.
- [1]
Character Technologies, the company behind the chatbot platform Character.ai, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Delaware on Oct. 12.
- [2]
The goal of the filing is a court-supervised sale of the company; if no workable bid emerges, the platform will be wound down, according to the company's announcement.
- [3]
Character.ai expects the sale to close in late November or early December 2026.
- [4]
Until the sale, the service remains available, and paid subscriptions stay active with billing unchanged for now.
- [5]
Disney is the first bidder, offering $20 million for a non-exclusive, perpetual license to some of the company's intellectual property.
- [6]
The agreement quoted by PPC Land says the license does not cover "end user data or databases" or "any input entered by Licensor end users," and it also leaves out the responses generated for them.
- [7]
Disney will not take over the app or the user accounts, so other bidders can still make offers for them in the auction.
- [8]
Character.ai says only that user information "continues to be protected under our Privacy Policy."
- [9]
Character.ai's privacy policy allows the company to disclose certain information during a merger or a sale of company assets, but it does not say which information.
- [10]
US bankruptcy law provides for a consumer privacy ombudsman, whom a court appoints when a sale of personal data would conflict with the company's own privacy policy; because Character.ai's policy explicitly mentions such transfers, the company could argue that none is needed.
- [11]
As of Tuesday, no one had asked the court to appoint a consumer privacy ombudsman.
- [12]
Calli Schroeder of the Electronic Privacy Information Center called the clause "a pretty weak protection."
- [13]
In its court filings, Character.ai puts the number of current and past users at about 163 million, and the company does not consider these users to be creditors who must be notified of the case.
- [14]
It is unclear what would happen to users' chats if another bidder bought the platform along with its accounts.
- [15]
On the web, the export path is profile, Profile Settings, Account, Manage Account & Data, Export Data; in the app, it is profile, settings icon, then Export Data under Legal & Privacy.
- [16]
According to the Character.ai help center, exports can take three to four weeks to process; the user then receives an email with a download link that expires after seven days.
- [17]
A export request made today will arrive in early November at the earliest, shortly before the sale is expected to close.
- [18]
The help page does not list what the export contains.
- [19]
The help page says account deletion cannot be reversed, and deleting the account before the export arrives means losing access to the chats.
- [20]
Users who pay through the App Store or Google Play should cancel the subscription there too, because the help page does not say whether deleting the account ends it.
- [21]
Users in the EU also have a right to erasure and to data portability under the GDPR.
- [22]
From the Oct. 12 filing, the expected sale close falls roughly six to eight weeks later.
- [23]
A four-week export takes between about 50% and 67% of the six-to-eight-week window to the expected close.
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Sources
1 independent publisher whose own reporting we read for this story.
- notebookcheck.netCharacter.ai bankruptcy: How to export your chats before the sale - Notebookcheck News
1 article · October 14, 2026
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