Turn a ChatGPT chat into a .tex file.
The chat wrote the formulas in LaTeX. The page rendered them, and until now you typed them again. Extry writes the conversation back out as LaTeX — a source file that compiles.
- retry-backoff-design.tex22.6 KBlatex
Why LaTeX
Because the formulas were LaTeX to begin with
A conversation that goes into a paper gets repaired by hand: every underscore, every percent sign, every table. The mathematics is the worst of it, because the chat already wrote it in LaTeX and rendering it to HTML threw that away.
This file is built from the markdown tokens rather than from the rendered page. That is why the mathematics survives — the HTML has already lost it to KaTeX markup.
What the file looks like
A document, not a transcript pasted into one
Inline mathematics stays between dollars, display mathematics becomes a bracketed block, and tables come out as tabularx with booktabs rules.
The preamble is deliberately plain. Replace it with your own class file and keep everything below \begin{document}.
\begin{document}
\maketitle
\subsection*{\#2 · ChatGPT · 14:32 · gpt-5}
The delay grows as $d = b \cdot 2^{n}$,
so add jitter:
\[
d' = \operatorname{U}(0,\; d)
\]
\begin{tabularx}{\linewidth}{XX}
\toprule
\textbf{attempt} & \textbf{delay} \\
\midruleWhat it handles
The parts that usually need repairing
Not a promise of beauty. A promise that it compiles.
Mathematics
Inline and display, straight from what the chat wrote. Nothing is parsed and nothing is re-typeset: the formula reaches the file character for character, as the chat wrote it.
Chemistry and units
mhchem and siunitx are asked for only when the conversation uses them, and only when installed — otherwise the source is shown instead of the document failing.
Pictures and tables
Images point at files/ in the archive, tables use booktabs, and a bare address goes through \url so it breaks instead of running off the page.
How it works
Three steps, one source file
- Open the conversation in ChatGPT and click the Extry button on the page.
- Pick LaTeX in the panel.
- Press Download and compile the .tex with XeLaTeX or LuaLaTeX.
No account, no upload step. The file is built in the page, so the conversation is not sent anywhere to be converted.
Processing
Where each part runs
| What | Where it happens |
|---|---|
| Export to every format | In your browser |
| Attachments and images | In your browser |
| Conversation content | Not sent anywhere |
| Usage statistics | Not collected |
| Typeset PDF (later, opt-in) | On a server, file deleted right after |
Questions
About the LaTeX export
Which compiler do I need?
XeLaTeX or LuaLaTeX. Not pdfLaTeX: a conversation can hold Russian, Chinese and Arabic in one paragraph, and only the Unicode engines set that without a preamble longer than the transcript itself.
Does the mathematics survive?
Yes, because nothing is converted. The .tex is built from the markdown rather than from the rendered page, so the formula in the file is the one the chat wrote. If the chat wrote something TeX cannot compile, TeX will say so when you run it — we would rather it told you than dropped the formula quietly.
What about chemistry?
Formulas written with \ce come through and mhchem is loaded for them. If mhchem is not installed, the preamble defines a fallback that prints the source rather than stopping the compile.
Can I use my own document class?
That is what the plain preamble is for. Replace everything above \begin{document} with your own class and the body still compiles.
More
Other shapes for the same chat
The same conversation, written differently: Markdown, Word, printing to PDF, the main page.