--- title: "How to Export Data from Monday.com: API Limits, Methods, Gaps" slug: how-to-export-data-from-mondaycom-api-limits-methods-gaps date: 2026-09-21 author: Nachi Raman categories: [Monday.com] excerpt: "Learn every method to export Monday.com data — board exports, full account downloads, GraphQL API with rate limits — plus what each method drops." tldr: "Monday.com offers board-level Excel export, full account export (excludes archived boards and workdocs), and a GraphQL API with daily call limits as low as 1,000. No single method captures everything." canonical: https://clonepartner.com/blog/how-to-export-data-from-mondaycom-api-limits-methods-gaps --- # How to Export Data from Monday.com: API Limits, Methods, Gaps # How to Export Data from Monday.com: API Limits, Methods, Gaps Monday.com gives you four ways to get data out: board-level Excel/CSV export, full account export, the GraphQL API (v2, cursor-paginated), and third-party connectors like Zapier or Make. Each method has hard limits on what it includes, what it drops, and how much data you can move per day. This guide covers every method with the specific constraints you need to plan around, including rate limit tables, working GraphQL examples, and JSON structure samples for common column types. > **API version note:** All GraphQL examples in this guide apply to Monday.com API version **2024-01** (stable as of Q1 2025). Monday.com versions its API by release date; pin your integration to a specific version using the `API-Version` request header to avoid breaking changes. ## The four Monday.com export methods, compared **Monday.com data export** is the process of extracting board items, column values, updates, files, and account-level data from the Monday.com platform into external formats (Excel, CSV, JSON) or systems. No single method captures everything — you'll likely need to combine at least two. | Method | Who can use it | Output format | Includes files? | Includes archived boards? | Automation possible? | |---|---|---|---|---|---| | Board Excel/CSV export | Any board member | .xlsx / .csv | No | No | No | | Full account export | Account admin only | .zip (Excel per board) | Optional | No | No (manual only) | | GraphQL API | Admin, Member, Guest (not Viewers) | JSON | Via asset URLs (separate download) | Via API if board ID known | Yes | | Third-party (Zapier, Make, Unito) | Depends on connector | Varies | Limited | No | Yes | ## How to export a single Monday.com board to Excel or CSV From any board, click the three-dot menu and select **More actions → Export board to Excel** or **Export board to CSV**. A dialog lets you choose whether to include updates and subitems. The export respects active filters — only items matching the current filter are included. This is useful if you only need a subset: filter first, then export. You can also export individual groups or batch-selected items using board actions. **What you get:** - All standard and custom column data: Status, Date, Text, Numbers, Person, Dropdown, etc. - Updates and replies (if selected during export — every update thread and reply) - Item-level subitems as child rows **What you don't get:** - File attachments (the .xlsx contains no binary files; the files are not referenced by URL either) - Subitem updates (parent item updates export; subitem updates do not) - Auto Number column values (silently omitted) - Dashboards or cross-board Mirror column references - The "Powered by monday.com" branding row cannot be suppressed — delete it manually post-export > **Enterprise admin note:** Account admins on Enterprise plans can activate a permission that disables non-admins from exporting boards to Excel. If the export option is missing for your team, check your Enterprise admin settings under **Administration → Security**. ### Common Excel formatting pitfalls Opening a [raw CSV export](https://clonepartner.com/blog/blog/csv-saas-data-migration) by double-clicking it causes Excel to auto-import with wrong delimiters, merge cells, and misparse dates as text. Always use **Data → Get Data → From Text/CSV** (Power Query) to control delimiter detection, encoding (UTF-8), and column type inference. This is especially important if your board data includes non-ASCII characters or ISO 8601 date strings. ## How to export your entire Monday.com account **Monday.com full account export** downloads all active boards as a .zip file containing one .xlsx per board. Only account admins can trigger it. Navigate to **Profile picture → Administration → Account → Export**, then click Export. Monday.com sends a download link to your admin email address. The export can take up to 24 hours for large accounts. You can trigger the export once every 24 hours. You can optionally exclude file attachments to reduce export size and processing