Your Intercom workspace is packed with valuable customer conversations, feedback, and support data. To really dig in and understand what’s going on, many of us reach for a familiar tool: Google Sheets. It’s great for custom reporting and getting a different view of your data.
But actually getting your information from Intercom into a spreadsheet isn’t always a walk in the park.
In this guide, we’ll look at the three main ways to connect these two platforms. We’ll cover the classic manual export, no-code automation tools, and the full-on custom API route, laying out the good and the bad for each. Most importantly, we’ll talk about a better way to get to your end goal: actually analyzing your support data to find improvements and automate your work.
Why create an Intercom Google Sheets connection in the first place?
Before we get into the how-to, let’s touch on the "why." There are a few common reasons teams want to pull their Intercom data into a spreadsheet.
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Create a single source of truth: You can combine Intercom metrics like response times with sales data from your CRM or financial info from other sources. This helps you build a dashboard that shows the complete picture of your business performance.
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Dig deeper with custom reports: Intercom’s built-in analytics are good, but sometimes you need more. With Google Sheets, you can use pivot tables and custom formulas to track very specific KPIs, slice and dice agent performance, or visualize trends your own way.
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Keep a long-term archive: For compliance reasons or just for historical analysis, having a simple, accessible backup of important conversations, user data, or support tickets can be incredibly useful.
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Share insights easily: Not everyone in your company has an Intercom login. A spreadsheet is a simple way to share key support metrics and performance updates with stakeholders across different departments.
Method 1 for Intercom Google Sheets: The native way with CSV exports
The most direct route to get your data out of Intercom is by using its built-in CSV export tool. It’s a simple process that doesn’t require any extra software or coding skills.
How to manually export your data for Intercom Google Sheets
Intercom lets you export different reports, like conversation details or user lists, straight from your dashboard.
Just head to the report you need inside your Intercom workspace and look for an "Export" button, which is usually in the top-right corner. Click it, and you’ll download a CSV file that you can then open up or import into Google Sheets.
Scheduling your Intercom Google Sheets exports for semi-automation
To save yourself a few clicks, Intercom also gives you the option to schedule recurring exports. You can set a report to download daily, weekly, or monthly. While this is a step up from doing it all by hand, you still have to manage the downloaded files and get them into the right Google Sheet.
The limitations of the Intercom Google Sheets CSV method
It might be simple, but the CSV method has some pretty big downsides that make it less than ideal for any serious, ongoing analysis.
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It’s not real-time: The data is already out of date the second you download it. This makes it useless for tracking live performance or making quick decisions based on what’s happening right now.
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It’s a lot of manual work: Downloading, cleaning up, and uploading files takes time and, let’s be honest, is a bit tedious. It also opens the door for simple copy-paste errors.
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It creates data silos: The spreadsheet you create is just a static snapshot. It’s totally disconnected from your live Intercom environment, so you can’t take action on any insights without jumping back into the app.
Method 2: Using third-party tools for your Intercom Google Sheets integration
If you’re looking for real automation but don’t want to get into coding, third-party integration platforms are a popular choice. Tools like Zapier, Coupler.io, or Coefficient act as a bridge between Intercom and Google Sheets.
These tools generally work on a "trigger-and-action" basis. For instance, a "New conversation" in Intercom (the trigger) can be set up to automatically create a "New spreadsheet row" in Google Sheets (the action).
Popular Intercom Google Sheets workflows and what they enable
With tools like these, you can set up automations to:
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Log every new lead from an Intercom chat into a master list of prospects.
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Track every conversation as it closes, automatically filling in the agent, rating, and time to resolution.
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Sync specific Intercom tags to a sheet to keep a running log of user feedback.
The hidden costs and complexities of Intercom Google Sheets tools
While these platforms are powerful, they aren’t always the perfect fix. The convenience comes with a few trade-offs.
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Subscription creep: You’re adding another monthly bill to your software stack. The costs often scale with how much you use the tool (for example, per task or "Zap"), which can make your bill unpredictable, especially during busy months.
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Setup and maintenance: A simple, one-step workflow is usually easy to set up. But creating more complex automations that are truly reliable can get tricky and often requires ongoing tweaks to keep them running smoothly.
