What's the best alternative to Asana's CSV export?
The Asana CSV export, Asana's own Sync to Google Sheets and a Sheets add-on, side by side: cost, row caps, refresh, subtasks, and why exports fail or go stale.
·8 min read
Key takeaways
Asana's CSV export is free on every plan, including Personal: open the project's dropdown, then Export, then CSV.
Asana hasn't published the export's column list since 2014, and no help page says whether comments or custom fields are in the file.
A big project doesn't download straight away. Asana emails the CSV when it's ready, so check your inbox and spam first.
A CSV import never updates existing tasks. Edited rows come back as duplicates beside the originals.
Asana's own Sync to Google Sheets needs Advanced and stops at 500 rows, while the CSV stays frozen at the moment you exported it.
Thursday at 4pm, a client asks for a status update by Friday morning. An Asana CSV export and a quick import into a spreadsheet take 3 minutes.
Then the client asks for the same thing next Thursday, and the Thursday after. By week 6 the export is a weekly chore, and the file you sent last week already disagrees with Asana.
This post covers what the CSV gives you and what Asana leaves undocumented. It also covers why exports fail, and the point where a sync is the better tool. Asana's help center and pricing page were read on 21 October 2026.
Running an Asana CSV export
Open the project, click the dropdown arrow next to its name, and choose Export, then CSV. Asana's pages label that menu Export/Print in one place and Sync/Export in another. The word Export is the constant.
Asana offers 2 file formats for a project, CSV and JSON. CSV is the one a spreadsheet opens. PDF comes from printing. Asana's pricing page lists CSV and PDF export on every plan, including the free Personal plan.
The same export runs on a search view and on My Tasks. Use a search view when the tasks you need sit in several projects.
Big projects don't download straight away. Asana shows a message that it is building the CSV and emails you when the file is ready.
As for columns, the most complete list Asana has published dates from a blog post of 11 September 2014. It named Task ID, Created At, Completed At, Last Modified, Name, Assignee, Due Date, Tags, Notes, Project and Parent Task. Asana hasn't published a current list since. Treat those 11 as a starting guess and open your own file.
Comments, custom fields and other unknowns
Searches for an Asana export with comments are common, and the answer isn't on any Asana help page. The 2014 column list has no comments column. Forum posts say comments are left out. Asana's documentation says nothing either way.
Custom fields have the same gap. Forum posts say each custom field gets its own column. No official page confirms it.
So check before you promise. Export a small project that has a comment and a custom field on one task, open the file, and look. That's a 2-minute test, and it beats a client asking where the budget column went.
A few things Asana does document:
Time tracked exports in hours and minutes. Asana's example is that 1h 30min becomes 1:30.
The Parent Task column marks subtasks. How many levels of subtasks make it in isn't documented.
Custom fields only exist on paid plans, Starter and above. A free workspace has none to export.
Time tracking only exists on Advanced and above, so the time columns can't appear below that.
Asana CSV export not working: 5 causes
Most failed exports come down to one of these.
Nothing downloaded. The project was big enough to go by email. Check your inbox, and spam, before you click Export again.
The Export option isn't where the guide said. Asana's own pages use 3 labels for that menu. Open the dropdown next to the project name and look for anything with Export in it.
A column you expected is empty or missing. Check the plan first. Custom fields need Starter and time tracking needs Advanced. If the plan is right, the column may simply not be in the export, since Asana doesn't publish the list.
Tasks are missing. A project export covers that project. Tasks your team keeps in a sibling project won't appear, so export a search view when the work is spread out. For subtasks, count the rows with a Parent Task against what Asana shows, since the depth isn't documented.
Dates look wrong or won't sort. The spreadsheet causes this when it reads the file. Day and month swap places when the file and your spreadsheet disagree on order. Asana dates wrong in Google Sheets walks through the 2 settings behind it.
The snapshot problem
A CSV is the project as it stood at the moment you clicked. Asana won't update it, and nothing tells you when it's out of date.