time by checking the exclusion box before clicking Export. ### What the account export excludes This is where teams get burned. The full account export has significant blind spots: - **Archived boards:** The export excludes all archived boards. Most teams archive completed project boards rather than deleting them, meaning years of historical work may be entirely absent from every export you have run. - **Workdocs:** Not included. Export individual Workdocs manually as PDF, Word, or Markdown before running the account export — there is no bulk Workdoc export path. - **Dashboards:** Not included. Dashboard widget layouts and configurations must be rebuilt manually. The underlying board data is present (via the board exports), but the visual layer is lost. - **Emails & Activities timeline:** Not included in the account export. > **Critical gap:** If your team archives completed project boards — standard practice — your account export is missing potentially years of historical data. Unarchive boards before exporting, or use the API to query archived boards directly by board ID. ## Monday.com GraphQL API: the only programmable export path Monday.com's API is a GraphQL-based interface (versioned, cursor-paginated) that lets you query boards, items, column values, updates, and assets programmatically. The API uses cursor-based pagination to retrieve up to 500 items per request. ### How to find a board ID Every API query against a specific board requires its numeric board ID. Three ways to find it: 1. Open the board in Monday.com. The URL contains the ID: `https://yourworkspace.monday.com/boards/`**`1234567890`** 2. Use the `boards` query with a name filter: `boards(limit: 50) { id name }` 3. For archived boards, use: `boards(limit: 50, state: archived) { id name }` ### Paginating through all items on a board The basic pattern for extracting all items: ```graphql # Step 1: First page query { boards(ids: 1234567890) { items_page(limit: 500) { cursor items { id name column_values { id text value } } } } } ``` ```graphql # Step 2: Subsequent pages — use next_items_page at the root to reduce complexity cost query { next_items_page(limit: 500, cursor: "your_cursor_here") { cursor items { id name column_values { id text value } } } } ``` `items_page` nested inside `boards` carries high complexity cost because the board resolver runs first. For pages 2+, use `next_items_page` at the query root — it accepts only the cursor and limit, bypassing the board-level resolver and dramatically reducing per-request complexity. Continue paginating until the returned `cursor` field is `null`, which indicates the end of the dataset. ### Column value JSON structures Monday.com column values are returned as JSON strings in the `value` field. The structure differs by column type — parsing them into clean relational data requires type-specific handling. Here are the actual structures for four common types: **Status column:** ```json { "index": 1, "post_id": null, "changed_at": "2024-03-15T10:22:00.000Z" } ``` The `index` maps to a label via the board's column settings — you must query `boards { columns { settings_str } }` separately to resolve `index → label` (e.g., `1 → "In Progress"`). **People column:** ```json { "personsAndTeams": [ {"id": 9876543, "kind": "person"}, {"id": 1111111, "kind": "team"} ] } ``` Person IDs must be resolved to names via a separate `users(ids: [...]) { id name email }` query. **Timeline (Date range) column:** ```json { "from": "2024-04-01", "to": "2024-04-30" } ``` Stored as ISO 8601 date strings. Straightforward to parse; no secondary lookup required. **Mirror column:** ```json null ``` Mirror columns return `null` in the `value` field via the standard `column_values` query. To retrieve mirrored data, query `column_values { ... linked_items { id name } }` using the `MirrorValue` type, which requires knowing the connected board structure. > **Key insight:** Never rely on the `text` field alone for programmatic parsing. `text` is a human-readable string Monday.com generates for display purposes; its format can change without notice. Always parse `value` (the raw JSON) for reliable data extraction. ### How to extract file attachments Files in Monday.com are stored as assets. Extracting them requires two steps: **Step 1: Query asset URLs** ```graphql query { items(ids: [123456789]) { assets { id name url file_size created_at } } } ``` **Step 2: Download each file** The `url` field returns a pre-signed S3 URL that is valid for a limited time (typically minutes to hours). Download the file using an authenticated HTTP GET request with your API token in the `Authorization` header: ``` GET Authorization: Bearer your_api_token_here ``` Assets are not included in the account export zip. For a complete file backup, you must query assets per item via