Hey, all chats are stored locally. Also, it is open source: https://github.com/s-sameer/chatgpt-chat-saver

I learned today, that o-1 is able to search through all chats and can find and verify if the findings are relevant to the actual context. i found that very usefull as i have a lot of very long chats regarding only one project. ChatGpt lists the findings with the date and context and searches further back if asked for it. (in my case summer 2024)

I feel the same. You might want to check out https://martiansoftware.com/chatkeeper for a non-extension option. It's a cli that syncs a ChatGPT export with local markdown files. (full disclosure: it's my project)

Why not just copy paste these chats and save them into a local file?

I mean I've been copying chats with my friends and saving them locally since the time online chats were called Instant Messaging.