How to export your data from Sprout Social
Sprout Social has no single 'export my whole account' button. Instead it offers separate CSV exports for Smart Inbox messages, Reviews, connected social profiles, and user permissions, plus PDF/CSV exports for Reports and Listening Insights. Programmatic access to analytics, posts, and message data is available via the Sprout Public API, but that requires manual authorization from your account rep.
✓ Verified against Sprout Social's official documentation, September 2026
Step by step
- 1Export inbox conversations: go to Smart Inbox, use the Filter Menu to narrow messages, pick a date range, click Export, then Send
- 2Export reviews: go to the Reviews section, filter by source/rating and date, click Share, then Download CSV
- 3Export your profile list: from Settings, use the profile export option to download a CSV of all connected profiles (Sprout ID, profile type, handle, network ID, groups)
- 4Export user permissions: go to Groups & Social Profiles (or Roles & Team Members on Advanced Plan), apply filters if needed, click Export permissions, then Export
- 5Export reports: in My Reports, click Share and Send PDF, or set up a scheduled PDF/CSV delivery to your email
- 6Export Listening Insights: click Share on an Insights view, then Send PDF (up to 25 recipients per send)
- 7For bulk/programmatic data (all posts, profile performance, tags): request Public API access from your Sprout account representative rather than relying on manual CSV exports
What the export includes
- ✓Smart Inbox message data and Reviews data as CSV, filtered by date/criteria you set
- ✓A CSV list of all connected social profiles with Sprout ID, profile type, native name/handle, network-specific ID, link, and group associations
- ✓A CSV permissions matrix showing which users have which Company/Feature permissions, Roles, Group access, and Profile access (as 1/0 values)
- ✓Report data as presentation-ready PDF (or CSV, depending on report) covering profile and post performance
- ✓Social Listening Insights as a PDF for sharing with stakeholders
What it doesn't include
- ✗There is no single documented bulk export of the entire workspace (content calendar, drafts, published post history, and message archive) in one file
- ✗Handles are not available in the profile export for Meta Ad Accounts, TripAdvisor, Yelp, Google Play Store, Glassdoor, or LinkedIn Ad Accounts; links are also unavailable for several ad-account and Glassdoor/Google Business Profile types
- ✗Full API-level access to posts/analytics data is not self-serve — it requires manual authorization from Sprout, not just a plan upgrade
Before you start
- ⚠After clicking Export in the Smart Inbox, a toast notification must be actioned when the CSV is ready — if you miss or close it, you have to redo the export steps
- ⚠Listening Insights PDFs can only be sent to up to 25 recipients per export
- ⚠Native profile IDs in the profile-list CSV are prefixed with an apostrophe to stop Excel from reformatting large numeric values
- ⚠Public API access is gated by your account rep, not a self-service toggle, so plan on lead time if you want raw data pulls before migrating
- ⚠The permissions CSV is a wide matrix (users as columns, permissions/roles/groups/profiles as rows of 1s and 0s) — it needs reshaping before it's usable elsewhere
Where to take your data
Free and cheaper tools that can take a Sprout Social export. See all Sprout Social alternatives →
Buffer Free
Sprout's exports are CSV/PDF reports and profile/permission lists, not a portable content-calendar file, so there's no direct import. Reconnect your social accounts in Buffer and manually recreate your posting schedule; use the Sprout profile-list CSV as a checklist of which accounts to reconnect.
Hootsuite Free
Same limitation applies — no native import from Sprout's CSV exports. Use the exported profile list to confirm every connected network/account, then reconnect each one in Hootsuite and rebuild scheduled content manually.
Later Free
There's no Sprout-to-Later import path in the docs. Use the Smart Inbox/Reviews CSV exports to preserve historical engagement records for your own archive, and reconnect profiles in Later from scratch.
Exporting from Sprout Social: common questions
Can I export my entire Sprout Social account in one file before canceling?+
No. Sprout Social's documented exports are per-feature: Smart Inbox/Reviews CSV, a connected-profiles CSV, a user-permissions CSV, and Reports/Listening Insights as PDF/CSV. You'll need to run each export separately.
What format are Sprout Social exports in?+
Mostly CSV (Smart Inbox, Reviews, profile list, user permissions) and PDF (Reports, Listening Insights). There's no bulk JSON export documented for end users; JSON-style data is only available through the Public API.
Can I export my scheduled or draft posts?+
This isn't covered by any of the documented export features (Inbox, Reviews, Profiles, Permissions, Reports, Listening). If you need programmatic access to post data, you'd need Public API access, which requires authorization from your Sprout account rep.
Do I need a specific plan to export data before switching tools?+
It depends on the export. Smart Inbox and Reviews CSV exports don't require a specific plan tier beyond having the feature. The Roles & Team Members permissions view needs the Advanced Plan, and Listening Insights export needs a Social Listening subscription.
Can I bulk-download analytics data instead of clicking through multiple reports?+
Yes, via the Sprout Public API, which covers profile performance, published post performance, single-post retrieval, and tags for read-only use cases. Access must be authorized by your Sprout account representative first.
Will exporting my inbox or reviews data include all historical messages?+
Only what matches the filters and date range you set before clicking Export — configure the Filter Menu and date range first, since the export reflects exactly that criteria.
Sources
This guide was written from Sprout Social's own documentation and checked against it in September 2026. If a step has changed, the official page wins.