If you have spent years letting Google Chrome remember your logins, those passwords are effectively locked inside Google’s ecosystem — convenient while you live in Chrome, but a problem the day you switch to a dedicated password manager such as 1Password, LastPass or Bitwarden. The good news: Chrome has a built-in export that dumps every saved login into a single portable CSV file, and every password manager can import that file in seconds. Here is how to move your passwords out of Chrome and into the app of your choice — plus the one security rule that matters once that file exists.
iPhone owners should know Safari has its own autofill vault too: our guide on how to stop Safari from suggesting passwords for websites on iPhone explains how Apple’s side behaves, while this tutorial covers the Chrome half of the move.
Step-by-step: export your Chrome passwords
Do this on a computer — the desktop flow is far more reliable than anything on a phone. If Chrome is not installed on your Mac or PC yet, install it and sign in with the same Google account you use on your iPhone, then let your saved passwords sync.
- Open Chrome’s Password Manager. Click the three-dot menu in the top-right corner, choose Settings, then Autofill and passwords → Google Password Manager. (On older Chrome versions this page lived at chrome://settings/passwords.)
- In the Password Manager’s left sidebar, click the gear-shaped Settings icon and choose Export passwords. A few years ago this required flipping an experimental switch at chrome://flags — in current Chrome the export is built in, so ignore old guides that mention it.
- Chrome warns you that exported passwords will be visible to anyone who can open the file. Confirm that you understand, then prove it is really you: type your computer’s login password, or authenticate with Touch ID or Windows Hello when prompted.
- Chrome downloads a file (usually called Chrome passwords.csv) containing every saved login — site, username and password — in plain text. From this moment on, treat that file like a master key. Google’s own Chrome Help page on managing and exporting passwords describes the same flow.
- Now bring the file into its new home. In 1Password, for example, open the app or web vault, open your account menu, choose Import, pick the “Chrome CSV” format, select the downloaded file and let it pull in your logins. LastPass, Bitwarden and Dashlane all offer an equivalent CSV-import option.
- Delete the CSV the moment the import succeeds — then empty the Trash or Recycle Bin. Because the file is unencrypted, anyone who finds it can read every password. If you must move it between devices first (by email, messenger or cloud storage), put it inside a password-protected ZIP or encrypt the drive.
If it still doesn’t work
If the Export passwords option is greyed out or missing, you are probably on a work or school computer where an administrator has disabled it — switch to a personal device. If the CSV imports but some logins are missing, make sure Chrome is signed in and password sync has fully finished (compare the list at passwords.google.com). And if your new manager rejects the file, re-run the import and explicitly choose the “Chrome CSV” preset instead of a generic CSV option.
Frequently asked questions
Is it safe to export my Chrome passwords?
Exporting itself is safe — the danger is the file. It is plain, unencrypted text, so keep its lifetime measured in minutes: export, import, delete, empty the trash. Never leave it in Downloads or a shared folder.
Can I export passwords from Chrome on my iPhone instead?
Not directly — the iPhone version of Chrome offers no password export. That is exactly why the desktop route matters: install Chrome on a Mac or PC, sign in with the same Google account, let your iPhone’s saved passwords sync over, and export from there.
Conclusion
Moving from Chrome’s built-in saver to a dedicated manager takes about ten minutes: sync, export, import, delete. The payoff: strong generated passwords, secure sharing, and logins that follow you across every browser, not just Chrome. And if you are reorganizing your whole browsing setup, our guide on how to change Safari’s design on iPhone is a good next stop.
