How to Export YouTube Comments to Excel or Google Sheets

To export YouTube comments to a spreadsheet, paste the video link into a free comment downloader, save the CSV and import it into Google Sheets or Excel. Then filter the Tags column for questions and pain points, sort by likes, and keep a short list of comments you can answer well by hand.

The rest of this guide shows each step, what the export contains and where it stops.

How do you export YouTube comments to CSV?

Open the YouTube Comment Downloader, paste the video URL and download the CSV (JSON is also available if you want to process the file in code). No signup is needed.

The export contains up to about 100 of the video's most recent top-level comments. Replies to comments aren't included. Each row has these columns:

Column	What it holds
Author	The commenter's channel name
Comment	The comment text
Likes	How many likes the comment has
Replies	How many replies it has
Posted	When it was posted, as YouTube shows it (for example "2 days ago")
Sentiment	A positive, neutral or negative label
Tags	Keyword-based tags: question, pain_point, content_request, feedback, experience
IsCreator	Whether the video's creator wrote it

A comment can carry several tags, separated by |. Very short comments such as "First!" usually have no tag at all. The tags come from keywords, so treat them as a first sort, not a verdict: read the comment before you act on it.

If the video is your own, YouTube Studio also lets you search and filter comments, including a filter for questions. The export is useful when you want the comments in a sheet, or when the video isn't yours.

How do you open the CSV in Google Sheets or Excel?

Google Sheets: choose File, then Import, then Upload, and select the CSV. Pick "Insert new sheet" so the data lands in its own tab. Sheets detects the comma separator on its own.

Excel: choose Data, then From Text/CSV, and select the file. Set the file origin to "65001: Unicode (UTF-8)" so emoji and accented letters display correctly, then click Load. Double-clicking the CSV can garble those characters in some Excel setups, which is why the import route is safer.

In both tools, freeze the header row so the column names stay visible while you scroll.

Which columns should you filter and sort?

Four moves turn about 100 rows into a readable list:

1. Filter Tags for questions and pain points. In Sheets, use a filter with the condition "Text contains" and the value question, then repeat with pain_point. In Excel, use a text filter with "Contains".
2. Sort by Likes, highest first. Likes show which comments other viewers agreed with, so an answer there helps more people.
3. Check the Replies column. A question with 0 replies is still open. One with several replies may already be answered.
4. Filter out IsCreator = TRUE if you only want viewer comments.

To see the mix before you filter, count the tags. If Tags is column G, =COUNTIF(G:G,"*question*") returns the number of comments tagged as questions. Swap in pain_point or content_request for the others.

How do you turn the sheet into a reply shortlist?

Add three working columns next to the export: Your label, Can I help? (yes, no, maybe) and Reply? (yes or no). Your label is your own short description of the need, written after reading the comment. It can differ from the tool's tags.

Here's an invented example of a few rows:

Comment	Tags	Likes	Replies	Your label	Can I help?	Reply?
"Do you have a version for solo founders?"	question	12	0	Smallest setup	yes	yes
"Can this work without paid ads?"	question	8	0	Free option	yes	yes
"Please make one about pricing pages."	content_request	5	1	Topic idea	no	no
"First!"	none	2	0	Noise	no	no

Then group rows that ask for the same thing. In the same invented example, a video has 48 comments. After filtering, 19 are questions, template requests or objections about cost. They fall into three themes: getting started with a small setup, wanting a template, and doing it on a small budget. The creator writes one reply per theme on the most-liked comment, plus two extra replies where a commenter described a setup detail that needed its own answer. That's five replies instead of 48.

Before you write, check that you can actually help. A reply that guesses is worse than no reply. Keep each answer short: a direct answer, one concrete detail and, only if it fits, a light close.

When should you leave a comment alone?

Skip the comment when it is:

• performative ("first", "nice", emoji only),
• hostile without substance,
• a repeat of a question you've already answered in that thread,
• asking for something you can't verify, or
• likely to pull the thread away from the topic.

You don't have to answer every visible comment. A good shortlist is usually smaller than you expect.

What are the limits of a free export?

The free tools work on one video at a time and on up to about 100 recent top-level comments. YouTube Comment Search looks inside that same set when you need to find a name or phrase again.

If a question might already be answered in the video, compare it with the transcript first. The guide on using a YouTube transcript to find comments worth replying to shows how.

For a whole channel, a Channel X-Ray channel report covers one channel's uploads from the last 30 or 90 days, with transcripts and classified comments. It suggests a reply draft in your voice for the comments you pick. You still choose which comments to answer, edit the draft and post the reply on YouTube yourself.