the API and download each file individually. For boards with thousands of attachments, budget this as a separate, rate-limit-aware process. ### Webhooks as an alternative to polling Monday.com supports webhooks for event-driven data extraction — an alternative to repeatedly polling the API. Webhooks push a JSON payload to your endpoint when board events occur (item created, column value changed, status updated, etc.). **When to use webhooks instead of polling:** - You need near-real-time data sync (< 1 minute latency) - Your board has high write volume and polling would exhaust daily API call limits - You're building a continuous pipeline rather than a one-time export **Webhook limitations:** - Webhooks do not deliver historical data — only events that occur after subscription - They do not replace bulk export for initial data loads - Webhook payloads contain item ID and changed values, not full item state; you still need a follow-up API call to fetch complete item data if needed Register a webhook via the API: ```graphql mutation { create_webhook( board_id: 1234567890, url: "https://your-endpoint.com/monday-webhook", event: change_column_value ) { id board_id } } ``` ### How to check API complexity before running a query Query complexity defines the computational cost of each API operation. Each API token receives a fixed complexity budget per minute. Exceeding it returns a 429 error. Check the cost of any query by adding the `complexity` node: ```graphql query { complexity { before query after reset_in_x_seconds } boards(ids: 1234567890) { items_page(limit: 100) { cursor items { id name } } } } ``` **Approximate complexity costs for common operations:** | Operation | Approximate complexity cost | |---|---| | `boards { id name }` (simple fields) | ~1–5 points per board | | `items_page(limit: 500) { id name }` | ~500 points | | `items_page(limit: 500) { column_values }` | ~2,500–5,000 points (varies by column count) | | `next_items_page(limit: 500)` (root-level) | ~500–1,000 points (no board resolver overhead) | | `assets { url }` per item | ~50–100 points per item | Nested queries grow in complexity multiplicatively. A query requesting `boards → items_page → column_values → linked_items` can approach the 5,000,000 point single-query ceiling on large boards. Use `next_items_page` at the root and request only the fields you need to stay within budget. ## Monday.com API rate limits by plan Monday.com enforces six distinct rate limit dimensions. Understanding all of them is required if you're building an export script or integration. All limits are measured per account, per app. ### Daily call limits The daily call limit resets at midnight UTC: | Plan | Daily API calls | |---|---| | Free / Basic / Standard | 1,000 | | Pro | 10,000 | | Enterprise | 25,000 | 1,000 calls/day on Free, Basic, and Standard is a firm ceiling. A board with 2,000 items requires 4 paginated requests at limit=500 — just to read that one board. A modest bidirectional sync across 10 boards can consume this quota within hours. Enterprise accounts can purchase additional daily call capacity through the admin section. Each add-on unit adds 25,000 daily API calls. ### Complexity limits | Scope | Limit | |---|---| | Single query maximum | 5,000,000 points | | Personal API tokens (reads + writes combined) | 10,000,000 points/minute (1,000,000 for trial/free) | | App tokens — reads | 5,000,000 points/minute | | App tokens — writes | 5,000,000 points/minute (counted separately) | ### Minute and concurrency limits | Plan | Queries per minute | Max concurrent requests | |---|---|---| | Enterprise | 5,000 | 250 | | Pro | 2,500 | 100 | | Free / Basic / Standard | 1,000 | 40 | Rate limit errors return HTTP 429. The response includes a `Retry-After` header specifying how many seconds to wait before retrying. Monitor the `RateLimit` response header in real time: the `r` value shows remaining requests in the current window; the `t` value shows seconds until reset. ### Rate-limit error handling: exponential backoff The blog mentioning "wait for the number of seconds in `t`" is insufficient for production use. Implement exponential backoff with jitter: ```python import time, random, requests def query_monday(payload, token, max_retries=5): url = "https://api.monday.com/v2" headers = { "Authorization": f"Bearer {token}", "API-Version": "2024-01", "Content-Type": "application/json" } for attempt in range(max_retries): response = requests.post(url, json=payload, headers=headers) if response.status_code == 200: return response.json() elif response.status_code == 429: retry_after = int(response.headers.get("Retry-After", 60)) # Exponential backoff with jitter: base wait + random 0–5s wait = retry_after * (2 ** attempt) + random.uniform(0, 5) print(f"Rate limited. Waiting {wait:.1f}s (attempt {attempt+1})") time.sleep(wait) else: response.raise_for_status() raise Exception("Max retries exceeded") ``` ### What counts toward your daily limit - Standard GraphQL requests: 1 call each - Rate-limit errors (429 responses): 0.1 calls each - High-complexity queries: may count as more than 1 call - MCP tool calls (Monday's AI agent interface): 1 call each, competing with the same daily quota as your custom integration ### What happens when you hit the daily limit mid-export There is no queuing mechanism. Requests made after the daily limit is exhausted return a 429 error with an error body indicating the daily limit has been reached (distinct from the per-minute 429). Your export script must: 1. Track call count against the known plan limit 2. [Checkpoint progress](https://clonepartner.com/blog/blog/how-to-build-a-data-migration-playbook-tools-validation-tests) (last successfully retrieved cursor) to a durable store (file, database) 3. Resume from the checkpoint at midnight UTC when the limit resets Design every export script to be resumable from a cursor. Never assume a single run will complete on Free, Basic, or Standard plans for boards with more than ~500 items. ## What data can't you export from Monday.com? No single export method captures everything. Consolidated reference: **Not in any standard export:** - Archived boards (must be unarchived, or queried via API using `boards(state: archived)`) - Dashboard configurations and widget layouts - Emails & Activities timeline data **Not in board Excel/CSV export:** - File attachments (no files, no URLs in the export) - Subitem updates (parent updates are included; subitem updates are not) - Auto Number column values (silently omitted) - Mirror column resolved values **Not in account export:** - Workdocs (export individually as PDF/Word/Markdown) - Archived boards - Dashboard configurations **API-specific gaps:** - File binary content requires separate asset URL queries + authenticated downloads - Activity log exports show only column value changes — item creation, deletion, and movement are not captured - Mirror column `value` field returns `null`; requires `MirrorValue` type query with linked board context ### Activity log retention by plan | Plan | Activity log retention | |---|---| | Basic | 1 week | | Standard | 6 months | | Pro | 1 year | | Enterprise | 5 years | This retention limit is a hard data boundary. If you are on a Pro plan and haven't exported activity logs in over a year, that data is permanently gone. Export activity logs on a scheduled basis, not just during migrations. ## How to export Monday.com data using third-party tools **Zapier** works well for event-driven exports — appending a row to Google Sheets or creating a record in Airtable when a Monday.com item changes. It is trigger-based, not query-based, making it unsuitable for bulk initial exports of existing data. Zapier has no native mechanism to paginate through all existing board items. **Make** (formerly Integromat) offers an "Execute a GraphQL Query" module with direct API access and visual iteration orchestration. You can build a scenario that calls `items_page`, stores the cursor, loops through `next_items_page` calls, and writes results to Google Sheets or a database — without writing code. Make is the strongest no-code option for paginated bulk exports. The cursor pattern (store cursor between iterations, pass it to the next call) is natively supported via Make's iteration and variable modules. **Unito** specializes in ongoing bidirectional sync rather than one-time exports. It maps Monday.com item fields to destination tool fields (e.g., Google Sheets columns) and maintains sync in near-real time. It is not designed for bulk migration or one-time data dumps. **Plan limits matter:** Third-party integrations count against Monday.com API call quotas just like direct API calls. On Free/Basic/Standard plans, a Make scenario doing a full board sync plus a Zapier automation running concurrently can exhaust 1,000 daily calls before noon. Audit total API consumption across all integrations, not just your custom scripts. ## Practical export strategy for large Monday.com accounts For accounts with hundreds of boards and thousands of items — migration, compliance backup, or analytics — this sequence minimizes risk and API cost: **1. Start with the full account export** to get a baseline zip of all active boards. Zero API cost; covers all non-archived boards in one operation. **2. Identify gaps systematically.** Query the API for archived boards: `boards(limit: 50, state: archived) { id name }`. Cross-reference against your workspace inventory. Note file-heavy boards, Workdocs, and boards with Mirror columns that need special handling. **3. Use the API for everything the account export misses.