📤How to export Jira project tickets to Excel

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Exporting Jira project tickets to Excel is a common task for project managers, auditors, and business stakeholders. Whether you need a quick report, backup your data, or a compliance report, Excel remains the most flexible format for working with Jira tasks outside the tool.

Jira offers multiple ways to export project tickets, but each has limitations. While native exports are great when your interest is basic reporting, often there is not enough when you want a history of a task, audit logs, deleted tickets, etc. In this guide, we'll walk through all the practical ways to export Jira tickets to Excel, from simple exports to advanced, audit-ready solutions.

Method 1: Export Jira Tickets to Excel Using Built-In Jira Functionality

Jira has a built-in export feature that lets you export tickets as a CSV file, which can be easily opened in Excel. This approach is most suitable for quick reports and snapshots of current data.

Follow these steps to export tickets from Jira: 

1. Open Filters → All work items.
2. Use basic filters or JQL to specify which tickets you want to export. 
3. Once the ticket list is ready, click Export in the top-right corner.
4. Select CSV (Excel) or CSV (All fields).

      5. Open your downloaded file in Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets. 

That's it; now you have your Jira tickets in Excel format.

Available Export Formats in Jira

Jira has a number of export formats, including:

• CSV (Excel) – most commonly used
• CSV (All fields) - this includes custom fields
• XML
• HTML
• Word
• RSS

For Excel reporting, CSV (All fields) is typically the safest option, particularly if you have a project that uses custom fields.

What Data Is Included in Jira Export?

If you use native tools to export Jira tickets to Excel, you'll get:

• Task key and summary
• Current status
• Assignee and reporter
• Priority and type
• Custom fields (if selected)

This export represents the state of each ticket at the time of export.

Limitations of Built-in Jira Excel Export

Although convenient, Jira's native export has some important limitations:

❌ No status change history

❌ No field-level change tracking

❌ No record of who changed what and when

❌ Deleted Jira tickets are not included

This means that native exports are not suitable for audits, compliance reviews, or historical analysis.

In the next section, we'll look at how to improve your Jira Excel exports-and when native tools are no longer enough.

Method 2: Export Jira Project Tickets with Full History

For many teams, exporting Jira tickets to Excel isn't just about seeing the current state of tickets - it's about understanding what has changed over time. This is where the native Jira exports reach their limit.

To fix this gap, many teams are relying on Issue History for Jira (Work Item History) by SaaSJet.

Issue History for Jira (Work Item History) is an app designed to track the history of all changes to Jira tasks. Instead of displaying the most recent values, it measures how they change over their lifecycle.

This allows you to export entire, audit-ready Jira data to Excel.

What You Can Export to Excel With Issue History for Jira

With Issue History for Jira, Excel exports can contain:

• Full status change history
• Assignee and priority changes and resolution changes
• Before and after values for custom fields
• Timestamps for every change
• User information (who has made the change)
• Deleted Jira tickets 

Each export provides you with a time-based view of task updates, which native Jira exports can’t.

Capability	Native Jira Export	Issue History for Jira Export
Export to Excel (CSV)	✅ Yes	✅ Yes
Export current task fields	✅ Yes	✅ Yes
Export custom fields	⚠️ Limited	✅ Yes
Export status change history	❌ No	✅ Yes
Export assignee history	❌ No	✅ Yes
Export priority & field changes	❌ No	✅ Yes
See who changed what and when	❌ No	✅ Yes
Export deleted Jira tasks	❌ No	✅ Yes
Chronological audit trail	❌ No	✅ Yes
Suitable for audits & compliance	❌ No	✅ Yes
Manual effort required	⚠️ High (manual exports)	🔽 Low
Script / API knowledge needed	❌ No	❌ No
Audit-ready Excel reports	❌ No	✅ Yes

Instead of having a flat snapshot, your Excel file is now a true audit log.

This is particularly useful for:

• Compliance & audits (SOX, ISO, SOC 2)
• Financial reviews (scope and priority changes).
• IT incident investigations
• Project retrospectives 

Auditors and stakeholders can clearly see what changed, if it changed, and who changed it.

How to Export Full Jira Ticket History to Excel

To export the complete history of changes related to multiple tickets in Excel format, follow the next steps:

1. Install and open Issue History for Jira app by SaaSJet from the Apps menu. 
2. Use the needed filters. Select the tickets you need to export (by project, sprint, updater, date range, etc.). 
3. In the Columns menu, you can also choose the field you need (e.g., priority, due date, etc.).
4. Click the Export button and choose Excel format.

You will get such a report in Excel that is perfect for audits, retrospectives, compliance reports, and team analysis👇:

Also, you can try the Advanced Excel export provided by Issue History for Jira (Work Item History) app. It includes Field changes duration and Field changes total count reports. 

Field changes duration report shows where time is lost. For example, how long a task stays in a particular status or with the same priority before it changes.

Field changes total count can be used to identify instability in workflows. For example, if the Assignee changes many times, it signals unclear ownership or excessive handoffs.

You can use these reports to identify bottlenecks, gaps in responsibility, and process inefficiencies.

👉 Try Issue History for Jira (Work Item History) on the Atlassian Marketplace and export Jira project tickets and their full history of changes in just a few clicks.

Method 3: Jira REST API for Custom Exports

If you have a team that requires a highly specific, customized Jira Excel export, the Jira REST API is the most flexible option.

It's also the most "engineering-heavy" approach. It is good for technical teams, but not so ideal for business users.

When the Usage of REST API Makes Sense

Use the API when you need to:

• Pull data from multiple projects and consolidate it in a single data set
• Build scheduled exports (daily/weekly) using scripts 
• Enrich Jira data with other systems (CRM, billing, BI tools)

How to Use the Jira REST API

Most exports are based on the following endpoints:

• Search tasks: GET /rest/api/3/search
• Get the task: GET /rest/api/3/issue/{issueIdOrKey}
• Changelog (history): GET /rest/api/3/issue/{issueIdOrKey}?expand=changelog

Important: History/changelog access may be restricted due to permissions, and exporting full history at scale can be slow and paginated.

Exporting Jira project ticket history through the API is possible, but not simple. Historical data can be massive, transforming one task into numerous rows in Excel, and often needs to be exported into multiple tabs. Because of this complexity and permission restrictions, API-based history exports are difficult to maintain and unreliable for frequent reporting or auditing.

Summing Up

Jira project ticket export to Excel helps teams review data, produce reports, and distribute information outside Jira. The native export options are suitable for simple needs. When changes to history are necessary, exporting entire, accurate data is complex and requires the use of specialized apps.