You export document read analytics to CSV from the document's Activity tab, using the CSV button at the right of the filter bar. The file summarises the document's views, unique viewers, average time open and read, completion, returning and verified viewers, a line per send and country and device counts, with a row for each page from Plus.
Steps
- Open the [room](/glossary/virtual-data-room/) containing the document you want to report on.
- Select the document and open its Activity tab. This is where every tracked visit is shown, viewer by viewer, with the time on each page from Plus. Room owners and admin members can see it.
- Narrow it if you need to. Pick a period (the last 7, 14 or 30 days, a start date of your choosing up to today, or all time), or choose one send from the scope switcher. The export follows the same selection.
- Choose CSV. The file opens with the scope, period and the time it was generated, then the headline figures, a line per send, country and device counts and, from Plus, a row per page with views, average and median seconds and deepest scroll. The PDF button beside it gives the same report ready to print.
- Open the file in a spreadsheet tool to compare sends, rank pages by average time (from Plus), or build a chart for a report.
- Re-export after new activity if you are tracking an ongoing send. The export is a snapshot, so pull a fresh one before a meeting rather than relying on an older file.
Edge cases and what to check
A CSV export is only as useful as the checks behind it. The file counts verified viewers separately, so the more of your audience verifies their email, the more of the report you can attribute to a confirmed address. Ask for a verified email before sending, from Plus or on any link set to "Only the people I name", if you know you will need an attributable report, and see how much more you learn from an investor's page-level activity once a link is set up properly.
The export reports totals, averages and medians rather than individual visits, so to check a single short visit, use the Viewers table on the Activity tab. There is no export for a whole room: each document exports from its own Activity tab, and the buttons are unavailable while the period you have selected has no views. The distinction between a verified viewer and a raw visit is covered fully in views vs verified readers. Exporting to CSV works on every plan, including the free tier with three rooms and twenty-five active links, forever, with no card required; the page-by-page rows are from Plus.
After exporting, check that the range line in the file matches the window you intended, and that the per-send lines cover the sends you meant to report on. A report built on the wrong window undercounts a send that is still active.
What to do with the export once you have it
A CSV on its own is just figures. It becomes useful once you sort and compare them for the question you are actually trying to answer.
- Sort the page rows by average time (from Plus) to see which sections held attention across every viewer, useful when you are refining a proposal or a deck template rather than judging one send.
- Compare average time open with average time read to tell a document left open in a tab from one that was genuinely read.
- Compare sends if the same document went to several recipients: the per-send lines put each send's views, completion and verified viewers side by side.
- Cross-reference against your CRM or pipeline if the report needs to sit alongside deal stage or candidate status, since the export is just data, not a narrative.
None of this requires anything beyond a spreadsheet. The value of the export is that it turns activity that would otherwise sit inside a dashboard into something you can manipulate, share with a colleague, or attach to a weekly report without giving anyone dashboard access.
If your current tool cannot do this
If your current sharing tool has no export function, or its analytics only live inside a dashboard you cannot pull data from, check it against these criteria before assuming it is good enough:
- Does the tool distinguish a verified, identified viewer from an anonymous click at all? If not, an export would be meaningless anyway.
- Can you export a specific date range, or only the entire lifetime of the link?
- Does the export include page-level detail, or only a single "opened" timestamp per viewer?
- Is the underlying tracking real-time, so an export taken five minutes after a send reflects what actually happened?
A tool that answers yes to all four gives you something worth reporting on. Our comparison of tools that track who opened your PDF covers this gap across several common alternatives, and page-by-page analytics is where 99 Data Rooms handles the underlying tracking the export draws from, with every visit on all plans and page-by-page detail from Plus.
Keep exported files somewhere sensible once you have pulled them. The report names each send, which can include recipients' names, and shows where and on what devices it was read, so treat it with roughly the same care you gave the original file. Store it in a shared drive with restricted access, and delete old exports once a report has been delivered rather than letting a folder of stale reports accumulate. If the analytics you exported relate to something like a fundraising process or a tender, keep the export as part of the record for that deal, not as a loose file on someone's desktop.
Frequently asked questions
What does the CSV export include? A header giving the scope, period and time generated; headline figures (views, unique viewers, average time open and read, completion, returning viewers, verified viewers and reloads); a line per send when you export the whole document; country and device counts; and, from Plus, a row for each page with views, average and median seconds and deepest scroll.
Can I export analytics for a link open to anyone? Yes. Those visits count in the totals, and the verified figure shows how many came from people who confirmed their email. Ask for a verified email before sending if you need the report tied to named people.
How often can I re-export the same document's analytics? As often as you like. Each export is a snapshot of activity up to that moment, so pull a fresh one immediately before you need to report on it, rather than relying on an export taken days earlier.
Do I need a paid plan to export analytics to CSV? No. The CSV export is on every plan, including the free tier with three rooms and twenty-five active links and no card required. The page-by-page rows are from Plus, Pro adds NDA gating, and viewer watermarks are on by default on every plan.
Why do some sends show very little time? The export averages every visit, so a few visits opened and closed straight away pull the average down. Check the Viewers table on the Activity tab to see each visit's own time.
Turn activity into a report
Stop screenshotting a dashboard when someone asks who read the document. Export the real numbers from the Activity tab of any document in a room, on the free tier too: three rooms and twenty-five active links, no card needed. Start free and pull your first CSV after the next send.
Sources
- Analytics export behaviour reflects 99 Data Rooms product facts.