You can export granular, unfiltered data from certain Explore datasets on a recurring or one-time basis. The exported datasets are made available as CSV files that you can download and integrate with third-party tools of your choice. Additionally, dataset exports do not have the same 50,000-row limit that reports do.
Exporting datasets this way allows you to easily combine Zendesk data with other data sources, giving you a fuller picture of your business operations.
Watch this video for a short introduction to exporting datasets.
Exporting datasets with Zendesk Explore (1:41)
This article contains the following topics:
- Creating a one-time export
- Creating a recurring export
- Viewing the results of an export
- Canceling an in-progress export
- Deleting an export and its results
Creating a one-time export
You can create an export that runs immediately and exports data for the dataset and time period you select. You can create a one-time export only once every 24 hours and up to seven times per month.
To create a one-time export
- In Explore, click the Dataset exports icon (
) in the left sidebar.
- Click Create one-time export.
- In the Dataset field, select the dataset you want to export. The options
are:
- Answer Bot: Flow Builder
- Chat and Messaging - Engagement
- Chat and Messaging - Messaging tickets
- Guide - Knowledge Base
- Support - Tickets
- Support - SLAs
- Support - Updates History
- Talk - Calls
- In the Time field, select the time period the data should cover. The
options are:
- Last 24 hours
- Last 7 days
- Last 30 days
- Last 3 months
- Last 6 months
- Last 12 months
- Click Create. Your export begins processing.
You’ll receive an email when the exported CSV file is ready to download. In the meantime, you can see the status of your export on the Dataset exports page. You can download the CSV file up to three times.
Only the admin who created the export and the account owner receive the email notification. An admin cannot create an export on behalf of another user, but can download any export regardless of who created it.
Creating a recurring export
You can create an export that runs on a recurring basis and exports data for the dataset and time period you select.
Recurring exports are always scheduled for a specified time in the future. The export includes data from the previous day, week, or month, depending on the frequency you select. For example, if you create a recurring weekly export that runs on Mondays at 9 AM, the export will begin processing at 9 AM on the next Monday and will return data for the previous seven days. This process will repeat every week unless you delete the recurring export.
You can have up to 14 recurring exports at a time.
To create a recurring export
- In Explore, click the Dataset exports icon (
) in the left sidebar.
- Click Create recurring export.
- In the Dataset field, select the dataset you want to export.
- In the Frequency field, select how often the export should run. The
options are:
- Daily
- Weekly
- Monthly
- Depending on the frequency you selected, specify the Hour, Day, or
Day of the month the export should run. Note: If the selected day of the month doesn’t exist for a given month (for example, the 31st of February), the export will run on the first day of the next month.
- Click Create. Your export will begin processing on the day and time you
specified.
You’ll receive an email when the exported CSV file is ready to download. In the meantime, you can see the status of your export on the Dataset exports page. You can download the CSV file up to three times.
Viewing the results of an export
On the Dataset exports page, you can see the details of all exports you’ve created and download the results as a CSV file.
By default, the CSV files are automatically deleted from Explore seven days after the export runs. To retain access to the exported data after seven days, download the file and save it to a different location.
To view the results of an export
- In Explore, click the Dataset exports icon (
) in the left sidebar.
- Select the Recurring or One-time tab, depending on which type of
export you want to view. On the Recurring tab, you can see the following
details:
- Dataset. Which dataset is scheduled to be exported.
- Frequency. How often the dataset is scheduled to be exported.
- Last run. When the dataset was last exported.
- Next run. When the dataset will next be exported.
On the One-time tab, you can see the following details:
- Exported on. When the export ran.
- Dataset. Which dataset was exported.
- Time. The relative time period the data covers (for example, the last 24 hours).
- Date range. The specific dates the data covers.
- Size. The size of the exported file.
- Expires in. When the exported file will no longer be available to download.
- File. A link to download the exported file. If the export is still processing, you’ll see In progress here.
- Click Download to download the results of the export as a CSV file.
Canceling an in-progress export
You can cancel an in-progress export if you don’t want it to finish running. Canceling a one-time export that’s currently processing still counts against the limit of one export per 24 hours.
To cancel an export
- In Explore, click the Dataset exports icon (
) in the left sidebar.
- Select the Recurring or One-time tab, depending on which type of export you want to cancel.
- Hover your mouse over the export you want to cancel and click the options icon
(
) on the right.
- Click Cancel.
- In the form that appears, click Cancel export.
Deleting an export and its results
You can delete a recurring or completed one-time export that you no longer need. When you delete an export, its associated results are also deleted. You’ll no longer see the export results on the Dataset exports page.
Deleting a recurring export deletes any results associated with previous iterations of that export and prevents future iterations from running. Deleting a one-time export deletes the results associated with that export only.
To delete an export and its results
- In Explore, click the Dataset exports icon (
) in the left sidebar.
- Select the Recurring or One-time tab, depending on which type of export you want to delete.
- Hover your mouse over the export you want to delete and click the options icon
(
) on the right.
- Click Delete.
- In the form that appears, click Delete export.
22 comments
Mark Ganusevič
Hi, great feature. Will there be API access?
7
Joel Hellman
I think I have the same question as Mark.
The exported data is made available as CSV files that you can download and integrate with third-party tools of your choice.
