How to Download a Google Sheet as a CSV using Python

You may already know how to save your Google Sheets data as an xlsx, tsv, csv & ods file by using the File > Download menu. But did you know that you can also generate a URL that will do this for you automatically? This way, we can make Google Sheets act as a simple database, so we can download the Google Sheets data in CSV format from a Python code.

Step 1: Make the Google Sheet downloadable ➥

1. Open the Google Sheet you want to download as a CSV file.
2. Click the Share button in the top right corner of the sheet.
3. In the Share dialog, click the Advanced link.
4. Under Who has access, select Anyone with the link.
5. Copy the URL in the Link field.

Step 2: Create URL for downloading in CSV format. ➥

Anyone who has the URL from the previous step can access the Google Sheet using the Google Sheets app. The URL is similar to below.

https:// docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1234567890/edit?usp=sharing

To make a Google Sheet URL downloadable in CSV format, you can replace the edit?usp=sharing part of the URL with export?format=csv.

https:// docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1234567890/export?format=csv

Here 1234567890 is the ID of the Google Sheet file. The format=csv part of the URL tells Google Sheets to export the file as a CSV file, likewise for TSV format use format=csv.

Google Sheets can be used as a simple database, and you can download the data from your Python code.

Export Google Sheets to CSV Files with Python ➥

Here is a simple Python Script to Download Google Sheets and Save Them as CSV Files. This python code will download the Google Sheet with the ID 1234567890 to a CSV file in the tmp/ directory. The path to the CSV file will be printed to the console.

import os
import requests
import sys

def getGoogleSeet(spreadsheet_id, outDir, outFile):
  
  url = f'https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/{spreadsheet_id}/export?format=csv'
  response = requests.get(url)
  if response.status_code == 200:
    filepath = os.path.join(outDir, outFile)
    with open(filepath, 'wb') as f:
      f.write(response.content)
      print('CSV file saved to: {}'.format(filepath))    
  else:
    print(f'Error downloading Google Sheet: {response.status_code}')
    sys.exit(1)


##############################################

outDir = 'tmp/'

os.makedirs(outDir, exist_ok = True)
filepath = getGoogleSeet('1234567890', outDir, "devnodes.csv")

sys.exit(0); ## success