WhatsApp Chat Analyzer: Private, No Upload

Dieses Tool auf Deutsch: WhatsApp-Chat analysieren

How to export a WhatsApp chat: iPhone, Android, Mac and Web

To get a chat as a file, you export it. Here is how WhatsApp’s Help Center describes it, with the menu names exactly as WhatsApp writes them (retrieved October 21 to 25, 2026).

On iPhone

1. Open the individual or group chat.
2. Tap the contact’s or group’s name at the top, then “Export chat.”
3. If the chat contains media, WhatsApp asks you to choose “With all media,” “With selected media…” or “Without media.” For Chat X‑Ray, “Without media” is all you need.
4. Choose where the file goes. WhatsApp gives Message, “Save to Files” or Notes as examples. In “Save to Files,” it’s best to choose “On My iPhone.” Apple describes that as the place for files saved locally on your device, while files in “iCloud Drive” sync across your devices. Then you can drop the file here.

“Your chat history will be exported as a ZIP file.” Chat X‑Ray opens the ZIP itself; you don’t need to unzip anything. Any text editor can show the .txt inside it, too.

On Android

1. Open the individual or group chat.
2. Tap the three-dot menu (in the Help Center: “More options”), then “More” and “Export chat.”
3. Tap “Without media.” With “Include media,” WhatsApp also attaches the most recent media, which Chat X‑Ray doesn’t need.
4. Choose where the file goes; WhatsApp gives Quick Share, Gmail or Chat as examples. WhatsApp hands the file to the app you pick here, and that app decides where it ends up. The simplest is a files app and a folder you can find again. If you email it to yourself, the chat also sits with your email provider afterward.

On a computer: the Mac app and WhatsApp Web

The WhatsApp app for Windows doesn’t export chats: the Windows tab of WhatsApp’s export article says the feature isn’t available on that platform. For the Mac app, the Mac tab says: “Click your contact’s name or group name > Export chat.” Then choose “Without media.” “Your chat history will be exported as a ZIP file.” We haven’t tested Chat X‑Ray with an export file from the Mac app, because we don’t have a real one; if it can’t read such a file, use the export from your phone.

WhatsApp Web can export chats: open the chat, click the three-dot menu, then “Export chat.” Then choose “All messages” or “Custom date range” and click “Export.” This also creates a ZIP file. “Media isn’t included, unlike exporting chats on your mobile device.” “View once and disappearing messages won’t be exported.” We haven’t tested Chat X‑Ray with an export file from WhatsApp Web, because we don’t have a real one. If it can’t read such a file, use the export from your phone.

Very long chats

WhatsApp’s current Help Center article on exporting states no cap on the number of messages. An older version of WhatsApp’s help, from 2020, said: “When exporting with media, you can send up to 10,000 latest messages. Without media, you can send 40,000 messages.” Press reports repeat that figure, for example Android Police in 2024, while How-To Geek wrote in 2024 that you can get up to 100,000 recent messages. We can’t check any of these numbers. If the first message in your result comes later than your chat began, the beginning is missing from the file. On WhatsApp Web you can then export earlier periods one at a time (“Custom date range”), and Chat X‑Ray reads each file on its own, though we haven’t tested it with a real export file from WhatsApp Web.

Export or backup?

A backup is something else. WhatsApp uses it to restore chats inside the app: “WhatsApp chats and media can only be restored from the last successful backup that occurred on your Android.” An export is a text file to read, and it can’t be imported back. For Chat X‑Ray, you need the export.

If “Export chat” is missing

One possible reason is “Restricted chat.” When it’s on in a chat, nobody in it can export the chat; WhatsApp says people in it “Can’t export the chat.” In individual chats either person can turn it on and off again, in groups the admins. WhatsApp describes its purpose: “You can limit how other users can share your messages and media outside of WhatsApp.” and “This update helps prevent the use of unofficial clients or AI agents in chats.” It is replacing the earlier setting “Advanced chat privacy”; chats that still have that setting on don’t switch over by themselves. If the other person turned on Restricted chat, that’s a clear answer: they don’t want the chat to leave the device. Respect it.

