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Google Drive: Export a Google Workspace file — MCP tool

Google Drive MCP tool: Converts a Google Doc, Sheet, Slides or Drawing into Markdown, CSV, PDF, Office formats and more.

Technical name: export_file

What task it solves

I want to get a Google Doc or Sheet in a usable format.

Exports a Google-native file to a regular format on the fly — the original stays untouched.

When to use it

Use it to read a Doc as Markdown/plain text in the conversation, pull a Sheet as CSV, or save a PDF/DOCX/XLSX/PPTX to disk. Regular binary files are not exportable — use download_file for them.

What to provide

  • file_id — required. A Google-native file (Doc, Sheet, Slides, Drawing).
  • mime_type — required. The target format: Docs → text/markdown, text/plain, text/html, application/pdf, .docx, application/rtf; Sheets → text/csv (first sheet only), application/pdf, .xlsx; Slides → application/pdf, text/plain, .pptx; Drawings → image/png, image/svg+xml, application/pdf.
  • save_path / overwrite — optional. Absolute local path for binary or >100 KB output.

What it returns

With save_path: saved_to, bytes, content_type. Inline (small textual exports): content plus the export mime type.

What changes in Google Drive

Nothing — export is a read-time conversion; the source file is not modified.

Example request

Export the project plan Doc from Google Drive as Markdown and summarize it.

Errors and limitations

The API caps exports at 10 MB — for bigger documents use the file's exportLinks from get_file. text/csv exports only the first sheet of a spreadsheet. An unsupported source/target pairing fails with HTTP 400.

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Technical details