How to export your data from Metabase

Metabase lets you download the results of any question as CSV, XLSX, JSON, or PNG (and a dashboard as PDF) straight from the UI, and lets admins export a full backup of an instance's content (dashboards, questions, collections, data model) via the serialization CLI command or API for moving between Metabase instances.

Formats: CSV, XLSX, JSON, PNG, PDFPlan: Any plan for downloading question/dashboard results. Full content export (serialization) works via CLI on self-hosted Metabase; on Metabase Cloud the serialization API endpoint is your only option for a full export.Role: Any user with view access to a question/dashboard can download its results. Creating public links and running serialization export/import requires Admin access.

✓ Verified against Metabase's official documentation, September 2026

Step by step

1Open the question you want to export and click the Download button in the lower right corner of the results table or chart.
2Choose the file type: .csv, .xlsx, .json, or .png (PNG only available if the result is a chart).
3Pick Formatted (keeps number/date formatting you applied in Metabase) or Unformatted (raw values) before downloading.
4For pivot tables, choose to export the pivoted (flat) view or the unpivoted, raw rows if you plan to build a native Excel PivotTable.
5To let someone without a Metabase account grab the data themselves, click the Share icon on the question, choose Create a public link, then click CSV, XLSX, or JSON under the generated link.
6To force a public link to return raw, unformatted values, append ?format_rows=false to the generated export URL.
7To export an entire instance's content (all dashboards, questions, collections, models, data model, settings) rather than one question at a time, run the export via the metabase.jar CLI (self-hosted) or POST to /api/ee/serialization/export (required on Metabase Cloud).
8Add export options to control scope, e.g. -c/--collection <ID> (CLI) or collection=<ID> (API) to include specific collections, since personal collections are excluded by default unless you add them by ID.

What the export includes

✓Table/chart results of a single question as CSV, XLSX, JSON, or PNG
✓Dashboard results (per the export docs, dashboards can also be downloaded as PDF)
✓In a full serialization export: Collections (non-personal by default), Dashboards, Questions (cards), Transforms, Documents (without comments), Actions, Models, Metrics, Snippets, data model and table metadata, Segments, Measures, glossary entries, public sharing settings, general Metabase settings, and events/timelines

What it doesn't include

✗Users, groups, and permissions are not included in a serialization export
✗Alerts and subscriptions are not included in a serialization export
✗Document comments are not included in a serialization export
✗Personal collections are excluded from a serialization export unless you explicitly add each one by numeric ID
✗The underlying data in your connected database itself — Metabase only exports queries/results/metadata, not a copy of your source database

Before you start

⚠Public link export (CSV/XLSX/JSON) is only available for questions, not dashboards, via the Share > Create a public link flow
⚠Downloaded results default to 'Formatted' values, which can differ from the raw numbers (e.g. rounded decimals) — pick 'Unformatted' if you need exact raw values
⚠Pivoted exports render as a flat table in Excel, not a native Excel PivotTable — undo summarizations/groupings on the question first if you need a real PivotTable
⚠On Metabase Cloud you cannot use the CLI export command — the serialization API endpoint is the only supported path for a full-content export
⚠Personal collections don't get exported by default even in a full serialization export; you must add them one by one via their collection ID

Where to take your data

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

Apache Superset

Alternatives

Metabase's serialization export is Metabase-specific and won't import into Superset. Point Superset at the same source database Metabase was querying and rebuild charts/dashboards natively; use downloaded CSV/XLSX/JSON question exports only as a reference or as a one-off uploaded CSV data source while you migrate.

Redash

Reconnect Redash to the same underlying database and recreate your SQL queries there; a CSV/JSON export of a Metabase question can be used to sanity-check the numbers match after migration, but Redash has no import path for Metabase's own export format.

Grafana

Alternatives

Add your source database as a Grafana data source and rebuild panels directly against it; a CSV/JSON question export can be loaded ad hoc via a JSON/CSV datasource plugin, but this isn't a substitute for reconnecting the live database.

Exporting from Metabase: common questions

Can I export all my Metabase dashboards and questions at once instead of one at a time?+

Yes, via serialization: run the export as a CLI command (self-hosted) or through the serialization API (required on Metabase Cloud) to pull out collections, dashboards, questions, models, data model metadata, and more in a single export.

Does downloading a question include the formatting (currency, percentages, decimals) I applied in Metabase?+

You choose at download time: 'Formatted' keeps the display formatting you applied to columns, while 'Unformatted' exports the raw underlying values, which can include more decimal places than what's shown on screen.

Can someone without a Metabase login download my data?+

Yes, if you create a public link for a question (Share icon > Create a public link), anyone with that link can download the results as CSV, XLSX, or JSON without logging in; this only works for questions, not dashboards.

Will an export include my users, permissions, or alerts?+

No. A serialization export deliberately excludes users, groups, permissions, alerts, subscriptions, and document comments — it only covers content like collections, dashboards, questions, and data modeling metadata.

What happens to my personal collection when I export?+

It's skipped by default. Personal collections are excluded from a serialization export unless you explicitly add each one to the export by its numeric collection ID.

Can I get raw, unrounded numbers from a publicly shared export link?+

Yes, append ?format_rows=false to the public export URL Metabase generates to force the raw, unformatted values instead of the display-formatted ones.