How to export text messages to a spreadsheet (CSV)

Messages has no spreadsheet export. Textbound reads the conversation on your Mac and writes a CSV file with one row per message, with the date and time, the sender and their number, the text and the attachments, which opens in Numbers or any other spreadsheet app. CSV export is part of Pro.

Updated November 2, 2026

Download for Mac — free

macOS 14 or later · CSV and HTML are part of Pro, $19.99 once

How to export a conversation to CSV

Make sure the messages are on your Mac. For texts from an iPhone, turn on Messages in iCloud on the iPhone and on the Mac (Messages › Settings › iMessage).
Open Textbound and allow Full Disk Access once. It reads the Messages history and changes nothing.
Pick the conversation, or ⌘-click several to export them together, one file each.
Choose the dates in the dates menu, then press Export (⌘E).
Under Format, choose CSV, press Export… and save the file. Double-click it to open it in your spreadsheet app.

The columns

Column	What is in it
Date and time	ISO 8601 with seconds and the offset, for example 2026-10-30T14:05:09-07:00, so it sorts correctly
Time zone	The zone the times are in (your Mac's, or the one chosen in Textbound › Settings › Times shown in)
From, From address	The sender's name from Contacts, and their phone number or email address
To	The other people in the conversation
Service	iMessage, SMS or RCS
Text	The message as written
Attachments, Attachment SHA-256	The files sent with the message and a SHA-256 for each one (“not on this Mac” for a file kept only in iCloud)
Reactions	Who reacted and how
Edited, Earlier versions, Unsent	When the message was edited and its earlier text; when it was unsent
In reply to, Effect, Message ID	The sender and text of the message it answers, a send effect, and the ID Messages gave it

The file is UTF-8 with a byte-order mark, so names, accents and emoji come out right when it opens. When Textbound runs in Spanish or Portuguese on a Mac set to a region that writes decimals with a comma, the columns are separated by semicolons, as spreadsheets there expect.

What people use it for

Case files. Lawyers and paralegals sort, filter and count messages, and the SHA-256 column ties each attachment to its file. For a printout, add a Record PDF of the same dates.
Your own archive. A CSV is plain text, one of the most durable file formats there is.
Searching and counting. Filter by sender, find every message with a word, see how many messages were sent each month.

Private, on your Mac

Textbound reads the Messages history on your Mac without changing it and writes the CSV where you save it. Nothing is uploaded, and there is no account.

Questions

Can I export iMessages to a spreadsheet for free?

CSV is part of Pro, $19.99 once. The free version exports the newest 100 messages of any conversation as a Book PDF.

Can I export text messages from my iPhone to a spreadsheet?

Yes, through your Mac: with Messages in iCloud on, the Mac has the same messages as the iPhone, SMS included, and Textbound exports them from there. It doesn't connect to the iPhone or read backups.

Does the CSV include photos?

A spreadsheet can't hold photos, so the CSV lists each attachment's name and SHA-256. For the photos themselves, export HTML: a folder with a web page that shows the photos and plays the videos and voice messages in any browser.

Can I export several conversations at once?

Yes, with Pro: select them with ⌘-click and you get one CSV for each, in the folder you choose.

Can I export group chats to CSV?

Yes. Every row names its sender, and the To column lists the rest of the group.

Export the conversation to CSV

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