How to Export Query Results to Excel/CSV in MySQL Workbench

MySQL Workbench export to Excel or CSV from the result grid

The MySQL Workbench Manual documents export directly from a query result. The result grid toolbar has an Export button that writes the result set to a CSV, HTML, JSON, SQL INSERT, Excel, XML or tab-separated file. The steps are:

1. Open a connection and run your query in the SQL editor (the manual lists Ctrl+Enter, or Cmd+Return on macOS, for Execute statement).
2. In the result grid toolbar, click Export.
3. In the Export Resultset window, choose the format, for example CSV or Excel, and a file name.
4. Save the file and open it in Excel or another program.

The export covers the result set only. If the query used a LIMIT, the file has only those rows, so remove the limit or raise it before exporting a full result. To copy a few rows instead, right-click a row and use Copy Row or Copy Row (tab separated), which pastes cleanly into a spreadsheet.

Excel and CSV details to check

• Excel format. The manual's overview table names the format Excel XML. It is not described as a native .xlsx workbook, so if you need .xlsx, export CSV and save it from Excel.
• Line endings. By default Workbench exports with Unix-style line endings (LF) rather than Windows-style CR/LF.
• Encoding and separators. The Table Data Export Wizard has options for separators and encoding; set them to match the program that will read the file.
• Large results. For millions of rows, a server-side export is usually better than holding the whole result in the GUI.

Export a whole table or database

For a complete table, the manual points to the Table Data Export Wizard: right-click the table in the schema browser, choose Table Data Export Wizard, pick the columns, then choose CSV or JSON and the separator and encoding options. For whole databases with structure, use Data Export in the Management section, which produces SQL files with mysqldump.

Export to CSV with SELECT ... INTO OUTFILE

If your Workbench version has no export option, MySQL itself can write a CSV file. The MySQL 8.4 Reference Manual explains that SELECT ... INTO OUTFILE writes the selected rows to a file created on the server host, so you need the FILE privilege, the file must not already exist and, when secure_file_priv is set to a directory, the file must be written there. The example below follows the manual's CSV example.

SELECT customer_id, full_name, email
INTO OUTFILE '/path/allowed/by/secure_file_priv/customers.csv'
  FIELDS TERMINATED BY ',' OPTIONALLY ENCLOSED BY '"'
  LINES TERMINATED BY '\n'
FROM customers;

Export a table with MySQL Shell

MySQL Shell, which Workbench 26 is built on, has a table export utility, util.exportTable(). It writes a table to a local file (or to Oracle Cloud Object Storage), with dialects default, csv, csv-unix and tsv, and a where option to filter rows. The target directory must exist before the export. The result can be loaded elsewhere with util.importTable().

util.exportTable("mydb.customers", "file:///home/user/exports/customers.csv", {dialect: "csv"})

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• MySQL Workbench product page (Oracle)
• Introducing MySQL Workbench 26 (Oracle MySQL blog)
• MySQL Workbench Manual: Result Grid
• MySQL Workbench Manual: Data Export and Import
• MySQL Workbench Manual: Result Data Export and Import
• MySQL Workbench Manual: Table Data Export and Import Wizard
• MySQL Workbench Manual: Keyboard Shortcuts
• MySQL 8.4 Reference Manual: SELECT ... INTO
• MySQL Shell manual: Table Export Utility

Checked 8 October 2026.

How we research tool guides: our editorial method. CodeWithSQL earns nothing from the vendors mentioned.