Exporting Records

Overview

Export adds a button to a portal page that downloads its records as a CSV or Excel file. A user gets exactly what the page shows them: the same records, with their own search, filters and sort applied, and the same columns.

Use it when your users need the data somewhere else. A staff role exporting a contact list into Google Contacts, a client downloading their order history for their accounts, a coordinator pulling this term's bookings into a spreadsheet.

Export is off on every page until you turn it on.

Turning It On

1. 1

   Open the page's Display tab

   In the portal admin, open the role you want to configure, open the page, and switch to the Display tab. The Export card is at the bottom.

2. 2

   Turn on Let users export this page

   Turn the switch on and save the portal. The page now shows an Export button in its header, next to Refresh.

The setting belongs to one page and one role. Turning it on for your Staff role leaves it off for every other role, so staff can export a table that parents or clients cannot. If a table has more than one page, each page has its own switch.

What Users Get

The Export button opens a menu with Download CSV and Download Excel. The file downloads straight away, named after the page and the day, for example Contacts 2026-09-22.xlsx.

The file holds every record the page would show that user, across all of its pages, not only the first 100 on screen:

• Records: the ones their role can see. Record ownership, your record filter and the role's visibility all apply, exactly as they do on the page.
• Their own filters: if the page has filter and sort controls, the search, filters and sort they have applied are applied to the file too.
• Columns: the fields their role can view, in the page's field order. On a table view with a column list, only those columns. On a gallery, kanban, calendar or FAQ page, every field the role can view.

Export never shows anyone more than they could already see. A field the role cannot view is not in the file, even if the role can edit it.

CSV or Excel

Both hold the same records and columns.

Excel is the better choice for opening in Excel. Numbers are real numbers you can add up, dates are real dates you can sort, and phone numbers keep their leading zero. Excel reads a CSV differently depending on the computer's region settings, and an Excel file avoids that.

CSV is the better choice for importing into another tool, such as Google Contacts or a mailing list. It opens in Google Sheets, Numbers and LibreOffice as well.

How Values Are Written

• Linked records show the linked records' names. A linked record with no name is left out, rather than shown as its Airtable record id.
• Attachments show file names only. Airtable's attachment links expire after a few hours, so a link in the file would stop working.
• Checkboxes are TRUE or FALSE.
• Dates use each field's date format, in the user's own time zone unless the field sets one.
• Currency and percent keep their symbol in a CSV, and are formatted numbers in Excel.
• A text value starting with =, +, - or @ gets an apostrophe in front of it in a CSV, so a spreadsheet does not run it as a formula. Phone numbers such as +33 6 12 34 56 78 are left as they are.

Limits

• 5,000 records per file. A page with more exports its first 5,000, in the page's current order, and the user is told. They can filter the page down and export the rest in parts.
• One export at a time per user. Starting a second while the first is still preparing shows a message asking them to wait.
• Very large linked fields. If the records in one export link to more than 1,000 different records in another table, that column shows how many records each cell links to instead of their names.
• Related tabs on a record's page have no Export button.

Translating the Button

The button, its menu and its messages are on the Labels tab under Record actions and forms, with the rest of your portal's wording. See Portal Labels.

Using the MCP Connector

The MCP connector turns export on or off with set_export, which takes the page's id and allowExport: true or false.

Next Steps

• Filter & Sort Controls - Let users narrow a page before they export it
• Field Permissions - Decide which fields a role can view
• Role-Based Access - Give different roles different pages and settings