How to Export YouTube Comments to Excel, CSV, or JSON

Need a spreadsheet of the comments under a YouTube video? The quickest method is to paste the public video URL into a YouTube comment exporter, review the available comments, and download an Excel-ready CSV file.

CommentGrid's free YouTube Comment Exporter works in your browser and does not require a YouTube API key or browser extension. It can also save the data as JSON when you need a structured file for code or another application.

Quick answer: how to download YouTube comments

1. Open the public YouTube video you want to analyze.
2. Copy its URL from the address bar or the Share menu.
3. Open the YouTube Comment Exporter.
4. Paste the video URL and start the export.
5. Review the returned comments.
6. Download the data as CSV or JSON.
7. To create a native Excel workbook, open the CSV in Excel and save it as an .xlsx file.

That is enough for most research, moderation, reporting, and giveaway workflows. The rest of this guide explains what is included, how to clean the spreadsheet, and when another export method may be more appropriate.

How to export YouTube comments with CommentGrid

1. Copy the YouTube video URL

Open the video whose comments you want to export. Standard watch URLs, such as youtube.com/watch?v=..., are the safest format to use. A public video is required; private, deleted, restricted, or otherwise unavailable videos may not work.

Unlisted videos may work when they are accessible through the URL, but availability depends on YouTube and the video's settings.

2. Paste the URL into the exporter

Go to the free YouTube Comment Exporter, paste the URL into the input field, and start the export. You do not need to create a Google Cloud project, generate an API key, or install an extension.

Larger comment sections can take longer to process. Keep the page open until the results appear.

3. Review the comments before downloading

Do not treat an export as a finished report. First, confirm that the result belongs to the correct video and scan the table for the fields you need.

Depending on what YouTube makes available, the export can include:

Field	How you can use it
Comment text	Topic research, feedback analysis, moderation, or giveaway review
Published time	Sort comments chronologically or define a campaign period
Author handle or name	Identify participants and group comments by author
Like count	Find comments that received visible community support
Reply count	Locate conversations that generated discussion
Comment URL	Return to a specific public comment when available
Author profile URL	Review the public profile associated with a comment

The exact number of returned comments depends on what is publicly accessible and on current platform behavior. Always compare the result with the visible video page before making a decision that depends on a complete entry list.

4. Download CSV for Excel or Google Sheets

Choose CSV when you want to sort, filter, tag, chart, or share the comments in a spreadsheet.

To open the file in Microsoft Excel:

1. Download the CSV.
2. Open Excel and choose File > Open.
3. Select the CSV file.
4. Check that UTF-8 encoding is used if the comments contain emoji or non-English text.
5. Choose Save As and select Excel Workbook (.xlsx) if you need a native Excel file.

To use Google Sheets, create a sheet and choose File > Import > Upload, then select the downloaded CSV.

5. Download JSON for structured workflows

Choose JSON when you plan to use the comments in code, a database, an automation, or a text-analysis workflow. JSON preserves the relationship between field names and values without relying on spreadsheet columns.

If you only want to read and filter comments manually, CSV is usually the easier choice.

How to clean a YouTube comment export

A few minutes of cleanup makes the file much more useful.

Freeze the header and turn on filters

In Excel or Google Sheets, freeze the first row and enable a filter. You can then sort by date, likes, author, or reply count without losing track of the columns.

Preserve the original export

Keep one untouched copy of the downloaded file. Perform cleanup in a duplicate sheet so you can always check your work against the source data.

Remove rows according to your purpose

What counts as noise depends on the project. For research, you may remove empty or irrelevant comments. For a giveaway, only remove an entry when your published rules clearly make it ineligible.

Do not automatically delete repeated authors unless your rules specify one entry per person. Some campaigns intentionally allow multiple valid comments.

Add analysis columns

Useful spreadsheet columns include:

• Theme for recurring topics or requests
• Sentiment for positive, neutral, or negative feedback
• Needs reply for community-management follow-up
• Valid entry for giveaway eligibility
• Review note for the reason a row was included or excluded

For a large research file, start with a small sample and define consistent labels before tagging the full dataset.

What can you do with exported YouTube comments?

Analyze audience questions

Filter for question marks and phrases such as “how,” “where,” “can you,” or “does this.” Repeated questions can reveal topics for future videos, help-center content, product FAQs, and blog posts.

Find product feedback

Group comments by requests, complaints, praise, and objections. The original comment URL, when available, lets you return to the conversation before acting on a quote or insight.

Build a moderation queue

Add a Needs reply or Review column, assign owners, and sort the sheet by priority. This is useful when multiple people manage the same channel.

Select giveaway entries

An export can serve as the reviewable entry list for a comment contest. If your actual goal is to run the draw, use the YouTube Giveaway Picker.

Before the draw, publish clear rules, remove only ineligible entries, and save the final list used for selection.

Other ways to export YouTube comments

YouTube Data API

The official YouTube Data API is useful when you need a repeatable developer workflow or want to integrate comment retrieval into an application. It requires a Google Cloud project, credentials, API requests, pagination, and attention to quota usage.

For a one-off spreadsheet, that setup is often unnecessary. For scheduled or programmatic collection, it may be the right choice.

Google Takeout

Google Takeout is designed to export data associated with your Google account. It can help you download comments that you have posted, but it is not the normal way to download the public comment section from someone else's video.

Manual copy and paste

Copying comments by hand can work for a very small thread. It becomes unreliable when comments load dynamically, replies are collapsed, or the video has more entries than you can reasonably review on screen.

Common YouTube comment export problems

The video cannot be loaded

Confirm that the URL opens in a private browser window. Private, deleted, age-restricted, region-restricted, or otherwise unavailable videos may not be accessible to a web-based exporter.

The exported count differs from the number shown on YouTube

YouTube's displayed count and the accessible result can differ because of moderation, held comments, deleted comments, reply visibility, platform behavior, or processing limits. Treat the exported file as a record of the comments available during that export—not a guarantee of every comment ever submitted.

Emoji or international characters look broken in Excel

Import the CSV using UTF-8 encoding instead of opening it with an older default encoding. Current versions of Excel and Google Sheets normally detect UTF-8 correctly.

All of the data appears in one column

Use Excel's Data > From Text/CSV import flow and confirm the delimiter is a comma. Regional spreadsheet settings sometimes expect a semicolon instead.

Frequently asked questions

Can I export YouTube comments to Excel?

Yes. Download an Excel-ready CSV from CommentGrid, open it in Excel, and save it as an .xlsx workbook if needed.

Can I export comments without a YouTube API key?

Yes. A web-based exporter such as CommentGrid only requires the URL of a public, accessible video. No Google Cloud project or API key is needed.

Can I export comments from any YouTube video?

The video must be publicly accessible to the tool. Private, deleted, restricted, or unavailable videos may not work. Unlisted videos depend on their accessibility through the URL.

Does the export include replies?

Reply availability depends on what the platform returns and what is visible at export time. Review the result before assuming that every nested reply is included.

Is CSV or JSON better?

Use CSV for Excel, Google Sheets, sorting, and manual analysis. Use JSON for software, databases, automations, or workflows that need structured field names.

Can I use the file to train an AI model or run sentiment analysis?

The file can be used as input for analysis, but first remove data you do not need and consider privacy, platform rules, and the terms of any AI service you upload it to. Automated sentiment labels should also be checked against a human-reviewed sample.

Export your YouTube comments

For a fast one-off export, copy the public video URL and open the free YouTube Comment Exporter. Download CSV for Excel or Google Sheets, or choose JSON for a structured workflow.

CommentGrid is an independent tool and is not affiliated with or endorsed by YouTube.