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History & Search

Open WebUI provides a powerful system for managing and navigating your previous conversations. Whether you are looking for a specific snippet of code from last month or trying to organize hundreds of chats, the history and search features help you find your data quickly.

Chat History Sidebar​

All your conversations are automatically saved in the Sidebar.

Searching chat history

  • Persistence: Chats are saved to the internal database (webui.db) and are available across all your devices.

  • Organization: Chats are grouped by time period (Today, Yesterday, Previous 7 Days, etc.).

  • Unread Indicator: Chats with new activity show an unread dot in the sidebar until you open them. A chat's three-dot menu has Mark as unread to put the dot back; a folder's menu, and the Chats section header's own menu, both have Mark all as read to clear a folder or your whole chat list in one go.

  • Renaming: Titles are automatically generated by a task model, but you can manually rename any chat by clicking the pencil icon next to its title. The automatic title is written without counting as activity, so a chat is not pushed back to the top of the list, or marked unread again, just for being named.

  • Archivial: Instead of deleting, you can Archive chats to remove them from the main list while keeping them downloadable and searchable.

  • Folder Unread Count: A folder shows how many unread chats it holds, counting its subfolders too. See Folders & Projects.

Open WebUI tracks read state per chat and updates it when you open a conversation, so unread indicators stay in sync across sessions. Opening a chat clears its unread mark, and the folder counts, in your other open windows right away.

Searching Your History​

You can search through your conversations using the global search bar in the sidebar.

  1. Click the Search icon or use the keyboard shortcut Cmd+K / Ctrl+K.
  2. Type your query. Open WebUI performs a fuzzy search across:
    • Chat Titles
    • Message Content
    • Tags (Search using tag:my-tag-name)
  3. Click on a result to immediately jump to that conversation.

Filter prefixes​

You can narrow results with filter prefixes, alone or combined with a query:

  • tag:<name> — chats with a given tag
  • folder:<name> — chats in a folder
  • pinned: — pinned chats only
  • archived: — archived chats only
  • shared: — shared chats only

For example, folder:work meeting notes searches for "meeting notes" within the work folder. Matching results show a short snippet of the matched message.

Native Conversation Search (Agentic)​

When using a model with Native Function Calling enabled (see the Central Tool Calling Guide), models can search through your chat history autonomously.

Available History Tools:​

  • search_chats: Simple text search across chat titles and message content. Returns matching chat IDs and snippets.
  • view_chat: Reads and returns the full message history of a specific chat by ID.

This allows the model to leverage its own previous work. You can ask: "What was the feedback I got on my last email draft?" or "Find the Python script I wrote about image processing two weeks ago."

The model will search your history, identify the correct chat, read it, and provide you with an answer or the code you were looking for, saving you the effort of manual scrolling and copy-pasting.

Data Management​

  • Export: You can download individual chats or your entire history as JSON, PDF, or Markdown.
  • Import: Drag and drop a JSON chat export into the sidebar to restore it.
  • Deletion: You can delete individual chats or clear your entire history from Settings > Chats.
This content is for informational purposes only and does not constitute a warranty, guarantee, or contractual commitment. Open WebUI is provided "as is." See your license for applicable terms.