How to export your data from Drift

Drift has no self-serve, one-click bulk export in its UI. Conversation and contact data must be pulled via Drift's REST API (JSON objects and plain-text transcripts), looping conversation-by-conversation, or requested per-contact/user through the GDPR retrieval endpoint, which emails the data to the org owner.

Formats: JSON (via API), Plain-text transcript (via API)Plan: Not plan-gated in Drift's docs — export is done entirely through the Drift API, not a dashboard button, so any plan with API/app access worksRole: A user who can create a Drift app and generate an OAuth Access Token with conversation_read, user_read, and contact_read scopes (gdpr_read for GDPR requests); GDPR retrieval results are emailed to the organization owner

✓ Verified against Drift's official documentation, October 2026

Step by step

1Create a Drift app and generate an OAuth Access Token (via Drift's Quick Start / App setup) to authenticate API calls
2Request the required scopes on the token: conversation_read, user_read, contact_read (and gdpr_read if you need GDPR-style exports)
3Call the List Conversations endpoint repeatedly, paging through results (max 50 per page) to collect all conversation IDs
4For each conversation ID, call the Retrieve a Conversation endpoint to get the conversation object as JSON (participants, tags, contact ID)
5For each conversation, call the Transcript endpoint for a plain-text transcript, or the Messages endpoint to pull messages individually and reconstruct the conversation
6If a conversation has files, call the Attachments endpoint to retrieve them separately
7To get a single contact's or user's full record, POST their email to https://driftapi.com/gdpr/retrieve — Drift processes the request and emails the data to the org owner
8For a full workspace export/migration, contact your Drift Customer Success Manager to loop in Drift's Professional Services Engineers

What the export includes

✓Conversation objects (participants, tags, timestamps, linked contact/user IDs)
✓Conversation transcripts or individual messages
✓Conversation attachments (via a separate endpoint call)
✓Individual contact or user records (name, email, properties) when requested by email through the GDPR retrieval endpoint

What it doesn't include

✗No single 'export all data' file or button — Drift's own docs state there is no bulk export functionality for all conversation data
✗No documented native CSV download of your entire contact list from the dashboard
✗Playbooks, bot flows, and routing configuration are not covered by these export endpoints
✗GDPR retrieval only returns data for one contact/user at a time, not the whole workspace

Before you start

⚠Drift explicitly does not offer bulk export of all conversation data, mainly for performance reasons — you must loop through conversations one by one via the API
⚠The List Conversations endpoint is paginated with a max of 50 results per call (default 25), so large histories require many requests
⚠GDPR data requests are asynchronous: the response confirms the request is processing and the data is sent by email once ready, not downloaded immediately
⚠GDPR exports are sent to the Drift organization owner's email, not to whoever made the API call
⚠You need developer-level setup (creating an app, managing OAuth tokens and scopes) — there is no admin-panel 'Export' button for this
⚠For a full account/workspace migration, Drift directs customers to their Customer Success Manager and Professional Services Engineers rather than a self-serve tool

Where to take your data

Free and cheaper tools that can take a Drift export. See all Drift alternatives →

Crisp

Alternatives

Crisp supports CSV import for contacts/people; use Drift's Retrieving Contacts/Users API output to build a CSV of your contact list, then import it into Crisp's People section. Conversation transcripts pulled from Drift's API can be kept as reference files but won't import as live chat history.

Tawk.to

Alternatives

Tawk.to doesn't natively import Drift conversation history; use the JSON/transcript data pulled from Drift's API as an offline archive, and recreate contacts/tags manually or via Tawk.to's own contact import tools.

Intercom Starter

Intercom supports CSV import of people/contacts through its own import tool; convert the contact and user JSON you pulled from Drift's Contacts/Users API into Intercom's expected CSV columns before importing. Conversation transcripts remain as archived files, not live Intercom conversations.

Exporting from Drift: common questions

Can I export all my Drift conversations with one click?+

No. Drift's own documentation states there is no bulk export functionality for all conversation data; you have to pull conversations one at a time through the API by looping over conversation IDs.

What format does Drift data come in when exported?+

Conversation data comes back as JSON objects from the API, and transcripts can be retrieved as plain text strings through the dedicated transcript endpoint.

Do I need a developer to export data from Drift?+

Effectively yes — export requires creating a Drift app, generating an OAuth token with the right scopes, and calling several API endpoints in a loop; there's no dashboard export button documented.

How do I get a GDPR-style export of one person's data?+

Send a POST request with the person's email to Drift's GDPR retrieval endpoint; Drift processes the request and emails the compiled data to the organization owner.

Can I download my full contact list as a CSV?+

Drift's documentation doesn't describe a native CSV download for your contact list; contact data is retrieved record-by-record through the Contacts/Users API endpoints instead.

What if I need my entire workspace exported for a migration?+

Drift's guidance is to reach out to your Customer Success Manager and work with Drift's Professional Services Engineers for larger, full-account export needs.