You can easily import data from CSV and Excel files, as well as Google Sheets, to your Airtable database. Getting data out of Airtable as a CSV is also straightforward and can be done with just a few clicks. However, to export data and automate the process, you have three options: create an automation in Airtable, use a SaaS connector, or build a custom API integration. So, we decided to share the best practices for exporting Airtable data to different destinations.
How to export Airtable data on a schedule – the best option
To automate Airtable export to spreadsheets, data warehouses, or BI tools, use Coupler.io, a no-code reporting automation solution. It only takes three steps.
1. Extract data from Airtable
To start, select the destination for your Airtable data in the form below and click Proceed:
You’ll be offered to create a Coupler.io account for free. If you’re already a Coupler.io user, you’ll be taken straight to the importer.
Alternatively, you can start by signing in to Coupler.io and creating an importer by clicking the +Create button. In this case, you’ll first choose your data source, Airtable, and select the destination in the respective step.
To load data from Airtable, you must provide a shared URL for the view you want to export. With Coupler.io, you can load a specific Airtable dashboard view one at a time – a limitation of the Airtable API.
To get a shared URL of a particular Airtable view, click on Share and sync in the menu and copy the URL you’ll see below.
Paste the URL into the respective field in Coupler.io.
If your view is password-protected, move forward and type in the password into the corresponding field. Then, proceed to the next step.
2. Organize and transform data
At this point, you can preview your data and transform it if needed:
- Rename, rearrange, hide, or add columns.
- Sort data in ascending or descending order.
- Filter data to extract it based on specific criteria.
- Create new columns with custom formulas.
- Aggregate data using operations like sum, avg., count, min., or max. to columns.
Once everything is ready, move forward.
3. Load data and schedule updates
Now, you must load your data into the destination according to in-app instructions and run the importer. You can also toggle on the Automatic data refresh and schedule your data exports. Coupler.io supports update intervals from every month to daily and even every 15 minutes (that will make your report near real-time).
Congratulations! Your data is now in the destination and set to auto-update.
Can you export an entire database from Airtable with Coupler.io?
As noted earlier, you can only load a specific Airtable view at a time, not the entire database. However, Coupler.io allows you to set up as many importers for as many views as your database contains to have them as separate sheets/tabs in the destination. You can copy importers, so you won’t have to create each from scratch.
After you’ve run your initial importer, hover over the left sidebar and click Importers.
Find your importer, click the three dots on the right, and select Copy to duplicate it.
Now, set up a new importer following the same steps used for the first one.
Native Airtable exporting options
For quick and simple data export, Coupler.io is your best option. But if you only want to do it with native options, you have two choices. The first is manually extracting data as a CSV. The second is using the Automations feature to load data into Google Sheets, from where you can import it to another destination if needed.
Export a table from Airtable as a CSV
You can’t download a table as a CSV from Airtable, but you can fetch any view. To do this, load your Airtable base, go to the necessary table, click on the view name, and select Download CSV.
Your view with Airtable records will be downloaded as a CSV file to your device. If your base includes multiple tables, you must download each view of every table as a CSV. This is very inconvenient, mainly when you export data from Airtable as a backup. In this case, you’ll need to manually repeat the flow whenever you want to update the backup copy. So, it’s much more efficient to export Airtable data using Automations.
Export Airtable to Google Sheets with Automations
Automations is Airtable’s built-in feature that allows you to import data into Google Sheets on a schedule or trigger. To start, load your Airtable base, go to the top bar, and click Automations.
Next, click Create automation at the bottom left of the page and select the trigger that will initiate the data import.
You have 8 triggers to choose from for exporting data:
- When record matches conditions: activates when a record in your database meets specific criteria you’ve defined.
- When a form is submitted: responds to a form submission, capturing the submitted data in real time.
- When record created: initiates data export when a new record is added to your base.
- When record updated: runs when an existing record is modified.
- When record enters view: launches automation when a record meets the filter criteria of the selected view and becomes visible there.
- At scheduled time: triggers actions at a pre-designated date and time.
