Move Chrome Passwords to Bitwarden, Step by Step

On this page, 12 sections

To move Chrome passwords to Bitwarden: export a CSV from chrome://password-manager/settings, import that file in Bitwarden under Tools, then turn off Chrome’s saving, delete the passwords from Chrome and delete the CSV.

The export is the risky part, because the file is readable text. Bitwarden’s own page tells you to delete it after the import to protect you if your computer is compromised.

This post follows Bitwarden’s Chrome import page and Chrome’s help page, both read on 11 October 2026. The one thing I ran myself is the row-count check near the end, on a made-up three-entry file.

Before you start

Install the extension first. The steps are in the Bitwarden Chrome extension setup guide.
Make sure you can log in to Bitwarden on the web, not only in the extension. The import runs from the web app, the extension, the desktop app or the CLI, per Bitwarden’s page.
Do the export on a machine you trust, with no sync or backup tool watching the folder you save into. That last point is my advice, not Bitwarden’s.

Step 1: export from Chrome

Bitwarden’s page for Chrome, Edge and other Chromium browsers gives this route on desktop:

Open chrome://password-manager/settings.
Find Export Passwords and select Download file. You may be asked for your computer’s password.
Choose where to save it and check the format is comma-separated values (CSV).
Select Save.

Chrome’s own help page describes the same screen: on the right of Export Passwords, select Download file. On mobile, Bitwarden’s page says to open Password Manager from the menu and tap Settings, then Export Passwords.

Step 2: import into Bitwarden

In the web app, select Tools, then Import.
Choose where the data goes: My vault, or an organisation’s vault. You can pick a folder to hold the imported items.
In the File format dropdown, choose the Chrome entry. Bitwarden’s page names CSV as the format for Chrome exports.
Select Choose File and pick the CSV, or paste its contents into the text box.
Select Import.

Two lines from Bitwarden’s page are worth keeping in front of you. First, data is encrypted locally before it is sent to the server. Second, importing does not check for duplicates: if you import the same file twice, or items already in the vault, you get duplicates.

So import once. If something looks wrong, fix it in the vault rather than re-running the import.

I did not time an import, so I cannot tell you how long a large file takes. Where Bitwarden shows the imported items afterwards is not something I read on its page, so look in the folder you chose, or in the vault list if you picked none.

Step 3: check the count before you delete anything

Do not delete Chrome’s copy until you know the vault has everything. Compare the number of entries in the CSV with the number of items Bitwarden shows.

The obvious command is wc -l. It is wrong whenever an entry has a multi-line note, because it counts line breaks, not records. I ran both on a made-up file with three entries where one note spans two lines:

import csv, sys
with open(sys.argv[1], newline="", encoding="utf-8") as f:
    rows = list(csv.reader(f))
print(len(rows) - 1)

I syntax-checked that script with python -m py_compile and ran it on the test file. It printed 3. wc -l on the same file printed 5, which is 4 once you subtract the header, for a file that holds 3.

The file is synthetic, written for this test, with no real passwords in it. Chrome’s real export may add or rename columns, so I did not hard-code any column name; the script only counts rows.

Then count the items in your Bitwarden vault yourself and compare. Bitwarden’s page does not say where a total is shown, so this step is manual. Allow for items you already had before importing.

Step 4: turn off Chrome’s saving

Bitwarden’s page on deactivating a browser’s built-in password manager gives the Chrome route: open chrome://password-manager/settings and turn off Offer to save passwords and passkeys and Sign in automatically. Chrome’s help page confirms the first one: by default Chrome offers to save your password, and you can turn that off at any time under Settings.

Step 5: delete the passwords from Chrome

Bitwarden’s page says you may also want to delete the data from the browser once it is imported. Chrome’s help page shows how to delete a single password: open the password and select Delete.

There is a bigger button, and it needs care. Chrome’s help page says Delete all Google Password Manager data covers passwords and passkeys. If you have passkeys saved in Google Password Manager that you have not moved anywhere, do not use it. Delete the passwords you imported, and leave the passkeys until you have a plan for them.

If you are signed in to Chrome, Chrome’s help page says passwords are saved to your Google Account and used across your devices. So deleting here can also delete them for your phone’s Chrome. That is why the count check comes first.

Step 6: delete the CSV

Bitwarden’s page: after the import, delete the exported file from your computer, which protects you if the computer is compromised. Empty the Trash too. Moving a file to the Trash does not remove it from the disk; that is general file behaviour I am stating from experience of how operating systems work, not from Bitwarden’s page.

If you copied the CSV anywhere else, such as a cloud folder, an email draft or a chat, remove those copies as well.

Two minutes of checking now saves an evening of password resets later. Pick three logins at random from the CSV, one old, one rarely used and one with a long password, and confirm each opens in Bitwarden with the right username and URL before you trust the import.

Step 7: prove autofill works

Log out of one site, open its login page, open the Bitwarden extension and autofill. If a login is missing, it is probably one Chrome never saved, or one saved under a different address. Add it by hand.

What I could not check

I did not run a real Chrome export, so I cannot say which columns your file has or how Bitwarden treats a Chrome note field on import.

I did not open Bitwarden’s web app, so the menu names (Tools, Import, File format) are the ones in its help page on 11 October 2026 and may have moved. I also did not check how Chrome on Android or iOS handles the export prompt beyond Bitwarden’s description.

How this was checked

I read Bitwarden’s Import from Chrome, Edge and Chromium page, its page on deactivating the browser’s password manager and Chrome’s Manage passwords help page on 11 October 2026. I ran the row-count script once on a synthetic file (Python 3.14.7) and checked its syntax with py_compile.

Do this today

Export the CSV, import it once, and write down the entry count before and after. Do not delete anything from Chrome until the two numbers match. Then delete the CSV. If you are still weighing whether to leave Chrome’s manager at all, read why I choose Bitwarden over Chrome’s browser password manager and password manager vs browser password manager.

Resources

Bitwarden: Import from Chrome, Edge and Chromium browsers (read 11 October 2026)
Bitwarden: Deactivate my browser’s built-in password manager (read 11 October 2026)
Google Chrome Help: Manage passwords in Chrome (read 11 October 2026)

Move Chrome Passwords to Bitwarden: Export, Import and Clean Up