diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 9154434..be642d0 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -29,6 +29,8 @@ Put your OpenAI API key in the platform configuration directory for chap, e.g.,
 
  * chap render --last
 
+ * chap import chatgpt-style-chatlog.json
+
 ## interactive terminal usage
  * chap tui
 
@@ -49,3 +51,9 @@ You can select the text generating backend with the `-b` flag:
  * openai\_chatgpt: the default, paid API, best quality results
  * textgen: Works with https://github.com/oobabooga/text-generation-webui and can run locally with various models, basic and low quality. Needs the server URL in *$configuration_directory/textgen\_url*.
  * lorem: local non-AI lorem generator for testing
+
+## Importing from ChatGPT
+
+The userscript https://github.com/pionxzh/chatgpt-exporter can export chat logs from chat.openai.com in a json format.
+This format is different than chap's, especially since chap currently only represents a single branch of conversation in one log.
+You can use the `chap import` command to import all the branches of a chatgpt-style chatlog in json format into a series of chap-style chat logs.
diff --git a/src/chap/commands/import.py b/src/chap/commands/import.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1a5017d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/chap/commands/import.py
@@ -0,0 +1,83 @@
+# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2023 Jeff Epler <jepler@gmail.com>
+#
+# SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT
+
+from __future__ import annotations
+
+import json
+import pathlib
+
+import click
+import rich
+
+from ..core import conversations_path, new_session_path
+from ..session import Message, Session
+
+console = rich.get_console()
+
+
+def iter_sessions(name, content, session_in, node_id):
+    node = content["mapping"][node_id]
+    session = Session(session_in.session[:])
+
+    if "message" in node:
+        role = node["message"]["author"]["role"]
+        text_content = "".join(node["message"]["content"]["parts"])
+        session.session.append(Message(role=role, content=text_content))
+
+    if children := node.get("children"):
+        for c in children:
+            yield from iter_sessions(name, content, session, c)
+    else:
+        title = content.get("title") or "Untitled"
+        session.session[0] = Message(
+            "system",
+            f"# {title}\nChatGPT session imported from {name}, branch {node_id}.\n\n",
+        )
+        yield node_id, session
+
+
+def do_import(output_directory, f):
+    stem = pathlib.Path(f.name).stem
+    content = json.load(f)
+    session = Session.new_session()
+
+    default_branch = content["current_node"]
+    console.print(f"Importing [bold]{f.name}[nobold]")
+    root = [k for k, v in content["mapping"].items() if not v.get("parent")][0]
+    for branch, session in iter_sessions(f.name, content, session, root):
+        if branch == default_branch:
+            session_filename = new_session_path(output_directory / (f"{stem}.json"))
+        else:
+            session_filename = new_session_path(
+                output_directory / (f"{stem}_{branch}.json")
+            )
+        with open(session_filename, "w", encoding="utf-8") as f_out:
+            f_out.write(session.to_json())  # pylint: disable=no-member
+        console.print(f" -> {session_filename}")
+
+
+@click.command
+@click.option(
+    "--output-directory",
+    "-o",
+    type=click.Path(file_okay=False, path_type=pathlib.Path),
+    default=conversations_path,
+)
+@click.argument(
+    "files", nargs=-1, required=True, type=click.File("r", encoding="utf-8")
+)
+def main(output_directory, files):
+    """Import files from the ChatGPT webui
+
+    This understands the format produced by
+    https://github.com/pionxzh/chatgpt-exporter though it only exports the
+    'final version' of the conversation, not all the branches"""
+
+    output_directory.mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)
+    for f in files:
+        do_import(output_directory, f)
+
+
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+    main()  # pylint: disable=no-value-for-parameter