- When webhook received: executes when a webhook sends an HTTP request to your Airtable base from an external app.
- When a button is clicked: causes automation to run at the click of a button in an Airtalbe interface.
Let’s select When record updated, for example. You’ll have to specify the Table and Fields from which to load data. Next, click Choose record to test the trigger and ensure it’s set up correctly. Then, click Add advanced logic or action.
Hover the pointer over the Google Sheets you’ll find in the list and click Append row.
Select your Google Sheets account, spreadsheet, and worksheet. Then, match the columns where you’ll import data with the fields from where you’ll export it. Finally, test the action.
If everything works, click the toggle icon at the top of the page to turn on the automation. Then, you can use the imported data in Google Sheets or, if needed, load it to another destination from there.
Airtable data export FAQs
Above, we’ve explained the most obvious options for exporting data from Airtable. However, Airtable users may have other advanced cases and questions. Let’s check out some of them.
Airtable export base to a spreadsheet
Just to remind you, Coupler.io allows you to export one view from Airtable at a time. So, if you need to export an entire Airtable database, you’ll need to set up dedicated importers for as many views as you have to load them into separate sheets/tabs.
For example, if it’s Google Sheets, click Proceed in the form below to get started:
Set up and run the first importer, then create and run as many copies as needed, specifying the destination spreadsheet and sheet for each.
Besides, you’re not limited to loading data from Airtable to Google Sheets. Coupler.io also allows you to connect Airtable to Excel:
The workflow is mostly the same. For each importer, you’ll need to specify the workbook and sheet where you’ll load the data.
Export a large base from Airtable to BigQuery
It’s not always feasible to export a large base from Airtable to a spreadsheet app. In this case, use Coupler.io to import data from Airtable to BigQuery.
Again, ensure you create data sources for each view and then transform it into a single report. In the destination step, connect to your BigQuery account. To do this, you’ll need to generate and upload a Google Cloud JSON key from your device.
Next, enter the name of your existing or new BigQuery dataset and a table where you’ll import data. Make sure the Autodetect table schema is toggled on – this will help structure your data correctly during import.
Lastly, set up a schedule and run the importer.
Do you use another data warehouse? Check out how to load data from Airtable to PostgreSQL.
Airtable export blocks
Airtable Blocks are a set of pre-built, customizable tools used to enhance the functionality of an Airtable base. With these blocks, you can visualize your data, display images, create project timelines, and add valuable things to your base. To avoid any confusion, we should remind you that the name of Blocks was changed to Apps in 2020.
Unfortunately, Airtable doesn’t have a built-in option to export Blocks like charts or timelines. However, you can export the data from the underlying table of a block as a CSV file or a Google Sheets doc and then use that data to recreate the block in another base or application.
There’s good news for those who use Vega-Lite or Charts & Reports apps to create charts or other visualizations. Vega-Lite allows you to export charts as SVG or PNG; with Charts & Reports, you can download your charts as PDF or PNG.
Export Airtable pivot
Unfortunately, you can’t export the pivot table from Airtable as a CSV. But there is a solution offered on Reddit to reverse the actions:
- First – import Airtable data to Google Sheets using Coupler.io.
- Second – create a pivot table of the exported data in Google Sheets.
Here is an example of a pivot table with the contact information we exported from Airtable:
This way, not only will Airtable paid plan subscribers be able to enjoy pivot tables, but every user will also be able to do so. Read our tutorial if you need assistance creating pivot tables in Google Sheets.
Note: If your pivot table is coded with Vega-Lite, you can export it as a PNG or SVG. Click the three dots in the top right corner and select the option you want.
Airtable export attachments – how it works
When you export Airtable data as a CSV or with Coupler.io, you only get links to your attachments like this:
If this does not work for you or you want to bulk-download all of your PDFs, images, or other attachments, you can find an app on the Airtable marketplace.
However, think twice about whether you need to make copies of the attachments rather than just having them referenced.
