An alternative way to import *.csv files to Notion.so.
Due to current limitations of the official Notion SDK this tool is using the unofficial SDK by Jamie Alexandre notion-py.
Original idea belongs to Vigneswaran Rajkumar.
- Actually merge CSV with existing database rows (not just add new ones), first column will be used as a key
- Manually set column types instead of relying on autodetection
- Automatically link or create new entries in relation columns based on their value
- Upload files into "Files & media" column
- Set icon for each row
- Set cover or embed image for each row
- Upload image file used for cover or icon
- Options for validation of input data
- Slower speed, since every row is imported separately
- this is mitigated by multithreaded upload
Download the latest binary release for your OS.
With Homebrew (Recommended for macOS)
$ brew install vzhd1701/tap/csv2notionWith PIPX (Recommended for Linux & Windows)
$ pipx install csv2notion$ pip install --user csv2notionPython 3.7 or later required.
This project uses poetry for dependency management and packaging. You will have to install it first. See poetry official documentation for instructions.
$ git clone https://github.com/vzhd1701/csv2notion.git
$ cd csv2notion/
$ poetry install --no-dev
$ poetry run csv2notion$ csv2notion --help
usage: csv2notion [-h] --token TOKEN [--url URL] [OPTION]... FILE
Import/Merge CSV file into Notion database
positional arguments:
FILE CSV file to upload
general options:
--token TOKEN Notion token, stored in token_v2 cookie for notion.so
--url URL Notion database URL; if none is provided, will create a new database
--max-threads NUMBER upload threads (default: 5)
--log FILE file to store program log
--verbose output debug information
--version show program's version number and exit
-h, --help show this help message and exit
column options:
--column-types TYPES comma-separated list of column types to use for non-key columns;
if none is provided, types will be guessed from CSV values
(can also be used with --add-missing-columns flag)
--add-missing-columns if columns are present in CSV but not in Notion DB, add them to Notion DB
--randomize-select-colors randomize colors for added options in select and multi select columns
merge options:
--merge merge CSV with existing Notion DB rows, first column will be used as a key
--merge-only-column COLUMN CSV column that should be updated on merge;
when provided, other columns will be ignored
(use multiple times for multiple columns)
--merge-skip-new skip new rows in CSV that are not already in Notion DB during merge
relations options:
--add-missing-relations add missing entries into linked Notion DB
page cover options:
--image-column COLUMN CSV column that points to URL or image file that will be embedded for that row
--image-column-keep keep image CSV column as a Notion DB column
--image-column-mode {cover,block} upload image as [cover] or insert it as [block] (default: block)
--image-caption-column COLUMN CSV column that points to text caption that will be added to the image block
if --image-column-mode is set to 'block'
--image-caption-column-keep keep image caption CSV column as a Notion DB column
page icon options:
--icon-column COLUMN CSV column that points to emoji, URL or image file
that will be used as page icon for that row
--icon-column-keep keep icon CSV column as a Notion DB column
--default-icon ICON Emoji, URL or image file that will be used as page icon for every row by default
validation options:
--mandatory-column COLUMN CSV column that cannot be empty (use multiple times for multiple columns)
--fail-on-relation-duplicates fail if any linked DBs in relation columns have duplicate entries;
otherwise, first entry in alphabetical order
will be treated as unique when looking up relations
--fail-on-duplicates fail if Notion DB or CSV has duplicates in key column,
useful when sanitizing before merge to avoid ambiguous mapping
--fail-on-duplicate-csv-columns fail if CSV has duplicate columns;
otherwise last column will be used
--fail-on-conversion-error fail if any column type conversion error occurs;
otherwise errors will be replaced with empty strings
--fail-on-inaccessible-relations fail if any relation column points to a Notion DB that
is not accessible to the current user;
otherwise those columns will be ignored
--fail-on-missing-columns fail if columns are present in CSV but not in Notion DB;
otherwise those columns will be ignored
--fail-on-unsettable-columns fail if DB has columns that don't support assigning value to them;
otherwise those columns will be ignored
(columns with type created_by, last_edited_by, rollup or formula)
--fail-on-wrong-status-values fail if values for 'status' columns don't have matching option in DB;
otherwise those values will be replaced with default status
You must pass a single *.csv file for upload. The CSV file must contain at least 2 rows. The first row will be used as a header.
Optionally you can provide a URL to an existing Notion database with the --url option; if not provided, the tool will create a new database named after the CSV file. The URL must link to a database view, not a page.
The tool also requires you to provide a token_v2 cookie for the Notion website through --token option. For information on how to get it, see this article.
Important notice. token_v2 cookie provides complete access to your Notion account. Handle it with caution.
Due to API limitations, the upload is performed one row at a time. To speed things up, this tool uses multiple parallel threads. Use the --max-threads option to control how fast it will go. Try not to set it too high to avoid rate limiting by the Notion server.
Notion does not allow the database to have multiple columns with the same name. Therefore CSV columns will be treated as unique. Only the last column will be used if CSV has multiple columns with the same name. If you want the program to stop if it finds duplicate columns, use the --fail-on-duplicate-csv-columns flag.
