How to Export WhatsApp Chat to PDF with Images

A WhatsApp chat export that includes media produces a much richer PDF than a text-only export. Images appear directly inside their chat bubbles, voice notes are represented as playback cards, and shared documents are clearly labelled. Getting this right requires exporting with the correct settings from WhatsApp and uploading the complete ZIP to the converter. This guide walks through each step and explains exactly how WaChat to PDF handles each type of media.

Step-by-Step: Export with Media

1. Open WhatsApp and navigate to the conversation you want to export.
2. Tap the contact name or group name at the top of the conversation to open the Info screen.
3. Scroll down and tap Export Chat.
4. When prompted, choose Include Media - not Without Media.
5. Wait for WhatsApp to prepare the export. Large chats with many photos can take a minute or two.
6. Use the share sheet to save the .zip file to Files, Google Drive, or your Downloads folder. Do not extract the ZIP before uploading.

What Types of Media Are Supported

WaChat to PDF processes every media type that WhatsApp includes in its exports. Each type is handled differently in the PDF output to produce the most useful representation within the constraints of the PDF format.

• Images (.jpg, .webp, .png): displayed inline inside the chat bubble, scaled to fit the page width while preserving the original aspect ratio. WEBP files are converted to JPEG during rendering.
• Voice notes (.opus): rendered as a styled audio card showing the waveform graphic, duration, and a speaker icon. The .opus file itself is not embedded in the PDF.
• Videos (.mp4): rendered as a video card with a thumbnail image (first frame), duration label, and a play-button overlay graphic.
• Documents (PDF, DOCX, XLSX, etc.): rendered as a document card showing the original filename, file type icon, and file size. The document content is not embedded.
• Stickers (.webp): displayed inline like images, typically at a smaller size to reflect how they appear in the original conversation.
• GIFs (.gif): first frame is captured as a static image and displayed inline. GIF animation cannot be preserved in a PDF.

What the PDF Looks Like with Media

The PDF output with media closely matches the visual layout of the original WhatsApp conversation. Sent messages appear on the right side in green bubbles. Received messages appear on the left in white bubbles. Images are displayed inside the bubble, with the sender name and timestamp below the image in the same position as they appear in WhatsApp.

Voice note cards and video cards are similarly positioned within the bubble flow so that a reader can follow the conversation in sequence without losing context. If a long caption was added to a photo, the caption text appears beneath the image inside the same bubble. This layout makes the PDF suitable for legal use, where the judge or reader needs to follow the exact sequence of events including any media exchanged.

File Size Considerations with Media

A PDF with embedded images will be significantly larger than a text-only PDF. The size depends on the number of images, their original resolution, and the compression settings applied during PDF generation. As a rough guide: a chat with 500 text messages and 50 images might produce a PDF of 15–30 MB. A chat with 500 images might produce a PDF of 150 MB or more.

WaChat to PDF applies JPEG compression to embedded images at a quality level optimised for readability rather than pixel-perfect reproduction. This reduces file size substantially compared to embedding the raw originals. If you need the full-resolution originals for evidential purposes, retain the original ZIP alongside the PDF - the ZIP contains the unmodified media files exactly as WhatsApp exported them.

Troubleshooting Missing Images

The most common reason for missing images in a converted PDF is that the images were not included in the ZIP you uploaded. This can happen if you accidentally chose Without Media during the export, if images are very old and were cleared from your device storage, or if your ZIP was partially downloaded and some files are missing. Check the contents of the ZIP file directly - open it on your computer and verify that the image files are present alongside _chat.txt.

If images are present in the ZIP but still not appearing in the PDF, the most likely cause is a filename mismatch. WhatsApp occasionally renames files slightly between export and what is referenced in _chat.txt. In these cases the converter reports which filenames it could not match so you can investigate. Updating WhatsApp to the latest version and re-exporting usually resolves filename inconsistencies caused by bugs in older app versions.