How to Export Notion Database to Excel

Need to run a deeper analysis on the data you've carefully organized in Notion? While Notion is fantastic for structured notes and project management, sometimes you just need the raw power of a spreadsheet for complex calculations, pivot tables, or offline access. This tutorial will walk you through exactly how to export your Notion database into Microsoft Excel, step-by-step.

Why Export a Notion Database to Excel?

Moving your data from Notion to Excel isn't just about changing scenery, it's about unlocking a different set of tools perfectly suited for data analysis and reporting. You might need to do this when you want to:

• Perform Advanced Calculations: Excel is the undisputed king of complex formulas, financial modeling, and powerful functions like VLOOKUP, XLOOKUP, and INDEX-MATCH that go beyond Notion's capabilities.
• Create Pivot Tables and Charts: If you need to summarize, group, and visualize large datasets to spot trends, nothing beats an Excel pivot table. It's the fastest way to slice and dice your information from different angles.
• Collaborate with Non-Notion Users: Nearly everyone in the business world has access to and knows how to use Excel. Exporting your data ensures that colleagues in finance, operations, or leadership can work with it without needing a Notion account.
• Maintain an Offline Backup: Keeping a local copy of your important databases on your computer is always a smart move. An Excel or CSV file provides a simple, accessible backup.
• Connect to Other Tools: Many business intelligence programs, data visualization tools, and other software platforms are designed to import data directly from CSV or Excel files.

The Primary Method: Using Notion's Built-In Export Feature

The most straightforward way to get your data into Excel is by using Notion’s native export function. This process exports your database as a CSV (Comma Separated Values) file, which Excel can open perfectly. Here’s how it works.

Step 1: Open Your Target Notion Database

First, navigate to the Notion page that contains the database you want to export. This can be a full-page database or an inline database on a page with other content. Click on it to make sure it's the active element you're viewing.

Step 2: Find the Three-Dot Menu (...)

In the top-right corner of your screen, you'll see a small menu icon with three horizontal dots (...). This is the "More" menu for your database. Click on this icon to open up a range of page and database options.

Step 3: Click "Export"

In the dropdown menu that appears, find and select the "Export" option. This will open a new pop-up window with settings for your export.

Step 4: Configure Your Export Settings

This is the most important step, where you tell Notion exactly what you want to export and in what format. You'll see several options:

• Export format: Click the dropdown and select "Markdown & CSV". This is the choice that will give you the clean, spreadsheet-friendly data file you need. The other options, like "PDF" or "HTML," are better for creating presentable documents, not for data analysis.
• Include databases: Ensure this is set to "Current view" if you only want the data as it's currently filtered and sorted. If you want every single entry from the database, regardless of your current view, you might need to select an unfiltered view before exporting or ensure you select the source that includes all data. Typically, "Current view" is sufficient.
• Include content: You can choose Everything to ensure all properties you wish to see are on display in the view.
• Include subpages: This option isn't typically relevant for database exports, as databases don't contain subpages in the same way regular pages do. You can leave this toggled off.

Step 5: Export Your Data

Once you’ve confirmed your settings, click the blue "Export" button. Notion will take a moment to prepare your files. Depending on the size of your database, this could be instant or take a few minutes. When it's ready, Notion will notify you that your file is prepared and begin a download.

The download will arrive as a single compressed .zip file on your computer.

Opening and Cleaning Your Data in Excel

Your exported file is now on your computer, but you need to do a couple more things to get it ready for use in Excel.

Step 1: Unzip the File

Locate the downloaded .zip file (usually in your "Downloads" folder). You need to "unzip" or "extract" it to see the contents.

• On Windows: Right-click the file and select "Extract All..."
• On Mac: Simply double-click the file. It will automatically extract into a new folder.

Inside the new folder, you'll find at least one CSV file. Its name will match the name of your Notion database view.

Step 2: Open the CSV File in Excel

You have two main ways to open your CSV file correctly in Excel.

Method A: Double-Click to Open (The Quick Way)

In most cases, you can just double-click the CSV file, and it will open directly in Excel. This works perfectly 90% of the time, with each piece of data from your Notion database columns appearing neatly in the columns of your Excel sheet.

Method B: Use Excel's "Get Data from Text/CSV" (The Robust Way)

Sometimes, double-clicking can cause formatting issues, especially with dates, special characters, or numbers that start with zero. The "Get Data from Text/CSV" feature is a more reliable method that gives you greater control.

1. Open a new, blank workbook in Excel.
2. Go to the "Data" tab on the top ribbon.
3. In the "Get & Transform Data" group, click "From Text/CSV."
4. A file explorer window will open. Navigate to the extracted folder and select your CSV file. Click "Import."
5. A preview window will appear. Excel is smart and will usually detect the correct settings automatically. You should see "Delimiter: Comma" and your data should look correctly organized in the preview. It will also handle character encoding (like UTF-8) to make sure accents and symbols appear correctly.
6. Click the "Load" button at the bottom. Your data will be loaded into a new Excel sheet as a formatted table.

Potential Issues and How to Fix Them

Exporting data isn't always a flawless process. Here are a few common hiccups you might encounter and what to do about them.

Limitation: What Doesn't Get Exported?

It's crucial to understand that exporting only transfers the raw data, not all of Notion's rich content features. Things that will not be properly exported include:

• Files & Media: If you have a property for file attachments, the export will only include the hyperlink to that file, not the file itself.
• Relations & Rollups: This is a big one. A Relation property will typically export as the title of the related page (just text). A Rollup property, which relies on a relation, might export the calculated value, but it loses its dynamic link and becomes static text or a number. If your database is heavily reliant on linked database relations, be prepared to do some manual data joining in Excel.
• Rich formatting: Any special text formatting, colors, or callout blocks within your page content will be lost.

Data in the Wrong Format (e.g., Dates as Numbers)

Sometimes Excel might misinterpret your data. You might see a date from Notion like "June 25, 2024" appear as a strange number like "45467" in Excel. Don't panic!

This is just Excel storing the date as a serial number. To fix it, simply highlight the column, right-click, select "Format Cells," and choose the "Date" category. This will convert the numbers back to a readable date format.

Consider Automation for Regular Exports

If you find yourself exporting the same database from Notion to Excel every week, the manual process can get tedious. For a more hands-off approach, you can explore automation tools like Zapier or Make.com.

These platforms act as a bridge between your apps. You can create a workflow (or "Zap") that says, "When a new item is added to my Notion database, add a new row with its data to a specific Google Sheets or Excel Online file." This keeps your spreadsheet updated in near real-time without you having to lift a finger - a great option for ongoing reporting dashboards.

Final Thoughts

Getting your organized information out of Notion and into a powerful analysis tool like Excel is a simple process once you know the steps. Using Notion's native "Markdown & CSV" export is the most direct method, and understanding its limitations with rich data types like relations and files will help you manage your expectations and plan for any cleanup.

This entire process of exporting, importing, and cleaning highlights a common business challenge: manually moving data between tools just to get the analysis you need. It can consume hours every week. This is exactly the kind of manual, repetitive work we built Graphed to eliminate. Instead of cumbersome exports, we connect directly to your data sources - from analytics platforms to CRM systems - and let you build live dashboards and get instant answers using simple, natural language, turning a time-consuming reporting process into a 30-second conversation.