To export Smartsheet to Excel, open the sheet and select File > Export > Export to Microsoft Excel. That is the whole happy path. The rest of this page is what the export actually keeps and drops (formulas come out as values, attachments do not come out at all), how to export folders and whole workspaces, how to put an export on a schedule, and what to do when you need the formulas to survive.
Every step and limit on this page comes from Smartsheet's own documentation, linked in the footnotes.
Excel export runs one sheet at a time, from the sheet's File menu.1
Sign in to Smartsheet and open the sheet. Exports run one sheet at a time from this menu; to export many sheets at once, use the folder or workspace export described below.
In the top menu bar, select File, then Export, then Export to Microsoft Excel. Your browser downloads an .xlsx copy of the sheet.
Comments and sheet summaries are not lost: they appear in the exported workbook on separate tabs. One thing the export documentation does not address is row hierarchy (indented subtasks), so check whether your indentation survived.
Formula cells now contain their last calculated values, not the formulas. Attachments are not in the file. Dropdown, contact, checkbox, and symbol columns are plain text. If any of that is a problem, see the "with formulas" section below before you rely on this export.
You don't have to open sheets one by one. In the workspace panel, right-click a folder and select Export to export its contents, or use the three-dot menu above a workspace name and select Export for the entire workspace.1 Two limits worth knowing before you batch: every sheet in the batch has the same losses as a single-sheet export (next section), and report exports are limited to 20,000 rows, so a bigger report needs to be split into smaller reports and exported separately.1
Your cell data, row by row. Comments and sheet summaries are included too, each on a separate tab of the workbook.1 Checkbox states arrive as True or False text. Row hierarchy (indented subtasks) is not covered by the export documentation, so check whether your indentation survived.
Formula cells arrive as their last calculated values: "Formulas aren't preserved due to the differences between Excel and Smartsheet formula syntax."1 Dropdown, contact list, checkbox, and symbol columns lose their behavior: "Only text values are exported."1 A Gantt chart "exports only the task list it's based on."1
Groupings, summary rows, and attachments are "excluded from exports."1 For attachments in bulk, Smartsheet's documented route is a backup request, which includes attachments but is available on Business and Enterprise plans with a 4 GB limit.3
The direct answer: Smartsheet's Excel export cannot keep formulas as working formulas. Its documentation offers a manual workaround: remove the leading equal signs so each formula exports as text, then rewrite the syntax by hand in Excel.1 That's honest of them, and it's fine for a handful of cells. For a formula-heavy workspace, it's a rebuild project.
If you're exporting because you're moving out, there's a path that skips the flattening entirely: Wisegrid imports your sheets directly through the Smartsheet API with one read-only token, and your formulas arrive as live, working formulas. Wisegrid formulas are written as [Column]@row, the same shape you already write, and anything that can't translate cleanly is listed in a transparency report instead of being silently dropped. Even the Excel route is covered: File > Import from Excel inside a Wisegrid sheet can keep the formulas your workbook carries. Read how the whole exit fits together in the complete Smartsheet exit guide.
The Export menu itself is manual, but Smartsheet documents a scheduled route: File > Send as Attachment emails the sheet as an Excel or PDF file, and in Smartsheet's words, "Select Schedule if you want to define when to send the email or to set a recurring basis."2 Scheduled recurrences show up in the form's Sent to panel, where you can edit or delete them.2 The scheduled file has the same contents as a manual export, so the formula and attachment caveats above still apply. For automated data workflows beyond email, Smartsheet's export documentation points to Data Shuttle, a paid premium add-on.1
1 Smartsheet's export documentation: menu path, formula behavior, excluded items, column-type flattening, Gantt behavior, comments and sheet summaries on separate tabs, folder and workspace export, the 20,000-row report export limit, and the Data Shuttle reference (Smartsheet export documentation).
2 Smartsheet's send-as-attachment documentation: File > Send as Attachment, PDF or Excel attachment types, the Schedule option for recurring delivery, and editing or deleting recurrences from the Sent to panel (Smartsheet email documentation).
3 Smartsheet's backup documentation: "Sheet backups include sheet data, comments, and attachments"; available on Business and Enterprise plans; "Backup file size is limited to 4 GB" (Smartsheet backup documentation).
Then the export file is the hard way. Wisegrid imports your Smartsheet workspaces directly, formulas working, attachments included, with a transparency report of anything that needs review. Try it on your real data during the 7-day free trial, no credit card required. Start with the complete exit guide, go straight to how the import works, and once your exports are verified, check the deadlines before you cancel your Smartsheet subscription.