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API limitations: The integration is only as good as the platform’s connection to Intercom. You might find that some specific data points or reports you need aren’t available to be synced.
| Tool | Pricing Model | Ease of Use | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zapier | Per "Task" | Very High | Simple, event-based triggers (e.g., new lead) |
| Coupler.io | Per "Importer" | High | Scheduled data refreshes from reports |
| Coefficient | Per User | High | Live data imports directly inside Sheets |
Method 3 for Intercom Google Sheets: The developer route with the Intercom API
For teams that want complete control and have developers available, building a custom integration is always an option. Using the Intercom API and Google Apps Script, you can build a solution that pulls exactly the data you need, formatted exactly how you want it.
The pros and cons of a custom Intercom Google Sheets build
Building it yourself gives you a ton of power, but it’s a big project.
Pros: You get a solution that is perfectly tailored to your team’s needs. The only limits are what the Intercom API makes available, and you won’t have to pay a monthly subscription fee to another company.
Cons: This requires a lot of a developer’s time, which is a major expense. The integration will also need to be maintained over time to handle any changes to the API or to fix bugs, making it the most resource-heavy option by far.
A smarter approach than Intercom Google Sheets: Go beyond data exporting and start analyzing
After looking at these methods, it’s worth taking a step back and asking a key question: Why do you want your Intercom data in Google Sheets, really?
The answer, almost every time, is to find actionable insights. You want to spot trends, measure your team’s performance, and find ways to improve or automate your processes. The spreadsheet is just the tool for the job; it’s the means, not the end. So, what if you could skip the manual analysis and jump straight to the insights and automation?
The problem with Intercom Google Sheets analysis
Analyzing data in a spreadsheet is reactive. You’re always looking at what has already happened, and it’s on you to manually spot patterns and figure out what to do next. A row in a spreadsheet also loses all the rich context of the original customer conversation, making it tough to understand the real story behind the numbers.
How eesel AI provides the insights you’re looking for, automatically
Instead of just helping you move data from one place to another, eesel AI connects directly to your help desk to understand your support operations right from the start. It helps you achieve the goal of your analysis without all the manual work.
Here’s how it creates a more intelligent workflow:
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It unifies your knowledge instantly: eesel AI trains on your past Intercom tickets, macros, and help center articles. This is the deepest form of "data analysis" you can get, it automatically learns your brand voice, common customer problems, and the solutions that work. You can forget about manual exports; the AI reads and understands the context of your entire conversation history the moment you connect it.
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It gives you actionable reports, not just raw data: Forget about building pivot tables. The eesel AI dashboard automatically flags gaps in your knowledge base, shows you what customers are asking about most often, and points you to the exact topics that are perfect for automation. It delivers the insights you were hoping to dig out of your spreadsheet, saving you hours of crunching numbers.
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You can test with confidence using simulation: Before you flip the switch on any automation, eesel AI can run a simulation on thousands of your past tickets. It gives you an accurate forecast of how many tickets it could have resolved and how much time it would have saved your team. It’s the ultimate analysis of your support data, turning insights directly into a business case without you ever having to open a spreadsheet.
Intercom Google Sheets: Stop exporting, start improving
Getting your Intercom data into Google Sheets can be done with manual CSV exports, third-party tools, or a custom API integration. Each approach has its own balance of manual effort, cost, and technical know-how.
But all these methods just move your data into a spreadsheet. They don’t analyze it for you or help you figure out what to do with it.
A modern AI platform like eesel AI offers a much more direct route. By analyzing your data right at the source, it delivers the actionable insights and automation opportunities that were the whole point of your spreadsheet project in the first place.
Take the next step
Ready to see what’s really hidden inside your Intercom data? Sign up for eesel AI for free or book a demo and discover how much of your support you can automate in just a few minutes.
Frequently asked questions
The easiest method is the native CSV export. Just go to a report in Intercom, click the "Export" button, and then import that downloaded CSV file directly into Google Sheets. It’s a manual process but requires no extra tools or coding.
Yes, using third-party automation tools like Zapier or Coefficient is the best way to get near real-time updates. You can set up a workflow where a new Intercom conversation or event instantly creates a new row in your Google Sheet.
A custom API build is the right choice when you have specific data requirements that off-the-shelf tools can’t meet. It’s the most powerful and flexible option, ideal for complex reporting, but it requires significant developer resources to build and maintain.
Yes, third-party tools are limited by what the Intercom API makes available to them. You might find that certain niche data fields or custom attributes aren’t supported by the integration tool you choose, so it’s wise to check before committing.
A more direct approach is to use a tool like eesel AI that analyzes your data right inside Intercom. This skips the manual spreadsheet work and automatically surfaces key insights, identifies automation opportunities, and helps you understand customer issues without exporting anything.
