Honestly: what comes across, what doesn’t.
Get your data out of ChatGPT.
- 01
Settings → Data controls → Export data
In ChatGPT web, click your profile icon, Settings, Data controls, then Export data. You'll receive an email within an hour with a link to download a .zip.
- 02
Save the .zip locally
The archive includes conversations.json (your full chat history), model_comparisons.json, user.json, and a chat.html file for browser viewing. Keep this — it's your permanent record of your ChatGPT usage.
- 03
Extract Custom Instructions
In ChatGPT: Settings → Personalization → Custom Instructions. Copy both the 'What would you like ChatGPT to know about you' and 'How would you like ChatGPT to respond' fields to a text file. You'll paste them into a LADLE Voice Guide in step 2 below.
- 04
Identify your top 3-5 GPTs
In ChatGPT: My GPTs. Note the ones you actually used regularly (not the ones you saved and forgot). For each, save the instructions, description, and any attached knowledge files. These become LADLE Projects.
Set LADLE up the way ChatGPT was working for you.
- 01
Create your default LADLE Project
Sign up at ladle.chat, then in the sidebar click New Project. Name it 'Default' (or something specific to how you work). This is where your day-to-day chats live.
- 02
Paste Custom Instructions as your Voice Guide
In the Project settings, add a Voice Guide. Combine your two ChatGPT fields into one document: 'Here's who I am and what I care about. Here's how I want responses.' Add 3-5 examples of writing in your voice — the samples improve output quality more than the rules do.
- 03
Recreate top GPTs as Projects
For each of your top-used ChatGPT GPTs: create a new LADLE Project, add its knowledge files as attachments, paste its instructions into the Voice Guide. Naming: match the GPT name so muscle memory carries over.
- 04
Move 3-5 recurring chats to fresh chats in the right Project
Don't try to import old chat history. Instead: pick your 3-5 most-active recurring conversations from your ChatGPT export, and start each one fresh in LADLE by pasting the last 2-3 exchanges as context. Preserves continuity without the noise of ancient history.
Their feature → our equivalent (or an honest “we don’t”).
Nothing hidden, no lock-in.
Seven days to feel at home.
- DAY 1
Set up Default Project with Voice Guide
20 minutes. Paste your Custom Instructions, add 3-5 writing samples, do a test chat, iterate the Guide once based on how the response landed.
- DAY 2
Recreate one heavy-use GPT as a Project
Pick the GPT you used most yesterday in ChatGPT. Rebuild in LADLE: attach files, paste instructions, test. If it lands well, do the next one tomorrow.
- DAY 3
Do actual work in LADLE
Take one real task you'd do in ChatGPT and do it in LADLE instead. Not a test task — a real one. Notice what feels different.
- DAY 4-5
Add remaining Projects, refine Voice Guides
By now you have a sense of what Projects you'll actually use. Set up the rest. Each Voice Guide takes 20 minutes and improves noticeably after one iteration cycle.
- DAY 6
Cancel ChatGPT if the switch is landing
You'll know by day six whether LADLE fits your workflow. If yes, cancel ChatGPT (Settings → Manage → Cancel). Your export .zip stays; nothing is lost.
- DAY 7
First meal statement lands next month-end
You've now been on LADLE for a week. On the last day of the calendar month, your first monthly impact statement lands in email — with a reference to the LADLE meal-fund report. Partner donation references publish alongside once the $50k/year partnership threshold clears.
- Meal math: 10 meals/mo reserved in the LADLE meal fund at the partner's $0.80/meal peg — ships as real our future hunger-relief partner donations once we clear the $50k/year partnership threshold.
- Voice Guide behavior: same result as Custom Instructions but per-Project scoping is more flexible.
- No usage-tier obfuscation: usage cap is visible and explained in Settings.
- Published open metrics + monthly fund reports you can verify.
- Straightforward cancellation, no retention pop-up.
- No Advanced Voice Mode (fluid back-and-forth voice conversation).
- No DALL-E-style image generation.
- No plugin ecosystem or GPT marketplace.
- Voice input only via speech-to-text; not an integrated voice conversation.
- Smaller company, smaller feature roadmap.
Migration questions.
Yes — $20 on LADLE alongside your $20/$25 ChatGPT subscription for one month costs $40-45 total. Cheaper than making the wrong call and having to reverse it. If LADLE doesn't work for you, the 7-day full refund covers you (see /legal/refunds); if it does, cancel ChatGPT at month-end and you're done.
Try LADLE for a week alongside ChatGPT. Then decide.
7-day full refund if you don't switch. Meals fund from your first month either way.