There are two main reasons why you may need to export a Notion database to Excel - either you require more advanced data analysis capabilities than Notion provides, or you need to share and collaborate on data using Excel, which is more widely adopted.
Suppose you are a finance analyst tasked with extracting insights from a large dataset stored in a Notion database. While Notion is great for organizing the data, you quickly realize its calculation features are too basic for the in-depth number crunching you need to perform.
You need to switch over to Excel to tap into powerful features that will help you generate key insights and present them effectively.
With its extensive formula functions and advanced analysis tools such as pivot tables, Excel allows you to slice and dice the data in ways Notion cannot.
This guide will walk you through the step-by-step process of exporting your Notion database to Excel.
Here are the six steps:
1. Open the Notion page containing the database
We will use a Notion budget tracker database for reference.
2. Click the three-dots icon and select the Export option
While we can export the whole page, we will focus only on the database in this guide. To export the database alone, first open the database as a full-page. Click the three-dots icon at the top-right of the screen and click on the Export option.
3. Customize your export
We need to export the database in a format that Excel can read - CSV. Click the Export Format option and select the Markdown & CSV option.
Customize your export further by changing the view of the database. We have set it to Current view in our example. You can remove files and images from the export, but we will include all database content in our example.
Once you are happy with the settings, click the Export button.
4. Save the Notion database in CSV format
Assign a file name to the export and specify the folder in your local drive where you want to save your document.
5. Unzip the exported file
6. Open the exported CSV file with Excel
Notion exports two files each time you select the Markdown & CSV option: One file contains all the contents of the page, while the other contains only the database.
Since we exported the database alone, there won’t be any difference in the two files in our example.
You can right-click on any file, click the Open With drop-down, and select Microsoft Excel from the list.
With that step, your Notion database will open as an editable Excel document.
We covered the step-by-step process of exporting a Notion database to a CSV format readable by Excel. We demonstrated how to customize the export settings to include the desired data and open the exported file within the familiar Excel interface.
With your Notion data now in Excel, you can leverage the extensive formula functions, pivot tables, and visualization tools to transform raw numbers into actionable insights.
FAQs
Can you export Notion to Excel?
You can export a Notion database to Microsoft Excel by clicking the three-dots icon at the top right, selecting the Export option, and finally saving the page in the Markdown & CSV format. Open the exported CSV file with Excel.
How to copy a table from Notion to Excel?
You need to export the table view by clicking the three-dots icon at the top-right of your Notion page and selecting the Export option. You can then save the table in the Markdown & CSV format. A simple copy and paste may not work due to the differences in markdown between Notion and Excel.