What the file contains, and what it doesn’t

In the exports we know, each message starts on a new line with date, time, name and text; longer messages continue on the lines below. Photos, voice messages and other media show up only as placeholders in an export without media. “View once messages will not be exported.” And: “Your chat history can’t be re-imported because it’s a text file and not a backup file.” Chat X‑Ray knows the placeholders WhatsApp writes in English and German, including shared locations and live locations. It recognizes polls in English iPhone exports, the only kind we found a real export line for. Add to that placeholders and deletion notices in other languages, each with evidence. For iPhone in Spanish, Brazilian and European Portuguese, Italian, French, Dutch and Turkish, that is the text WhatsApp itself stores for them in its iPhone app, as a published research data set holds it; for Spanish, European Portuguese, Italian and French also real iPhone export lines. For Android, it is real export lines in French, Italian and Spanish, and for Portuguese the word list of another analysis program. If an export looks like another language, it tells you. In an iPhone export without any English or German notice, a line Chat X‑Ray doesn’t know counts as a message of an unknown kind from the person whose name it carries, so the shares stay right; that can also be a call, and “What was read” says how many there are. On Android, unknown media may count as text messages, and the word lists fill up with that language’s filler words.

WhatsApp’s own statistics in the app

Many guides talk about “WhatsApp statistics.” WhatsApp’s help pages describe two usage screens for that, not an analysis of a chat: under Settings > “Storage and data” > “Network usage,” WhatsApp shows how much data you’ve used, and in a chat under “Manage storage,” how much space its media take up: “This will show you how much space the chat's media is taking up, with files sorted from largest to smallest.” A German dpa guide (t-online, 2024, in German) adds that Network usage also counts how many messages were sent and received, and that resetting the statistics sets every counter back to zero. The guide describes one total there; it doesn’t describe it split by chat or by person. Who writes how often in a particular chat, who starts and how fast replies come is only in the export.

WhatsApp chat analysis: what your result shows

At the top: how many messages the file holds and which dates it covers. That matters, because an export shows what is in this chat, not your whole history. Below that, for two people side by side, who contributes what: messages, words, words per message, the longest message, conversation starts, questions, emoji and we-words. Values that say more about a single person, such as thanks, affection, apologies, late-night messages, reply times and most frequent words, appear per person only once you’ve picked who you are. For two people, a small block sets the last 30 days against the time before: who writes how much, who starts, and, once you’ve picked who you are, how fast replies come. It shows whether something is changing right now, and it is what you compare when you drop the chat again after the reminder. In groups, Chat X‑Ray shows up to 8 of the most active people and names roles; words per message and each person’s longest message open below them. Groups get no late-night values, no hours and no reply times per person: the analysis is for your own reflection, not for judging colleagues or anyone else. With your own file you can pick months, the last 12 for example, and count how often the two of you wrote a word or phrase. The tiles sum up the chat, the grid shows which days and hours people write, the monthly bars show how that changes over time, and the day chart shows when the most was going on.

None of these numbers is a verdict. Writing more doesn’t necessarily mean loving more, and a slower reply may just mean a full day. Chat X‑Ray doesn’t try to tell whether someone is cheating or lying; counting messages says nothing reliable about that. The numbers show you what is worth talking about. What Chat X‑Ray doesn’t do: no PDF of your chat and no reading by an AI.

How Chat X‑Ray works

Your browser reads the file line by line, in the background for large files so the page stays usable; you can cancel at any time. A new message starts with a date, a time and a name; lines without that start belong to the message before. Chat X‑Ray reads exports from iPhone and Android with a 12-hour or 24-hour clock. Whether a date puts the day or the month first is decided once for the whole file: it takes the reading with the fewest impossible dates and the smallest jumps from day to day. If that isn’t clear-cut, it tells you and offers the other reading. It doesn’t read a file as a chat when every sender is named like a log entry. Under “What was read” you can see what it detected and what it skipped, including whether any characters in the file couldn’t be read.

Every number follows a fixed rule. The rules are our own definitions, not findings of a study, and they are all here.

How Chat X‑Ray counts: the definitions

The word lists count English and German, exactly as listed above. They miss irony, typos, other languages and context: “thanks for nothing” counts as thanks. The times come from the file, as your phone wrote them. Chat X‑Ray doesn’t correct for daylight saving time: a reply time or a silence across the change can be off by an hour.

What the research says, and what it doesn’t

We-talk. Karan, Rosenthal and Robbins pooled 30 studies of romantic couples in a meta-analysis. They looked at each person’s we-talk separately, one’s own and the partner’s. Overall, we-talk was positively associated with how well the relationship and the people in it were doing, and a partner’s we-talk usually more strongly than one’s own: “Partner use of we-talk was generally more strongly related to relationship functioning than own use.” The authors also write that we-talk sometimes relates negatively. It remains an association, not a cause. That’s why Chat X‑Ray shows each person’s we-words; the ratio of we-words to I-words across the whole chat is our own measure, not the studies’.

