How to export Dropbox Forms data to a CSV

Updated Oct 21, 2025

In this article

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Important note: Dropbox Forms will be discontinued on September 30, 2025. As of September 2, 2025, you’ll no longer be able to create new workflows with Forms, but you’ll be able to view existing workflows as well as export them until the September 30 deadline.

Learn more about the end of support for Dropbox Forms.

You can use Dropbox Forms to download your data into a CSV file. This feature is only available for paid Dropbox Forms plans. 

Team admins can download data from up to 25,000 completed forms. Each row contains all the information a recipient provided, from every page of your form.

How to export data to a CSV

You can only download data from sent and completed forms.

To export data in Dropbox Forms into a CSV:
  1. Log in to Dropbox Forms. 
  2. Click Sent in the left menu bar. 
  3. Click Download CSV.
  4. Select a date range to populate sent forms. 
  5. Check the box next to the forms you’d like to download. Each selected form will download separately. 
  6. Click Proceed.

Your data is saved in a ZIP file as a CSV. You can use your preferred program to view this information.

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Note: PDFs, audit trails, and any uploaded attachments won't appear when you download data to a CSV. To find this information, you need to download forms individually. To do so, click Download under Actions.

How to export data in bulk using the Dropbox Forms API

You can use the Dropbox Forms API to export workflow data in bulk. The Dropbox Forms API is a REST API that lets you work with automated workflows in Dropbox Forms. You can create and manage workflow instances, check their status, and get notifications when workflows are complete. 

You can use either application/x-www-form-urlencoded or application/json for your requests and all API responses are returned in JSON format.
 

 

How to set up the Dropbox Forms API

To start exporting with the Dropbox Forms API, you’ll need an API key and an existing workflow.

  1. Log in to the Dropbox Forms portal.
  2. Click API Keys in the left sidebar.
  3. Click New key in the upper right.
  4. Enter a unique name for your API key so your team can identify it.
  5. Choose whether the key will be used for test or live requests.
  6. When the key is created, you’ll get:
    • A public key ID
    • A private key value
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Important: Record the private key value immediately and store it in a secure location. You won’t be able to retrieve the private key value later, but you can generate new keys at any time.

The Dropbox Forms API uses both your API key and a JSON Web Token (JWT) for authentication. Your API key is used to retrieve a short-lived JWT, which can then be used to authenticate API calls.
 

How to do a bulk export

Once you have an API key, you’ll need to: 

  1. Add your JWT to the header on every subsequent call:
Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_JWT>
  • Note: Replace <YOUR_JWT> with your JWT. 

2. Get a list of your workflows by running this command in a terminal: 

curl -s -H "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_JWT>" \
https://api.helloworks.com/v3/workflows

3. Take a note of each workflow_id in the output. 

4. Run this command to download a ZIP file containing CSV data for a chosen date range:

curl -L -H "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_JWT>" \
"https://api.helloworks.com/v3/workflows/<WORKFLOW_ID>/csv?start_date=YYYY-MM-DD&end_date=YYYY-MM-DD" \
-o workflow_<WORKFLOW_ID>.zip
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Note: Replace <WORKFLOW_ID> with your ID and YYYY-MM-DDT00:00:00Z in the URL with your start and end dates, for example start_date=2020-01-01T00:00:00Z.

6. Run this command to extract the CSV: 
unzip -p workflow_<WORKFLOW_ID>.zip "*.csv" > workflow_<WORKFLOW_ID>.csv
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Notes: 

  • If there are multiple CSVs, you’ll need to extract and process them all.
  • You can only download up to 183 days at a time. If you need more, you’ll need to make multiple calls.

How to download documents for each instance 

Once you’ve downloaded and opened the CSV, you need to:

  1. Look for the column with instance IDs (“workflow_instance_id” or “instance_id”).
  2. Run this command to download a ZIP file that contains the documents for each instance ID: 
curl -L -H "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_JWT>" \
https://api.helloworks.com/v3/workflow_instances/<INSTANCE_ID>/documents \
3. Extract the ZIP file to view the files. 
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