Character.ai bankruptcy: How to export your chats before the sale

Character Technologies, the company behind the chatbot platform Character.ai, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Delaware on Oct. 12. The goal 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. Character.ai expects the sale to close in late November or early December 2026. Until then, the service remains available, and paid subscriptions stay active with billing unchanged for now.

CEO Colin Adams cited "significant legal, regulatory, and operational headwinds," TechCrunch reports. The company faces several lawsuits, including cases brought by families after the deaths of teenagers and a suit filed by the state of Pennsylvania. In October 2025, Character.ai announced that it would bar users under 18 from open-ended chats.

Disney bids $20 million

Disney is the first bidder. It is offering $20 million for a non-exclusive, perpetual license to some of the company's intellectual property, according to Forbes. User data is excluded. 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. Disney will not take over the app or the user accounts, so other bidders can still make offers for them in the auction.

In 2025, Disney sent Character.ai a cease-and-desist letter demanding that it remove characters such as Elsa and Darth Vader from the platform. In September 2026, Disney hired former Character.ai CEO Karandeep Anand as its chief technology officer.

What happens to your chats

Disney does not get users' chats under the current bid. It is unclear what would happen if another bidder bought the platform along with its accounts. Character.ai says only that user information "continues to be protected under our Privacy Policy." That 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.

US bankruptcy law provides for a consumer privacy ombudsman. A court appoints one 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. As of Tuesday, no one had asked the court to appoint one, Straight Arrow News reports. Calli Schroeder of the Electronic Privacy Information Center called the clause "a pretty weak protection."

In its court filings, Character.ai puts the number of current and past users at about 163 million, PPC Land reports. The company does not consider these users to be creditors who must be notified of the case.

How to export your data

On the web, open your profile, go to Profile Settings, then Account, then Manage Account & Data, and click Export Data. In the app, open your profile, tap the settings icon and select Export Data under Legal & Privacy. According to the Character.ai help center, exports can take three to four weeks to process. You will then receive an email with a download link that expires after seven days.

A request made today will arrive in early November at the earliest, shortly before the sale is expected to close. Download the file as soon as the email arrives. The help page does not list what the export contains.

Delete your account only after exporting

On the web, you can delete your account in the same menu under Delete Account. In the app, go to settings and select Remove Account. The help page says deletion cannot be reversed. If you delete your account before the export arrives, you lose access to your chats as well. If you pay through the App Store or Google Play, cancel the subscription there too, because the help page does not say whether deleting the account ends it.

Users in the EU also have a right to erasure and to data portability under the GDPR. Character.ai's regional privacy notices mention the right to object to the use of personal data for training its AI models. Our guide to AI training opt-outs explains how this works at ChatGPT, Gemini and Meta.