How to export apps and data from Retool
How to export apps and data from Retool: app JSON and Toolscript export, table CSV downloads, audit logs, what does not come out, and which plans gate what.
Namanyay Goel · Updated · 10 min read
If you are looking up how to export apps and data from Retool, you are probably in one of three spots. You are moving between Retool instances (cloud to self-hosted, or one org to another). You are leaving Retool and want to keep what you built. Or a customer asked for their data out of a portal you built and you need a repeatable answer. This guide covers the exact export paths Retool documents, what does not come out, which plans gate what, and then how the customer-facing pieces get rebuilt on your own product.
Everything about Retool here is from Retool's docs and community forum as of September 2026. Where Retool does not publish something, I say so.
What comes out and what does not
Short version first.
Comes out: classic app definitions (queries, components, modules) as JSON or Toolscript ZIP; table data as CSV or Excel from the running app; Retool Database tables as CSV; audit logs as compressed CSV for up to a year.
Does not come out: resources (your database and API connections and their credentials), the data behind non-Retool-Database resources (it was never in Retool, it is in your systems), and anything that would import cleanly into another builder. Retool states there is no importer to other tools and the JSON is Retool-specific.
Step 1: export an app as JSON or Toolscript
This is the App actions menu path.
- Open the app in the Retool editor.
- Click the App actions menu (the three dots).
- Choose Export to JSON, or Export to Toolscript ZIP.
- Save the file.
The export includes queries, components and modules. It excludes resources and data. This works for classic apps only.
To bring it back into Retool, open or create an app and use Replace app with JSON or ZIP. Because resources are not in the file, the target instance needs resources with matching names or you will re-point each query by hand. That is the main friction in a cloud-to-self-hosted move.
Toolscript ZIP is the code-shaped version of the same thing, readable in a repo but still a Retool format.
Step 2: get query results out as CSV
Retool does not have a global "export all data" button, because most of your data is not in Retool. It is in the resources Retool queries. So data export happens from inside the running app.
Table component: every Table has a built-in Download as CSV button. If your app shows the rows a customer cares about, this is the one-click path for them or for you.
Custom exports: call utils.exportData() from JavaScript to produce CSV or Excel from any query result or transformed array, with your own filename and columns. Wire it to a button and you have a repeatable export for any dataset the app can query.
Retool Database: if you used the bundled Retool Database, right-click the table tab and choose Export CSV. Do this for every table you care about; there is no documented bulk dump.
Step 3: export audit logs
On Business and Enterprise cloud, audit logs download as compressed CSV. The UI shows 3 months; the download covers up to 1 year. Self-hosted instances read the audit_trail_events table directly. Datadog and Splunk streaming is Enterprise only.
If you are leaving and compliance needs the trail, pull this before you downgrade or cancel.
Step 4: self-hosted migration notes
Retool self-hosts via Docker for testing, Kubernetes with Helm for production, or Retool-managed single-tenant on your AWS. Free, Team and Business match cloud prices with feature restrictions.
Three things to know before moving cloud apps to self-hosted:
- Apps move by JSON or ZIP export and import, one at a time, and resources are recreated on the new instance.
- Git Source Control (GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, Azure Repos, CodeCommit) is Enterprise only. On Business you have in-app release versioning, not a repo. If your migration plan assumed "sync from Git," check your plan first.
- External user pricing for self-hosted is not published. If your reason for self-hosting is a customer portal, get the number from Retool in writing.
Plan gates that affect export
| Export or feature | Free | Team | Business | Enterprise |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| App JSON and Toolscript export | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Table Download as CSV | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Retool Database CSV export | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Audit log CSV download | No | No | Yes, 1 year | Yes, 1 year |
| Audit log streaming | No | No | No | Yes |
| Git Source Control | No | No | No | Yes |
| External users | No | No | Yes, tiered | Yes |
| SSO for external users | No | No | No | Yes |
As of September 2026, from https://retool.com/pricing and Retool's docs.
What you cannot take with you
Be clear-eyed about this before you start.
The app definition is Retool's. No other builder imports it. If you move to Appsmith, Superblocks, Budibase or custom code, you are rebuilding the UI. The JSON is a reference, not a migration.
Permissions do not export in a usable form. Retool permissions are group based (Use, Edit, Own per app, resource, workflow, agent). Whatever tenant scoping you did lives inside individual queries, because Retool's docs describe no built-in row-level policies. You will need to find every query that filters by customer and recreate that rule wherever you go.
Portal branding (custom domain, themed login and invite pages) is configuration on Retool's side and stays there.
