Assistant memory
ChatGPT memory alternatives in 2026
ChatGPT memory is the memory built into the assistant you already use, carrying what you mentioned from one conversation to the next. Claude, Gemini and the rest ship a version of it too.
The short answer
Built-in memory holds what you said, in one vendor's product, in sentences. Wend holds who you know, in structure, fed by the accounts where your relationships happen, and read by every assistant at once. Use both.
Wend, measured
92
people from one WhatsApp read, before you grant a single permission.
0.63s
to read 69,000 messages and find the people in them. No model call.
2.4s
for one extraction on the Mac itself, at no cost.
Measured on a real Mac running macOS 26.4.1. On-device extraction needs Apple silicon with Apple Intelligence turned on.
Why people look for ChatGPT memory alternatives
It belongs to one vendor. There is no mechanism for the memory in one assistant to appear in another, so switching assistants means starting the memory over.
It is prose, not a schema. Nothing underneath can answer who you know at Stripe and have not spoken to since March.
It is written from what you typed. It never read your inbox, calendar or messages, so the relationships that never came up in a chat are not in it.
You cannot open the source behind a remembered fact and see the email it came from.
It has no idea two people are the same person under different spellings, and no way for you to merge them.
Side by side
| Dimension | ChatGPT memory | Wend |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | Remembering how you like your answers written, and details that only matter inside that one assistant. | People who already live in an AI assistant and want it to know their network |
| Pricing | Included with the assistant subscription you already pay for | $29/mo or $290/yr, flat at any network size |
| Free tier | Depends on your assistant's plan | None. One price, and nothing is deleted if you stop paying |
| Where your data lives | Their servers | Your Mac, with a cloud copy your agents can reach. The receipts stay on the Mac |
| Who owns it | The assistant vendor. It stays in that product | You. Connect Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor and Gemini at once and they read the same memory |
| Shape | Remembered sentences | People, organizations, events and the typed links between them, queryable with SQL underneath |
| Where facts come from | What you typed into that assistant | Gmail, Calendar, Contacts, LinkedIn archives, your Mac, the browser extension, files, and anything you paste to your agent |
| Sources | We could not find a per-fact source you can open, in any published documentation (checked 2026-08-06) | Every fact links to the email, page, file or message behind it |
| Correcting it | Edit or delete a memory entry | Correct it in the conversation before it saves, merge duplicates, and see two disagreeing sources side by side instead of one overwriting the other |
| Price | Included in your assistant plan | $29/mo, flat at any network size |
Competitor facts and pricing last checked August 2026, from published vendor material. Verify on their site.
Where Wend fits in
Not another app to open. Wend is the memory underneath the assistant you already use: it builds itself out of what your Mac already holds, and every fact it keeps records where it came from. Once the people are in one place, Wend plans the day around them, which is the part a planner without the graph cannot do.
Every major assistant ships memory inside itself, all of it useful, none of it portable. That is not an oversight anybody is about to correct.
Memory is the mechanism of switching cost. It is what makes the assistant you have used for a year better than the one you have not, so shipping portable memory would mean building your own exit.
That conflict is permanent, which is why a neutral layer has to be built by somebody with no model to protect. Wend runs none, so there is nothing here to lock you into.
You get the upside twice. Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor and Gemini read the same memory, so switching costs you nothing, and every frontier release makes your agent better the same day on somebody else's research budget.
ChatGPT memory vs Wend: FAQ
Why would I add Wend if ChatGPT already has memory?
Built-in memory only knows what you typed into that one assistant, so the people you meet and never mention are not in it. It also stays where it is. Wend fills itself from the accounts where your relationships happen, keeps a source on every fact, and is read by every assistant you connect.
Does Wend replace my assistant's memory?
No. Keep using it for preferences and working context. Wend is the memory of people: who they are, how you met, what you owe them, how you are connected. That is the part that needs structure and a source.
Can Claude and ChatGPT read the same Wend memory?
Yes, at the same time. Connect as many assistants as you like and they all read one memory. Update a person in Claude and it is there in ChatGPT. Wend also records which agent proposed each fact, so a memory written by one assistant is attributable later.
Is my data used to train a model?
Not by us, ever, and no model provider in our stack is permitted to train on your content. What your assistant vendor does with a conversation is governed by your agreement with them.
Other alternatives you might compare
A digital brain for the people in your life.
It installs on your Mac, builds the graph out of what is already there, and answers from the AI you already use. Every fact keeps its source. $29 a month, flat at any network size.
Access is invite only right now.