How to save iMessages as a PDF (2026 guide)
There is no "Export to PDF" button in the Messages app. Apple has never added one, which is why this is such a common question. There are four realistic ways to get a conversation into a PDF, and the right one depends on whether you have a Mac, whether you need the photos, and how long the conversation is.
Method 1: Print to PDF from a Mac (free, short chats)
If you have a Mac with Messages synced, this is the fastest free option:
- Open Messages on your Mac and select the conversation.
- Scroll all the way to the top of the conversation to load its full history.
- Choose File → Print (or ⌘P).
- Click the PDF dropdown at the bottom-left and choose Save as PDF.
The catch: Messages only prints what it has loaded, so long conversations get truncated — you have to scroll up repeatedly, sometimes for a very long time, and it still often misses older messages. The layout is also plain and cramped: no cover, no date structure, and photos are frequently dropped or badly scaled. It's fine for capturing a handful of messages, poor for a year of them.
Method 2: Screenshots (free, works on any iPhone)
Screenshot the conversation, then in the Photos app select the images, tap Share → Print, and pinch outwards on the print preview to turn it into a PDF you can save.
The catch: it's laborious and the result is a stack of images, not a document. You can't search the text, the timestamps are inconsistent, and a long conversation means hundreds of screenshots. Genuinely useful only for a few messages you want to keep or send to someone.
Method 3: Desktop export software (paid, $30–$50)
Tools like iMazing, TouchCopy, Decipher TextMessage and iExplorer connect to your iPhone or read a backup and can export messages as PDF, usually for somewhere between $30 and $50 for a licence.
The catch: they're built as general-purpose phone-management suites, so you're installing a large application and paying a software licence to do one thing once. The PDF output is typically functional rather than attractive — closer to a data dump than something you'd want to print and keep. They are, however, a solid choice if you need bulk exports across many conversations or formats.
Method 4: A formatted keepsake book (what we built)
We made Keepsake because none of the above produces something that looks like a book. It takes your conversation and lays it out with the real iMessage bubbles — blue for you, grey for them — with your photos inline, date headings, a cover page with the date range, page numbers, and a table of contents for long conversations. Bubbles never get cut in half across a page break.
It runs entirely in your browser: your messages are never uploaded to a server, which you can verify in your browser's network tab. It costs $5 once per conversation, and you see the finished page count before you're asked to pay.
The catch, honestly: you still have to get the data off your phone first — via a Mac, an iPhone backup, or copy-and-paste. Our export guide walks through each. And if you only want a couple of messages saved, Method 1 or 2 is free and perfectly adequate.
Which should you use?
- A few messages, right now, free: screenshots, or print-to-PDF from a Mac.
- A whole conversation you actually care about: a formatted book — the layout is the entire difference between an archive and a keepsake.
- Many conversations, or a legal/records requirement: desktop export software.
Frequently asked
Can I do this without a Mac?
Yes. You can make an encrypted iPhone backup on a Windows PC and read the conversation out of that (photos included), or copy and paste the messages as text from the phone itself. Both are covered in the export guide.
Will the photos be included?
With the Mac and iPhone-backup methods, yes. With copy-and-paste, no — copying text from Messages doesn't carry the images, so the book marks where each photo was instead.
Is it safe to upload my messages to a website?
Generally you should be cautious. In our case nothing is uploaded at all — the parsing and PDF generation happen inside your browser tab using WebAssembly, and you can watch the network tab to confirm no message data leaves your device. See our privacy policy.