How to export your data from Zendesk

Zendesk lets admins export tickets, users, and organizations as JSON (NDJSON), CSV, or XML files from Admin Center, or export a single ticket view as CSV from the agent workspace; full account exports must first be enabled by Zendesk Customer Support and are not available on Team plans.

Formats: CSV, JSON (NDJSON), XMLPlan: Full account export (JSON/CSV/XML): Suite Growth, Professional, Enterprise, or Enterprise Plus, or Support Professional/Enterprise (not available on Team plans). Ticket view CSV export: Suite Team+ or Support Team/Professional/Enterprise. The Zendesk REST API is available on all plans.Role: Account owner must contact Zendesk Customer Support to enable data exports; after that, an Admin can run the export. For view CSV exports, agents need the export permission (restricted by custom roles on Enterprise).

✓ Verified against Zendesk's official documentation, September 2026

Step by step

1Have the account owner contact Zendesk Customer Support to enable data exports for your account (disabled by default), including your Zendesk Support subdomain in the request.
2In Admin Center, click Account in the sidebar, then select Tools > Reports, and open the Export tab if it isn't shown automatically.
3Pick an export type: JSON export (recommended for accounts over 200,000 tickets; choose a date range and select tickets, users, or organizations), CSV export (ticket data only; choose a date range), or XML export (click 'request file' next to Full XML or User XML).
4Click Export. Processing time ranges from a few minutes to a day or more depending on export size and account activity.
5Check your email for a download link (valid for at least 3 days) and download the zip file, which contains your JSON/CSV/XML files named export_YYYY_MM_DD_uniqueID_X.
6For a quick, no-setup CSV export of a specific ticket view instead of the full account: in Support, click Views in the sidebar, open the view, then click Export CSV (or Actions > Export as CSV). This is limited to once every 10 minutes and only works on unfiltered views.
7For a full programmatic export (works on all plans, including Team), use the Zendesk REST API: List Tickets, List Users, List Organizations, or the Incremental Exports endpoint.

What the export includes

✓Tickets, users, and organizations (JSON, CSV, XML)
✓Ticket comments/descriptions and full account settings and groups (Full XML export only)
✓Ticket comments (JSON export, unless a single ticket exceeds 1 MB of data)
✓Custom ticket/user/organization fields and multi-line/multi-select fields (JSON export only)
✓Basic ticket metadata in CSV: ID, requester, submitter, assignee, group, subject, tags, status, priority, channel, type, timestamps, organization, SLA/resolution metrics, satisfaction score

What it doesn't include

✗AI agent tickets cannot be exported at all
✗CSV export excludes deleted tickets, ticket comments, and ticket descriptions
✗CSV export excludes multi-line text fields, multi-select fields, and custom date fields (available in JSON/XML instead)
✗XML-exported user data excludes custom user fields and brand-separated data; XML-exported organization data excludes custom organization fields; XML-exported ticket data excludes custom ticket fields, metric sets, and comment metadata
✗Full account export tools (JSON/CSV/XML from Admin Center) are not available on Team plans (only the API and view CSV export are)
✗Items with a system-generated timestamp within 6 minutes of the export request are excluded from JSON/CSV exports

Before you start

⚠Data exports are disabled by default; the account owner must contact Zendesk Customer Support to enable them, and can restrict which admins are allowed to run exports
⚠JSON is delivered as NDJSON (newline-delimited JSON), one object per line — wrap the ticket objects in a JSON array yourself if you need a single valid JSON file
⚠Accounts with more than 1,000,000 tickets get JSON exports split into 31-day increments
⚠XML exports have a hard 500MB file size limit (roughly 200,000 tickets) and aren't available at all for accounts over 200,000 tickets
⚠If a single ticket exceeds 1MB of data, its comments are dropped from the JSON export (or the whole ticket is dropped from CSV)
⚠Ticket view CSV export can only run once every 10 minutes, and only works on views with no filters applied
⚠On Enterprise plans, the ability to export a view to CSV is gated by custom role permissions
⚠Zendesk does not guarantee the order of records inside the exported files
⚠The email download link is valid for at least 3 days

Where to take your data

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

Freshdesk Free

Alternatives Zendesk vs Freshdesk Free

Freshdesk's Data Import tool accepts ticket data in CSV; map the columns from your Zendesk CSV export (ID, requester, subject, status, priority, timestamps, etc.) to Freshdesk's ticket fields during import.

Help Scout

Use the Zendesk CSV ticket export (or a script against the JSON/API export) as the source file for Help Scout's CSV import, mapping requester, subject, tags, and timestamps to Help Scout conversation fields.

Crisp

Alternatives Zendesk vs Crisp

Crisp does not have a native bulk ticket importer, so use the Zendesk JSON or API export to script conversation creation via Crisp's API, or keep the CSV/JSON export as a searchable archive alongside a fresh Crisp inbox.

Exporting from Zendesk: common questions

Can I export Zendesk data on a Team plan?+

No. Zendesk's Admin Center export tools (JSON/CSV/XML) are not available on Team plans. Team accounts must use the Zendesk REST API (List Tickets, List Users, List Organizations, Incremental Exports) or the per-view CSV export instead.

Do I need to contact Zendesk support before I can export my data?+

Yes, for a full account export. Data exports are disabled by default for security reasons, and the account owner must contact Zendesk Customer Support to enable them before anyone can run a JSON, CSV, or XML export from Admin Center.

Which export format should I use to migrate off Zendesk?+

Full JSON export is the most complete option since it includes ticket comments and custom fields and scales to very large accounts; Full XML export also includes account settings, groups, and comments but is capped at roughly 200,000 tickets/500MB; CSV is the leanest option but excludes comments, descriptions, and deleted tickets.

How long does a Zendesk export take?+

It varies with the date range and your account's ticket volume — Zendesk states it can take anywhere from a few minutes to a day or more, and you'll get an emailed download link once it's ready.

Is there a size limit on Zendesk exports?+

XML exports are capped at 500MB (about 200,000 tickets) and aren't offered at all above 200,000 tickets; accounts over 1,000,000 tickets get JSON exports broken into 31-day increments instead of one file.

Can I just export one view of tickets instead of my whole account?+

Yes — open the view in Support and click Export CSV (or Actions > Export as CSV). This doesn't require enabling account-wide data exports, but it's rate-limited to once every 10 minutes and only works on unfiltered views.