Positive and negative. Gottman and Levenson studied 73 married couples in 1983 and 1987. Couples they classed as nonregulated, using their balance theory of marriage, showed more negative and less positive emotional expression in conversations, were less satisfied, were in poorer health at the second time point, and more often considered or went through separation. They measured conversation behavior, body signals such as finger pulse, health and satisfaction, not words in chats; this too is an association, not a prediction for any one couple. The well-known rule of five positive for every negative is often attributed to Gottman’s work on conflict conversations from 1993 and 1994; the 1993 abstract doesn’t state it, and we couldn’t check the 1994 book. Chat X‑Ray doesn’t compare your numbers with it.

Small everyday moments. Driver and Gottman observed 49 newlywed couples, in a 10-minute dinnertime interaction in what the study calls a “seminatural setting” and in a 15-minute conflict discussion. They looked at how playfulness and enthusiasm in everyday life relate to humor and affection during conflict, and saw early support for the importance of small daily moments for couples. The study was strictly observational and therefore correlational: “These findings provide preliminary support for the importance of daily moments in couple relationships, but this research was strictly observational and therefore correlational, so further research is necessary to determine direction of causation.” Our reading, not shown by the study: a conversation start or a question in a chat is one of those small moments.

Other relationships, groups, single writers. All three studies looked at romantic or married couples. For a chat with your mother, a friend or a colleague they establish nothing, and for group chats or a single writer Chat X‑Ray shows numbers only, no research.

Why no AI? Many people look for a reading by ChatGPT or another AI. We decided against it, because a chat belongs to two people: a cloud AI would also send the other person’s messages to someone else’s server, without anyone asking them. What you get here are numbers your browser computes, and fixed sentences that give every research finding its limit.

Example: the made-up chat of Alex and Sam

The example above is a made-up chat over 18 days with 55 messages. Alex writes 27, Sam 28. Alex started 12 of 21 conversations; both reply after a median of 5 minutes. There are 0.45 we-words for every I-word, and the longest streak is 7 days in a row.

What does that mean? On its own, nothing final. Alex starting more often might come down to habit. It gets interesting when the two of you recognize something in it, or when a pattern changes over months. That’s what the reminder is for: export again in a few weeks, and the “Last 30 days / before” block shows the time since today.

Privacy: what happens to your file

Your chat stays on your device. Neither we nor an AI reads it. The messages of the people you chat with belong to them too: share the numbers, not their words.

Your browser reads the file on your device. Chat X‑Ray sends nothing from your file: no upload, no server, no AI, and it stores none of it, not the months you pick and not a phrase you search for either. Close the tab and the file is gone from this page. You can check this with airplane mode. Your browser also makes the share card and the calendar file on your device; the calendar entry is only called “Take another look” and holds nothing from your chat, not even a link to this tool. The card shows only shared numbers: you as “You” and the other person as “Person B.” Whether and with whom you share it is up to you; posting it publicly makes a private chat a little bit public, which is why there are no names on it.

We still want to know whether the tool gets used, but without content: if you agreed to statistics on this website, we count four events: a file read, a card made, a card shared, a reminder saved. We give each one only the tool’s name and the page’s language; as with every page view it measures, Google Analytics adds the page address, the page title, the time, device and browser details, the random ID from the analytics cookie, and the approximate location Google derives from the IP address. No number, name or word from your chat reaches us or Google.

The other person’s messages are their data. It’s best to look at the result together, or to ask first. Chat X‑Ray is meant for people 18 and older. More in our privacy policy.

Frequently asked questions

How do I analyze a WhatsApp chat?

With Chat X‑Ray above: export the chat in WhatsApp without media and drop the file here. Your browser counts messages, conversation starts, reply times, questions and we-talk. No account, no upload, no AI.

How do I export a WhatsApp chat?

On iPhone: open the chat, tap the contact’s or group’s name, “Export chat,” then “Without media.” On Android: open the chat, tap the three-dot menu, “More,” “Export chat,” then “Without media.” In the Mac app: click the contact’s or group’s name, “Export chat,” then “Without media.” On WhatsApp Web: the menu, “Export chat,” “All messages” or “Custom date range,” then “Export.” WhatsApp’s help says the Windows app doesn’t offer it. You don’t need to unzip the file.