** Target archived boards by ID, download file assets via authenticated URL fetches, and extract activity logs within your plan's retention window. Prioritize activity log extraction — it has the hardest expiry deadline. **4. Respect rate limits by design, not reaction.** Calculate query complexity during development. Spread initial sync calls evenly across the minute window rather than bursting. Checkpoint all progress against cursors. On Pro (10K calls/day at 500 items/request), you can extract approximately 5,000,000 items per day — sufficient for most accounts. On Basic (1K calls/day), plan for multi-day extraction windows. **5. Validate column types after export, especially before re-import.** When creating a new board from an import file, Monday.com reads only the first 50 columns. Columns beyond position 50 are silently dropped — no warning, no error. If you're re-importing extracted data, verify column count and order before import. **6. Parse column values by type, not by `text` field.** Build a [type-specific parser](https://clonepartner.com/blog/blog/data-migration-mapping-cheat-sheet-sample-scripts) for Status (index → label lookup), People (ID → name lookup), Timeline (ISO date range), and Mirror (linked item query) columns. Relying on the `text` display string will produce inconsistent results as column labels change. > **For ongoing backup:** Monday.com officially partners with Rewind, which provides automated daily backups with granular item-level restore. If your compliance requirements demand continuous backup beyond the 24-hour manual export cycle, evaluate Rewind before building a custom solution. ## When to bring in help Most teams can handle a one-off board export themselves. Scenarios where complexity compounds: - **Multi-board migrations** with cross-board dependencies, Mirror columns, and connected board references — these relationships do not survive a round-trip through Excel - **Large-scale exports on lower-tier plans** — hitting the 1,000 daily API call ceiling requires multi-day pagination strategies with cursor checkpointing - **Format transformation** — Status, People, Timeline, and Mirror column JSON structures each require different parsing logic to produce clean relational data - **File attachment extraction** — downloading thousands of assets via pre-signed URLs requires rate-aware parallelism and retry logic - **Preserving subitem relationships** — subitems, linked items, and Mirror references require multi-query assembly that the built-in export cannot produce At ClonePartner, we build custom extraction pipelines for these scenarios — accounts with 500+ boards, complex column structures, and file attachment requirements that the built-in export drops entirely. If your export needs exceed what the three-dot menu handles, we can help. > Need to migrate data out of Monday.com — or into it? Our engineers build custom extraction and migration scripts that handle rate limits, column type parsing, file attachments, and the edge cases that manual exports miss. Book a free 30-minute consultation. > > [Talk to us](https://cal.com/clonepartner/meet?duration=30) ## Frequently asked questions ### How do I export all data from my Monday.com account? Go to Administration → General → Account → Export account data. Only account admins can do this. The export includes all active boards (including private and shareable) as a zip file, but excludes archived boards, workdocs, dashboards, and the Emails & Activities timeline. The export can take up to 24 hours and can only be triggered once per day. ### What are Monday.com's API rate limits? Monday.com enforces daily call limits (1,000 for Free/Basic/Standard, 10,000 for Pro, 25,000 for Enterprise), complexity limits (10M points per minute for personal tokens), minute limits (1,000–5,000 queries per minute depending on plan), and concurrency limits (40–250 concurrent requests). All limits are per account, per app. ### Does Monday.com board export include file attachments? No. When you export a board to Excel, the file does not include attachments. You get column data, item names, and optionally updates and subitems — but not the actual files. The full account export can include files, but that's a separate admin-only process. ### Can I export archived boards from Monday.com? Archived boards are excluded from both the board Excel export and the full account export. Your only option is to unarchive the boards first and then export, or use the API to query them directly by board ID if you know them. ### How many items can I get per API call in Monday.com? The Monday.com API returns up to 500 items per query using cursor-based pagination via the items_page endpoint. Use the cursor returned in each response with the next_items_page object to fetch subsequent pages at lower complexity cost.