Moving from Notion to Markdown files

Checked November 2026 against Notion's help on exporting and importing. Coffee isn't affiliated with Notion.

Notion has a built-in export for this. On a page, click ••• at the top right, choose Export, pick Markdown & CSV, and turn on Include subpages if you want the pages inside it. You get a zip file with a Markdown file for each page and a CSV file for each database. For everything at once, there's a workspace export in Settings.

Databases are where the format changes the most, because rows and columns are all that a CSV file can hold.

Export one page and what's under it

From Notion's export help, on the desktop app or the web:

1. Open the page and click ••• at the top right.
2. Choose Export, then Markdown & CSV.
3. Switch on Include subpages to get the pages inside it as separate files.
4. Click Export and unzip what you get.

Start here even if you plan to move everything. A small export shows you what your own pages turn into, in a few minutes, and that's worth more than any description.

Export a whole workspace

Go to Settings in the sidebar, then General under Workspace, and choose "Export all workspace content". This works on desktop or web, not on mobile.

Notion sends you an email with a download link. Allow for the timing: its help says processing can take up to 30 hours depending on the size of the workspace, and the link expires after 7 days. Uploaded files are included in this export.

The limits Notion describes

Comments are worth checking separately. Notion describes page and block comments under its HTML export and not under Markdown. If yours matter, run an HTML export as well and keep it as a record.

What the help doesn't cover

Notion's export page doesn't say how exported files are named, or what happens to links between your pages, so I won't tell you. Look at both in your test export. Open a few files in a plain text editor and check:

• Are the file names ones you'd want to keep? File names often become titles in other editors, so tidy them before you build on them.
• Does a link from one page to another point to a file that exists in the export?
• Do images appear beside the page, and do the links to them work?
• How do the kinds of block you use most come through?

To find callouts and other leftovers, go to the unzipped folder in Terminal and list every Markdown file containing an HTML tag:

grep -rl --include='*.md' '<[a-z]' .

It will also find a few false alarms, such as code samples. You can then decide note by note whether to keep the HTML or rewrite it. Many Markdown editors show some HTML and others print it as text, so check in the one you plan to use.

What to do with the databases

This is the real decision, and it's the part to think through before leaving. A database in Notion can be seen through several views. A CSV holds rows and columns from one of them, and a Markdown file holds text. Neither does what the database did.

You have three reasonable options for each one:

• It's really data. Open the CSV in Numbers or Excel and let it live there.
• It's short and you read it more than you sort it. Turn it into a Markdown table.
• You use it every day, through its views. Consider keeping that one in Notion. Moving everything else doesn't commit you to moving this too.

For the second option, copy the cells from your spreadsheet and convert them. There's a guide to turning spreadsheet cells into a Markdown table. In Coffee, pasting does the conversion:

Plan	Price
Monthly	€3
Yearly	€29

What you give up, plainly

Plain files aren't a like-for-like replacement for a shared workspace or for databases. If several of you work in the same Notion workspace every day, a folder of Markdown is a different way of working altogether.

What you get in exchange is files on your own disk, in a format that outlives any one app, and that any editor, script or AI tool can read. For personal notes and writing, that trade often makes sense. For a shared team wiki it may not.

Should you change your mind, Notion can import Markdown again under Settings, Import, Text & Markdown, or as a ZIP to keep a folder's structure. Its help gives a 5 MB limit per file on the Free plan and 50 MB on paid plans, and about 120 file imports every 12 hours. It also warns that anchor links and non-standard Markdown may not come through cleanly.

Where Coffee comes in

Coffee has no Notion importer. It opens folders of Markdown files, so you unzip the export and choose that folder as your library, or move the files into one you already have. Coffee reads .md, .markdown and .txt notes. It doesn't open CSV files, so those stay with your spreadsheet app.

Coffee has none of Notion's database views, and no collaborative editing. A change from someone else can only reach you through Git or a synced folder. Coffee also has no sync of its own and runs only on a Mac, with macOS 15 or later. What it does offer is a focused editor for the writing that's left: linked notes, links that follow a rename, and AI edits you can review. There are 14 days free with no card or account, then these prices.

Questions

Can Notion export to Markdown?

Yes. Choose Export from the ••• menu on a page, then Markdown & CSV. Pages become Markdown files and databases become CSV files, delivered as a zip.

Can I export my whole Notion workspace?

Yes, from Settings, then General under Workspace. You get an email with a link, which can take up to 30 hours to arrive and expires after 7 days. Pages you can't access aren't included.

Do Notion databases export to Markdown?

Not as Markdown tables. Notion exports a database as a CSV file, from either the current view or the default view, and not all views at once.

Why is there HTML in my exported Markdown?

Notion's help says callouts export as HTML because Markdown has no equivalent. You can leave them, or rewrite them as a blockquote by hand.

Does Coffee import from Notion?

No. Unzip Notion's export and open the folder in Coffee. Coffee reads the Markdown files as they are, but doesn't open CSV files.