To refresh it, you export again. Then you import the new file, overwrite the old tab, and check every formula that pointed at the old rows. A summary tab that counted 42 open tasks last week now counts whatever landed in those cells this week. If the row order changed, so did the answer.
That's fine once a month. Weekly, it's an hour you won't get back. Daily, it's somebody's job.
Importing it back can't update anything
Teams often try the round trip. They export, edit the dates in the sheet and import the file back into Asana. It doesn't work.
Asana's help is direct: "Importing data via CSV will not update any existing tasks in the project." Import adds new tasks. Your edited rows come back as duplicates beside the originals, and the originals keep their old dates.
The import has its own rules too. Due dates must use the US month/day/year format. Subtasks import through a column called Parent Task. Custom fields that the import creates stay local to that one project.
Edits that should change real tasks need a two-way sync. Asana Google Sheets two-way sync covers which fields can make the trip and which can't.
CSV export vs a sync, side by side
There are 3 ways to get a project into a spreadsheet, and the CSV is only one. Asana makes its own sync, Sync to Google Sheets, on Advanced and above. Asana to Sheets is an Asana to Google Sheets™ add-on by UpSys that does the job from the Sheets sidebar.
Asana CSV export
Asana's Sync to Google Sheets
Asana to Sheets add-on
Cost
Free on every Asana plan
Included with Advanced and up
$9 to $39 a month, flat
Asana plan
Any
Advanced or higher
Any
Stays current
No, it stays as it was at export
Every 1 to 6 hours
By hand, every 3 hours, or live in seconds
Row cap
None stated
500 rows
None from us
Subtasks
Parent Task column, depth undocumented
Not documented
Each one, with its parent's name
Edits back to Asana
No, import only adds tasks
Not described
Business plan: name, notes, assignee, dates, section, completed and custom fields
Formulas on top
Break when rows move
On another tab, since the data tab is locked
Live on a second tab and keep working
Best for
A one-off snapshot or an archive
A small project on Advanced
A report someone opens every week
So the best alternative depends on the project. Under 500 rows on Advanced, Asana's own sync costs nothing extra. Past that, or on any other plan, use the add-on.
On the add-on, Starter is $9 a month for up to 3 manual syncs. Pro is $19 a month and syncs every 3 hours. Business is $39 a month and adds two-way and live sync. Anyone who only views the sheet needs no seat.
Google caps scheduled add-on runs at roughly once an hour, so no add-on refreshes faster on a timer. Asana to Google Sheets automatically compares every refresh option.
The CSV is right for one-off jobs
Use the export when nobody will ask for the data again. A project closeout. An archive before you delete a project. A one-time audit for finance. A CSV is free, it needs no setup, and it doesn't care what plan you're on.
Use a sync when the same question comes back on a calendar. The weekly client update from the top of this post is the textbook case. So is any sheet with formulas that someone else reads.
Frequently asked questions
Does the Asana CSV export include comments?
Asana doesn't document it. Its 2014 column list has no comments column, and forum posts say the export leaves comments out. Export a small project with one commented task and check your own file.
Does the Asana CSV export include custom fields?
Asana doesn't document that either. Forum posts say each field gets its own column. Custom fields only exist on Starter and above, so a free workspace has none to export.
Why is my Asana CSV export not downloading?
Asana builds a large project's file in the background. It shows a message that it is building the file and emails it to you when it's ready. Check your inbox and spam folder.
Can I export several Asana projects into one CSV?
Run a search that covers those projects, then export the search view. You can export My Tasks the same way for your own assigned work.
Can I edit the CSV and import it to update tasks?
No. Asana's help says a CSV import will not update any existing tasks. Import only creates new ones, so edited rows come back as duplicates.
Your next step
Run the 2-minute test on a small project and see which columns your export has. If you'll need the report again next week, read how to export an Asana board to Google Sheets and the 5 ways to keep it current.
Asana is a trademark of Asana, Inc. Google Sheets and Google Workspace are trademarks of Google LLC. Asana to Sheets has no affiliation with either, and neither endorses it.
