Guide

How to Export Google Maps Timeline to Excel or CSV

Updated July 2026 · 6 min read

If you need your Google Maps Timeline (also called Location History) as a spreadsheet — for a mileage log, a client billing report, or just to analyze your own travel patterns — the raw file Google gives you isn't usable on its own. It's a deeply nested JSON file, not a table. This guide walks through both ways to get that file out of Google, and how to turn it into a clean Excel or CSV file.

Step 1: Get your raw Timeline file from Google

Which method you use depends on whether you're getting a phone's recent history or an account's full history.

Method A — Direct Export (recommended, mobile only)

In 2024, Google moved Timeline storage from your Google Account to your device. This is now the only way to get your most recent trips.

1. Android: Open Settings → Location → Location services → Timeline → Export Timeline data. This saves a file named Timeline.json.
2. iOS: Open the Google Maps app → your profile picture → Settings → Location & Privacy → find the Timeline export option and Save to Files.

Method B — Google Takeout (legacy, full history)

1. Go to takeout.google.com and sign in.
2. Deselect everything, then select only Location History (Timeline).
3. Choose your export format and request the archive — Google will email you a download link, usually within a few minutes to a few hours.
4. Download and unzip the archive; you'll find your Timeline data as JSON inside.

Step 2: Convert the JSON into a spreadsheet

Whichever method you used, you now have a JSON file (or a ZIP containing one) — not something you can open meaningfully in Excel. This is where Time-mile comes in: it parses the file entirely in your browser and turns every trip and place visit into a row with columns for date, activity type, distance, duration, and start/end location.

1. Open the app and drag in your Timeline.json file or the Takeout ZIP.
2. Filter by date range or activity type if you only need part of the history.
3. Export to CSV (opens directly in Excel or Google Sheets), PDF, or JSON.

Nothing is uploaded anywhere — the whole conversion happens locally in your browser, which matters if the file contains months or years of your location history.