Why SaaS teams leave
I will keep this factual because it matters for what you rebuild.
The most common reason is external-user cost. Retool bills external users as a third seat type on Business and Enterprise: first 50 free, then $8 per user per month annual ($10 monthly) for users 51 to 250, $6 ($7) for 251 to 500, and $4 ($5) above 500, as of September 2026. A customer on the community forum running a portal that only shows purchase information called it "costs $8 per user monthly" and asked for a grace period; Retool staff gave no commitment. Hacker News on the Portals launch: "your data gets locked and you have got to pay per user as you scale." The 500-customer version of that math is worked out at /reviews/retool.
The second reason is governance. Git and SSO for external users sit on Enterprise, and per-tenant scoping is manual. A solutions leader who ran presales at Enable summed up the deeper issue with any separate dashboard tool: "it wouldn't do me much good to be able to show a customer this dashboard, but then they don't have it when they go live."
If the users of the app are your own staff, none of this applies and Retool is still the right tool. Stay.
Rebuilding the customer-facing pieces on your own APIs
Here is how the customer-facing parts get rebuilt with Gigacatalyst. I am describing the model, not promising specifics I have not shown you.
Start with the request, not the Retool app. The Retool portal was built to answer something a customer asked for: a usage report, a status dashboard, a filtered view of their records. Get that request in the customer's words (the ticket, the spreadsheet a CSM sends every Monday, the call transcript). That is the input.
The app runs on your product's APIs. Gigacatalyst builds the dashboard or configured app against the APIs your product already exposes, using the permissions the logged-in customer already has. It only calls approved APIs, so it cannot show data or features that are not there. A sales engineering leader at Wrike described it as "it mimics the UI, and then it uses the API." A product leader at Klue asked for exactly this boundary: "a permission system where the capabilities would be predefined and then the app builder can only operate within those bounds."
Tenant scoping stops being a query-by-query job. In Retool you filtered by customer inside each query. On your own APIs, your product already enforces who sees what. The dashboard inherits it. There is no second permission model to audit.
No external seats. The customer is already your user. Pricing as of September 2026 is quoted per deployment with a pilot, not per login. Ask at /contact.
The customer keeps it. Because the app is running on the real product, it does not disappear at go-live. It is the product.
What Gigacatalyst does not do: internal admin panels for your ops team (rebuild those in Retool, Appsmith or Budibase; /best/internal-tool-builders-for-customer-facing-apps sorts the options), self-hosted BI on a warehouse, or anything your APIs do not expose. It is a young company and a subprocessor in your data path, so expect a security review; what we do is at /trust.
A practical order of operations
- Inventory Retool apps by audience: internal staff, external customers, both.
- Export every app as JSON and Toolscript ZIP. Keep them as reference.
- Pull Retool Database tables and audit logs as CSV if you are on a plan that has them.
- List every query that filters by tenant. That is your scoping rule set.
- For internal apps, decide whether to stay on Retool or move (see /alternatives/retool).
- For customer-facing apps, gather the original customer requests and rebuild on your product's APIs.
- Before you commit engineering time to rebuilding by hand, run the numbers at /tools/build-vs-extend-calculator. A CTO at Agilis framed the trade honestly: "my engineering time is a one time spend, right?" It is, for one dashboard. It is not for the twentieth.
Questions people ask
How do I export an app from Retool? Open the app, click the App actions menu (three dots), and choose Export to JSON or Export to Toolscript ZIP. The file includes queries, components and modules, but not resources or data. Classic apps only.
Can I export all my data from Retool? Not in one step. Table components have a Download as CSV button, utils.exportData() produces CSV or Excel from JavaScript, and Retool Database tables export to CSV from a right-click. Data in your own databases was never in Retool.
Can I import a Retool app into Appsmith or another tool? No. Retool states there is no importer to other tools and the JSON is Retool-specific. The export is a reference for a rebuild, not a migration.
Do audit logs export from Retool? On Business and Enterprise cloud, yes, as compressed CSV covering up to 1 year. Self-hosted reads the audit_trail_events table. Streaming to Datadog or Splunk is Enterprise only.
Does Retool support Git for exporting apps? Git Source Control is Enterprise only as of September 2026. Business has in-app release versioning. On other plans, JSON and Toolscript export is the path.
How does Gigacatalyst rebuild a Retool customer portal? It builds the dashboard or app on your product's own APIs and permissions, so tenant scoping is inherited from the product and there are no external seats. Pricing as of September 2026 is quoted per deployment; start at /contact.