Downloading csv manually in interface is nice for manual reporting flows, but have use cases to automate using reporting data from Zendesk. For us to automate this, we'd need to have programmatic access to the generated csv, or set it up to deliver to a target of our choice, e.g. a AWD S3 bucket or similar.
7
Elaine
You can accomplish this manually, or if you're utilizing a different reporting tool, you have the option to download the data to that tool. If you're using Explore Enterprise or a higher version, you can sign up for the beta version using the link provided. However, please note that since this feature is still in beta, it may not yet be available via the API.
0
Dan Cooper
It's great to see some progress on getting data out of Explore. Are there plans to include Guide datasets as part of the beta? We currently use API access to pull much of our data into BigQuery, but Guide doesn't have the same API coverage as ticket data so we'd appreciate more export options for that data that would allow us to better track knowledge KPIs for our content and teams.
0
Kevin
I just submitted a request to get this enabled. Is there any way to expedite the request? We have an urgent business need to export a large amount of data.
0
Brett Bowser
Hey Kevin, the plan is to roll out this beta to all users who signed up within the next couple of weeks. Thanks for your interest!
0
Customer Operations Team
Hey Brett Bowser,
I've signed up for the Beta a while ago, is there are ETA on when we'll be given access?
Chelsea
0
Jake
HI Brett Bowser - Is the BETA still being rolled out? I submitted my interest back in early December and have yet to hear anything..
Many thanks!
0
Brett Bowser
1
Joel Hellman
Hi Brett Bowser If I create a one-time report, nothing happens at all when I create it, or at least there is no feedback at all that indicates something happened. If I create a schedule report, I can see it listed in schedules.
0
Joel Hellman
Hi Brett Bowser another point of feedback.
One year ago I asked how we can access the csv exports.
The answer then was a manual export. This feature is not very valuable for us is the only option is manual export.
Since the beta was completed as I gather its mostly getting ready for GA now, has this situation improved? I.e. can we now choose to access the export via API other methods, that are suitable for 3rd party automatic processing?
0
Tony
thank you for your feedback. It is very important to us. As it is now it seems like this is in beta still, hence I recommend you to keep an eye on the announcements page for when it is out.
As it is now there is no Explore API you can use and according to this post, there is no plan to implement such feature at the moment. I recommend you to check out that post and to partecipate because post with high engagements are easily seen by our team.
Thanks
0
Joel Hellman
So the one-time export did happen (I mentioned earlier no confirmation), I got 3 exports some time after.
The web link in the reports did not lead to the https://<subdomain>.zendesk.com/explore/studio#/dataset-exports link, but I ended up at the explore main page, and had to navigate from there, and then choose one-time exports tab, to see them.
Then I had to press a download button to get .zip file with content like below
I think this would be a hard to be useful for us, for any automated process.
2
Sonia Zieleniewska
For chatbots (AI agents), are there any conversation data exports available beyond the Flow Builder export? Specifically, is there a dataset with bot-only KPIs, such as resolution percentage (for conversations not transferred to human support), number of conversations, or other relevant metrics?
0
Jahn
Signed up! Hope this is better than the Large Reports Export EAP.
0
Mateusz Gamroth
We love this :) We can't wait for this to be released and get all the info from the Help Centers too. API access would be even sweeter ♥
0
Sydney Neubauer
Hey all - this BETA has been in play it looks like since 2023 (judging from comments). Is there a timeline as to when this will be a full launch?
1
Eugene Orman
Hi everyone,
We are planning to make the dataset exports feature generally available at the end of this year. However, if you want to join the Beta fill out this form - https://forms.gle/43GHPvYKsVXFsHweA
0
Sydney Neubauer
Couple of questions with this roll out:
1. Who has access to this export feature? There is no mention of this being tied to only admins or those with certain Explore permissions
2. If you create an export, who can see the export? Is it system wide or on a per user basis?
3. Can you create an export on someones behalf - ie they get the notification when it is ready? With schedules in Explore you can set who the dashboard is sent to - I do not see an option so is it only sent to the one that created it? If it is, why doesn't the export show who it was sent to/requested for?
4. Why does the account owner also get an email for export? Atleast I assume that is the reason as no one else got it and they did when I requested a Data export
1
Eugene Orman
Sydney Neubauer Thank you for raising good questions.
1. Only Explore admins have access to the Dataset Exports feature. This point is added to this article now.
2. All Explore admins have access to all active and recent exports. So, the access is per account.
3. There is no way to create the export on someone's behalf but any admin can download the export even if it was configured by someone else.
4. Only the admin who created the export and the account owner will receive the email notification. The idea is to make the account owner aware of the dataset export. What do you dislike about this behaviour?
0
Sydney Neubauer
Eugene Orman
1. Thank you for adding to documentation as it was missing
2.
3. It would be one thing if the email contained the download so you could forward it to someone else. Instead, you have to go back to Explore to download the export then create an email to send it to them. It does add extra clicks. It would be a better experience that if the dataset notification email had the download so you could forward it to someone else.
4. It was not documented as to the logic behind this. The owner gets an email out of the blue and does not know who requested the export. If they knew who requested it
2
Armand de Koker
yeah, this system was not designed with UX or automation in mind. Not useful in any sense.
0