Message Mammoth
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Guides · Updated November 2026
By Nicolas Zawadzki, who makes Message Mammoth. The free methods below don't need it.
How to export a WhatsApp chat for court
There are three ways on an iPhone, two of them free. The right one depends on how long the chat is and how much the details matter.
Short answer. For a short chat, use WhatsApp's own Export Chat, which is free and produces a text file. For a long chat, or one that may be questioned, export a PDF with the date and time on every message, plus a spreadsheet of the same messages. Keep the original chat on the phone.
This guide isn't legal advice. Courts set their own rules for evidence; your lawyer or the court clerk can tell you what format they want.
1. WhatsApp's Export Chat (free)
WhatsApp has a built-in export on the iPhone.
- Open the chat in WhatsApp.
- Tap the contact or group name at the top.
- Tap Export Chat.
- If the chat has media, choose With all media, With selected media or Without media.
- Choose where to send it, such as Mail or Files.
What goes wrong: the result is a text file in a ZIP, not a document laid out for reading. Long chats may be cut short: limits of about 40,000 messages without media and 10,000 with media are commonly reported, though WhatsApp's help pages don't state one. There are no message numbers, cover page or page numbers. Keep the ZIP exactly as WhatsApp produced it, and make any readable copy separately.
2. Screenshots (free)
Screenshots work for a few messages. Include the contact's name and number in the first one, and make sure each one shows a date.
What goes wrong: a long chat means many images, and it's hard to show that nothing between two screenshots was left out.
3. A dated, numbered PDF
An exporter reads WhatsApp's own database from a copy of the iPhone, so it isn't limited to what's on screen. WhatsApp keeps its messages separately from Apple's Messages app, and Message Mammoth on a Mac reads both.
- Connect the iPhone to a Mac with a cable and keep it unlocked.
- Choose what to copy. A messages-only copy can finish before WhatsApp's data has arrived, so include photos to copy the whole backup. Allow 15 to 50 minutes, depending on how full the phone is. The app shows progress as it copies.
- If your iPhone's backups are encrypted, enter the backup password when asked. The whole backup is copied in this case.
- Select the chat. Narrow it by date, person or word if you need to.
- Export. You get a PDF, a CSV spreadsheet of the same messages, and a SHA-256 manifest file listing each file's hash.
Each message gets a number and its full date and time with the UTC offset. Replies, reactions and WhatsApp calls are included. The cover page lists the filters you used and how many messages were included and excluded.
Names and unknown items. Names you never saved are marked with "~", as WhatsApp shows them. A message type the app can't identify is printed with its raw type number rather than a guessed meaning.
Texts and WhatsApp together. If a dispute ran across both, you can export them in one PDF. You choose whether it's one date-ordered timeline or grouped by app, and each message is labelled with its app.
Your chats with people on Android are included, because they are stored on your iPhone.
It's free to preview every message and to try exports of up to 20 messages in total, calls and group events included. Unlimited exports are $29.99 once.
WhatsApp on a Mac
If WhatsApp is installed on your Mac, Message Mammoth can read what is stored there, with no cable. The app shows how many messages the Mac holds and their dates before you export.
This copy may be partial, and it doesn't include photos or WhatsApp calls. The export's cover page states that the copy may be partial and has no photos. For the full history, use the iPhone.
Which one to use
| Export Chat | Screenshots | Dated PDF export | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost | Free | Free | Free to preview; trial exports of 20 messages in total; $29.99 once for unlimited |
| Format | Text file in a ZIP | Images | PDF and CSV, with optional text |
| Date and time on every message | Yes, as plain text | Only where shown | Yes, with UTC offset |
| Shows if a message was later removed from the copy | No | No | Numbered messages and a printed count |
| Photos | Optional, as separate files | As shown on screen | Printed in place |
| Reactions | Not documented | As shown on screen | Written out |
| Needs a Mac | No | No | Yes (yours or a borrowed one) |
| Good for | A short chat | A few messages | Long chats, disputes, anything contested |
Checklist before you hand it over
Things lawyers commonly ask for. Check with yours, since requirements differ.
- Everyone in the chat identified, with names and phone numbers
- Date and time on every message, and which time zone
- The whole chat for the period, not only the messages that help you
- Photos and attachments included, or listed if you can't include them
- Nothing edited, cropped or annotated on the copies you hand over
- The phone and the WhatsApp chat kept, unchanged
- A note of how and when you made the copies