If a CSV file has columns absent from Notion DB, they will be ignored by default. Use the --add-missing-columns flag if you want the tool to add missing columns into Notion DB. Use the --fail-on-missing-columns flag if you want the program to stop if it finds a column mismatch.
By default, the tool will try to guess column types based on their content. Alternatively, you can provide a comma-separated list of column types with the --column-types option when creating a new database or adding new columns with the --add-missing-columns flag. Since the first column in Notion DB is always text, the tool will use the list to set types for the rest of the columns.
By default, new options for select and multi_select columns are added with default (gray) color. If you want the tool to randomize colors for new options, use the --randomize-select-colors flag.
Some column types do not support assigning value to them because the database generates their content automatically. Currently these types include created_by, last_edited_by, rollup and formula. If you want the program to stop if it finds such columns in the database, use the --fail-on-unsettable-columns flag.
If the tool cannot convert the column value type properly, it will replace it with an empty string. If you want to make sure all values are correctly converted, use the --fail-on-conversion-error flag, which will stop execution in case of a conversion error.
The table below describes available codes for --column-types and what values are supported by each column type:
Show table
| Column Type Name |
Column Type Code |
Supported Values | Multiple Values (Comma Separated) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | |||
| Text | text |
string | ❌ |
| Number | number |
numerical | ❌ |
| Select | select |
string | ❌ |
| Multi-select | multi_select |
string | ✔️ |
| Status | status |
string | ❌ |
| Date | date |
any date format | ✔️ (range) |
| Person | person |
username, email | ✔️ |
| Files & media | file |
file name, URL | ✔️ |
| Checkbox | checkbox |
true, false |
❌ |
| URL | url |
string | ❌ |
email |
string | ❌ | |
| Phone | phone_number |
string | ❌ |
| Advanced | |||
| Formula | formula |
--- |
--- |
| Relation | --- |
key, Notion URL | ✔️ |
| Rollup | rollup |
--- |
--- |
| Created time | created_time |
any date format | ❌ |
| Created by | created_by |
--- |
--- |
| Last edited time | last_edited_time |
any date format | ❌ |
| Last edited by | last_edited_by |
--- |
--- |
By default, the tool will add rows to the existing Notion DB. To merge CSV rows with the Notion database, use the --merge flag. The first column of CSV and Notion DB will be used as a key to update existing rows with new values. CSV rows that didn't have a match in Notion DB will be added as new.
Since the tool treats rows as unique during merge based on the key column, it will use first found rows with a unique key. To avoid this ambiguity, you might want to validate duplicate row keys with the --fail-on-duplicates flag. It will check both CSV and target Notion DB before the merge.
If you want only select columns to be updated, use the --merge-only-column option.
If you don't want the tool to add any new rows not already present in the Notion DB during merge, use the --merge-skip-new flag.
Notion database has a relation column type, which allows you to link together entries from different databases. The tool will try to match column data with keys from a linked database.
By default, it will match with the first found row; it will add nothing if it cannot find the match. Use the --add-missing-relations flag if you want the tool to create new entries in the linked DB if no match is found. Use the --fail-on-conversion-error flag if you want the program to stop if no match is found.
You can also use Notion URLs in columns of this type, and they must belong to the linked DB. The tool will not be able to add missing entries for URLs if you use the --add-missing-columns flag.
Since the tool treats rows in the linked DB as unique you can prevent ambiguous matching with the --fail-on-relation-duplicates flag. It will check linked DB for duplicate keys and stop the executions if it finds any.
If linked DB is not accessible (linked DB is deleted or your account doesn't have access to it), columns that point to it will be ignored. If you prefer the program to stop in this case, use the --fail-on-inaccessible-relations flag.
The tool allows you to add an image to each row with the --image-column option. It will use one column from CSV as a data source for the image. It can be either a URL or a file name. The file name must be either an absolute path or a path relative to the CSV file. The tool will upload the file to the Notion server.
By default, the tool will embed an image inside the row page. If you want it to use the image as a page cover, then set the --image-column-mode option to cover.
Column specified with the --image-column option will not be treated as a regular column by default. If you want it to appear in Notion DB, use the --image-column-keep flag.
To add custom caption to image block uploaded with --image-column-mode set to block, use --image-caption-column option. To also keep the caption as a Notion DB column, use --image-caption-column-keep flag.
The tool allows you to add an icon to each row with the --icon-column option. The behavior is the same as with --image-column; the only difference is that you can use URL, file name, or single emoji.
To also treat --icon-column as a regular column, use --icon-column-keep flag, similar to --image-column-keep.
If you want to set the same icon for each row, use the --default-icon option. If both --icon-column and --default-icon are present, the default icon is used if the row doesn't have anything in the icon column.
If you want to ensure that specific columns always have value and are not allowed to be empty, then use the --mandatory-column option. The program execution will stop if validation fails.
- Importing CSV into new DB
- Using custom column types
- Importing CSV into existing DB
- Merging CSV with existing DB
- Merging CSV with select columns in existing DB
- Importing rows with images
- Importing rows with emoji icons
- Updating emoji icon only for all rows
If you found a bug or have a feature request, please open a new issue.
If you have a question about the program or have difficulty using it, you are welcome to the discussions page. You can also mail me directly, I'm always happy to help.