Built-in memory only takes you so far

ChatGPT remembers your preferences and the chat you're in. Everything bigger than a thread is on you to organize, recall, and carry forward.

  • Built-in memory is great at short-term. Decisions, research, and accumulated context need somewhere durable to live.
  • Knowledge built up in ChatGPT can't follow you to Claude, Cursor, or your editor.
  • You can't read, edit, or take with you what the AI actually saved about your work.
  • Memory you can't open is hard to trust and impossible to correct.

Basic Memory changes that

Give ChatGPT a persistent, searchable knowledge base it can read and write to.

Long-term layer for short-term memory

ChatGPT's built-in memory carries the working thread. Basic Memory carries the long-term record. Both run together on the same turn. Keep ChatGPT memory on; turn this on too.

Read, edit, and own the file

Notes are plain Markdown on your disk or in your cloud workspace. Open them in Obsidian, edit them by hand, version them in Git, take them anywhere.

Shared with every other AI tool

The same knowledge base is available in Claude, Cursor, Codex, Hermes, OpenClaw, and any MCP client. Your context follows you across vendors.

Native remote MCP connector

Connect over the Model Context Protocol — ChatGPT's official extension surface. No scraping, no wrappers. Twenty-plus Basic Memory tools become available to the chat.

One command to get started

Quick Setup
https://cloud.basicmemory.com/mcp

Add Basic Memory in ChatGPT → Settings → Connectors → Create. Choose Remote MCP, paste the URL above, and complete OAuth with your Basic Memory account. Custom connectors require a ChatGPT Plus, Pro, or Business plan. Full setup guide →

Start building with ChatGPT

Try Basic Memory free for 7 days. Your notes stay yours either way.

7-Day Free Trial

$15/seat/month
Graduated team pricing
  • AI collaboration via MCP
  • Shared workspaces for teams and agents
  • Team member management and audit logs
  • Full-text search across notes and projects
  • Desktop, mobile, and web access
  • Private, exportable Markdown files
  • 50,000 notes per seat
  • 1,000 note updates per seat per day
  • Cancel anytime, your data stays yours

Open source available for power users

View on GitHub

Frequently asked questions

How do I give ChatGPT persistent memory with Basic Memory?
Add Basic Memory as a custom connector in ChatGPT under Settings → Connectors → Create. Choose Remote MCP, paste https://cloud.basicmemory.com/mcp, and complete OAuth with your Basic Memory account. ChatGPT can then search, read, and write your knowledge base across every conversation. Remote MCP connectors require a ChatGPT Plus, Pro, or Business plan.
Does this replace ChatGPT’s built-in memory?
No. Keep it on. ChatGPT’s built-in memory is the short-term layer: your preferences, the thread of a chat, what you said yesterday. Basic Memory is the long-term layer underneath: a large, owned knowledge base in plain Markdown that the same context can travel to Claude, Cursor, Hermes, OpenClaw, or anywhere else you work. Both run together on the same turn.
What does ChatGPT actually get?
Through the remote MCP connector, ChatGPT gets the full Basic Memory tool surface: full-text and semantic search across your notes, read and write any note by title or permalink, navigate the knowledge graph via memory:// URLs, list directories, get recent activity, switch between projects and team workspaces, and validate notes against schemas. Twenty-plus tools in total.
Will my context follow me to other AI tools?
Yes. That is the point. The same knowledge base is available to Claude, Cursor, Codex, Hermes, OpenClaw, the Gemini CLI, Obsidian, VS Code, and any other MCP client. Build context once in ChatGPT, recall it tomorrow in Cursor.
What does it cost to use Basic Memory with ChatGPT?
Basic Memory is free and open source (AGPL-3.0) to run locally. Connecting ChatGPT over remote MCP uses Basic Memory Cloud, which starts at $15/seat/month with a 7-day trial. ChatGPT custom connectors also require a paid ChatGPT plan (Plus, Pro, or Business).