Guide
How to download all your tweets
Years of your writing live on a server you don't control, one policy change away from unreachable. There are two real ways to get a full timeline out of X — the official archive and a spreadsheet export. Here's what each actually gives you.
Updated August 2026 · Works for your account or any public account
Why download your tweets at all
Three reasons come up over and over. Insurance: accounts get suspended, hacked, and locked out, and a deleted tweet is gone for good — a backup only covers what still exists the day you run it. Analysis: a timeline in a spreadsheet answers questions the X interface can't, like which topics actually earn engagement. And reuse: old threads are drafts of blog posts and newsletters, if you can get them out of the feed.
The same logic applies to accounts that aren't yours — a competitor's posting history is a strategy document, if you can sort it.
Method 1: The official X archive
X's built-in option: Settings → Your account → Download an archive of your data. Request it, wait for the email — usually about a day — and download a ZIP.
The archive is thorough: every tweet, plus DMs, likes, media, and account records. It's also the least usable format imaginable for analysis. The ZIP opens into an offline web page backed by JavaScript data files — your tweets live in tweets.js, wrapped in code, not in anything a spreadsheet reads. Getting it into Excel means hand-editing the file or running a conversion script.
It works only for your own account, and only while you still have access to it. As a periodic full backup, request it anyway — it's free. As a working dataset, it isn't one.
Method 2: A CSV export
TweetExporter's tweet export walks a public timeline from the newest tweet backwards and delivers one spreadsheet row per tweet: full text, posting date, like, repost and reply counts, and a permanent link. Threads keep their reply IDs, so they reassemble with a sort.
It works on any public account — yours without logging in, or anyone else's — and finishes in minutes for most timelines. You choose whether replies and retweets are included, and the file opens directly in Excel, Google Sheets, or Numbers. What it doesn't include: DMs, likes, or anything non-public. For that, the official archive is the only source.
Archive vs. export
| Official archive | TweetExporter | |
|---|---|---|
| Whose tweets | Your account only | Any public account |
| Wait time | Usually ~24 hours | Minutes for most accounts |
| Format | Offline web page + JS data files | CSV, XLSX, or JSON |
| Opens in Excel | Not without conversion | Directly |
| Replies / retweets | Always included, mixed in | Optional checkboxes |
| Cost | Free | First 50 rows free, then 1 credit/tweet |
| Extras | DMs, likes, media, account data | Tweets with engagement counts |
The honest answer is both: request the free archive once a quarter as deep insurance, and use an export when you actually want to read, sort, or analyze a timeline.
Step by step: export a timeline
- 1
Create an account with an email
No X login, nothing to authorize. The 50 free credits cover a first test export with no credit card.
- 2
Type the handle
Yours or any public account's. TweetExporter looks up the tweet count and shows the exact price before you confirm.
- 3
Choose what counts
Two checkboxes decide whether replies and retweets join the file. Cap the export at the most recent N tweets if you don't need the whole history.
- 4
Download the file
CSV, XLSX, or JSON. Huge timelines are chunked at 100k rows and zipped, so nothing chokes your spreadsheet.
Tweet downloads, answered
Is the official X archive free?+
Yes — Settings → Your account → Download an archive of your data. It usually takes about a day to arrive, works only for your own account, and comes as an offline web page backed by JavaScript data files rather than a spreadsheet.
Can I download someone else's tweets?+
Not with the official archive — that's your own account only. An export tool can, for any public account: type the handle and every public tweet comes out as CSV rows. Protected accounts can't be exported.
Can I recover deleted tweets?+
No. Both the archive and an export read what exists today, so anything already deleted is gone. That's the argument for downloading now rather than later — a backup only covers what still exists on the day you run it.
How do I get my tweets into Excel?+
The official archive can't do it directly — its data lives in JavaScript files that need conversion. A TweetExporter export skips the conversion: pick XLSX (or CSV) at download time and the file opens straight in Excel, Google Sheets, or Numbers.
Are replies and retweets included?+
The official archive includes everything, mixed together. With an export it's your call — two checkboxes decide whether replies and retweets join the file, and most people archiving their own writing leave both off.
What does exporting a timeline cost?+
One credit per tweet. You see the account's tweet count and the exact price before you confirm, the first 50 rows are free, and you can cap the export at the most recent N tweets to bound the spend.