Is my chat uploaded, and does it work offline?

No upload: your browser reads the file on your device, and Chat X‑Ray sends nothing from your file. Once the page has loaded it needs no connection, for the months, the phrase count and the card too. Check it yourself: turn on airplane mode, drop the file, and the analysis still runs.

Why is “Export chat” missing?

One possible reason: “Restricted chat” is on in that chat. WhatsApp says nobody in the chat can export it then. In individual chats either person can turn it on and off again, in groups the admins. If the other person did, that’s a clear answer, and it deserves respect.

Can ChatGPT analyze a WhatsApp chat?

Yes, if you upload the file, but then every message the other person wrote ends up with an AI provider too, without anyone asking them. That’s why Chat X‑Ray has no AI: the numbers come from your browser, and nobody but you sees the chat.

Does the other person see that I exported our chat?

WhatsApp’s export instructions mention no notification to the others in the chat; whether that holds for every version, we can’t check. It’s fair to tell them anyway, because their messages belong to them too.

Who should text first in a relationship?

There’s no rule, and this tool doesn’t make one up. It shows each person’s share of conversation starts. A lopsided share over months is a good reason to talk, not proof that someone cares less.

Does Chat X‑Ray work for group chats?

Yes. In chats with three or more people it shows up to 8 of the most active people and names roles like “starts the most conversations.” It shows no late-night values per person in groups: the numbers are for your own reflection, not for judging colleagues. The share card then shows only numbers about the whole group, no names.

Sources

All sources retrieved October 21 to 25, 2026 and archived in the project. For the studies we read the abstracts; the full texts are not freely available, and this page says nothing beyond the abstracts. · Karan A, Rosenthal R, Robbins ML: Meta-analytic evidence that we-talk predicts relationship and personal functioning in romantic couples. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships 36 (2019), pages 2624 to 2651, doi:10.1177/0265407518795336 · Gottman JM, Levenson RW: Marital processes predictive of later dissolution: Behavior, physiology, and health. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 63 (1992), pages 221 to 233, PubMed 1403613 · Gottman JM: The roles of conflict engagement, escalation, and avoidance in marital interaction: A longitudinal view of five types of couples. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 61 (1993), pages 6 to 15, PubMed 8450108 · Driver JL, Gottman JM: Daily marital interactions and positive affect during marital conflict among newlywed couples. Family Process 43 (2004), pages 301 to 314, PubMed 15386956 · WhatsApp Help Center: “How to export your chat history” (Android, iPhone, Web, Mac, Windows), “About restricted chat”, “How to back up your chat history”, “How to free up storage on WhatsApp”, “About WhatsApp charges”, and the older export article from 2020 in the Internet Archive · Apple Support: “Find files on your iPhone or iPad” · Press on the network usage screen: t-online (2024, in German) · Press on the export limit: Android Police (2024), How-To Geek (2024), netzwelt (2021, in German), t-online (2022, in German) · Help lines: National Domestic Violence Hotline, 988 Lifeline, National Domestic Abuse Helpline, Samaritans, Women’s Aid (Ireland), love is respect, Childline (UK), Childline (Ireland), German federal ministry on the Hilfetelefon (in German), Hilfetelefon on phone counseling (in German), TelefonSeelsorge (in German) · Export lines from other people’s real exports, as evidence for placeholders in other languages, locations and polls (facts only, no code copied): whatsparser, WhatsApp-Analyzer, WhatsApp-Chat-Converter, whatsapp-converter, chat-export, whatsapp-text-analysis2, kapta-mobile, whatsapp-chat-parser-website, WhatsR, rwhatsapp · WhatsApp’s own iPhone texts, from the EvidenceData research data set (the texts only): Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, European Portuguese, Italian, French, Dutch, Turkish · Real iPhone export lines from the test data of whats_json (facts only, no code copied): Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French · Word lists of other analysis programs for Spanish and Portuguese placeholders (the words only, no code copied): WhatsApp-Analyzer, whatsapp-group-wrapped, whatsapp-wrapped, qualichat · Unicode Consortium: emoji-data.txt, version 18.0, for recognizing emoji. Recorded verification runs are listed in our verification record (in German).

Published October 25, 2026

Not a relationship test and not a diagnosis: Chat X‑Ray counts what an export file contains and cannot see what happens between the lines. The studies cited describe associations, not causes. The content is general information and does not replace individual medical, legal, tax or financial advice. Not affiliated with WhatsApp or Meta.

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