Airtable export list of emails
When we loaded contact information from Airtable to Google Sheets, we had emails, names, companies, and other data in one batch. If you only need a list of emails, there are several ways to export it. The quickest way to do this is to transform your view data on the go when exporting with Coupler.io. In the transformation step, click Column management at the top of your data.
Then, choose to Hide all and put a tick against Email.
As a result, you’ll only get a list of emails to export.
Next, proceed to the next steps to import your email list into the preferred destination.
You also have a manual option: creating a separate view of your table with the names and emails to export. If you need a view with only one field, such as emails, then you can do the following:
- Duplicate the primary field – this will create a field named ‘Customer Name copy’.
- Change the primary field type to ‘Email’ and copy and paste emails instead of names.
- Delete the initial ‘Email’ and rename ‘Customer Name copy‘ to ‘Customer Name‘.
Now, you can create a new view and hide all fields except ‘Email‘ before exporting it with Coupler.io.
Alternatively, you can extract or reference the list of emails from the view exported to Google Sheets or Excel. For example, like this:
Read how to link sheets in Google Sheets for more details.
Can you export Airtable to SQL?
Airtable does not have a built-in option to export data directly to SQL format. However, there are a few workarounds you can use to do the job:
- Export data from Airtable as a CSV file that you can then convert into SQL format.
- Use Coupler.io to connect Airtable to BigQuery, PostgreSQL, or Redshift, where you can use SQL queries.
- Create a code-based solution to connect to the Airtable API and export the data to a format that can be imported into SQL.
Coupler.io appears to be the best option if any of the above databases suits your needs. At the destination step, follow in-app instructions to connect to the database, specify your dataset and table for BigQuery or just the table for PostgreSQL and Redshift, and have your data imported.To get started, choose one of the supported databases as the Destination in the form below and click Proceed:
Airtable XML export
Again, there is no built-in option to export to Airtable to XML. The most actionable way to do this is to export data from Airtable as CSV, which then can be converted to XML. For this, you’ll need to use a third-party tool or even a programming library. Here are a few options you can consider:
- CSV to XML Converter – Online tool that allows you to convert CSV to XML
- ConvertCSV – A website that allows you to convert CSV to XML
- csv2xml – A command line tool that converts CSV files to XML
- Excel – Microsoft Excel can save a CSV file as an XML file
As for the programming library, Python’s Pandas is the first option that comes to mind for converting CSV to XML, but there are others as well.
Why export data from Airtable
The main reason why you may need to export Airtable base is to access the data while offline. In Airtable, it’s not possible to do so yet. However, if you have your Airtable data in, let’s say, Excel Workbook, you will have offline access to it.
Another reason is to back up your base. Airtable automatically takes snapshots, but it does so irregularly and won’t keep them for long on the lowest plans. We’ve covered this issue in detail in our Airtable Backup guide.
Other use cases to export data from Airtable may relate to data visualization and manipulation needs. Spreadsheet apps, such as Excel and Google Sheets, have much to offer you in this regard. Moreover, you can easily connect them to data visualization tools, such as Google Looker Studio or Power BI.
Whatever your reason, you need to know how the Airtable export can be done. Beyond Coupler.io and native export, you also have the option of a custom API integration, explained further below.
Export with Airtable API
This method is proper when your SaaS connector doesn’t support specific destinations. In such cases, you can use Airtable’s Web API to integrate your data with the desired app. Airtable offers an official API client for JavaScript, along with community-built clients for Ruby, .NET, Python 2, and Python 3.
However, this requires technical and coding skills in the mentioned programming languages. If you lack these skills, you need assistance from data analysts or developers. Additionally, custom integrations require regular maintenance to stay compatible with platform API updates. Keep in mind that Airtable’s Web API has rate limits of 5 requests per second per base and monthly call limits of 1,000 for free plans and 100,000 for team plans per workspace.
In comparison, Coupler.io enables you to export data from Airtable with just a few clicks and no coding required. It only takes a couple of minutes to set up an integration and automate the load of your data on a schedule. You can choose different destinations and stitch your Airtable data with records imported from other sources. You’ll get your job done fast and without much effort. Try it now for free, and good luck with your data!
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