There's no export button for text history, so exporting SMS conversations from GoHighLevel takes more work than most agencies expect. The contact CSV skips message history entirely. This guide covers what the native export does include, how to get text history out by hand or through the API, and what a usable conversation export should look like.
Can you export SMS conversations from GoHighLevel natively?
The standard export lives in Contacts > Smart Lists: filter, select, and choose Export. The file lands in Contacts > Bulk Actions for download. As of October 2026, HighLevel's help docs say the CSV includes:
- Contact name, email, phone and tags
- Custom fields you've shown with Manage Fields
- The latest note, up to 255 characters
It does not include automation history such as past emails and SMS logs. Conversations aren't part of it.
HighLevel users have asked for this for years. A "Download SMS Conversations" request on HighLevel's ideas board dates to June 2019 and has hundreds of votes, with commenters in financial services and other regulated industries saying they need text records for compliance.
Method 1: One contact at a time, by hand
For a single dispute or a single client request:
- Open the contact's thread in Conversations.
- Scroll to the start of the range you need. Long threads load in pages.
- Copy the messages into a document, or use your browser's print-to-PDF.
This works for a handful of contacts. It loses structure (no clean columns for direction, timestamp or message ID), and it's easy to miss messages in long threads.
Method 2: The Conversations API
HighLevel's API has an endpoint built for this. As of October 2026:
- Endpoint:
GET /conversations/messages/export, documented as "export messages by location ID." - Filters:
channel(SMS, Email, Call, WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook),startDateandendDate, and optionallycontactIdorconversationId. Leaving out the channel returns all non-email messages, including activity entries like appointment and opportunity updates. - Paging: up to 1,000 messages per page with a cursor. Cursors expire two minutes after the last request.
- Returns: message ID, type, contact ID, conversation ID, date added, body, direction, status and attachments.
A basic export script:
- Authenticate with a Private Integration Token or marketplace app that has conversations read access. The Private Integration Token guide walks through setup.
- Call the endpoint with
channel=SMSand your date range. - Follow
nextCursoruntil it comes back null. - Pull contact names separately from the Contacts API and join them on contact ID.
- Write the result to CSV.
Plan for rate limits (HighLevel documents 100 requests per 10 seconds and 200,000 per day per app per sub-account), errors partway through, and the two-minute cursor timeout on long jobs. Also note that MMS attachments are links, and some carrier-hosted media links stop working over time.
What a usable SMS export contains
Whoever reads the file, whether it's a compliance reviewer, an attorney or a client, needs to follow the thread without HighLevel open. Include:
| Column | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Timestamp | Order of events, in a stated timezone |
| Direction | Inbound or outbound |
| Contact name, phone and contact ID | Who it was with, and a key to join on |
| Message body | The actual text |
| Status | Delivered, failed, and so on |
| Conversation ID and message ID | Traceable back to the source |
| Channel | SMS vs. email vs. call when you export several types |
Sort by contact, then by timestamp, so each conversation reads top to bottom.
Common reasons agencies need this
- Compliance and record keeping. Lending, insurance, healthcare-adjacent and legal clients often need text records retained.
- Disputes. A customer says they never agreed to something. You need the exact thread and its timestamps.
- Offboarding a client. When a client leaves, they often ask for their data. A contact CSV without conversations isn't complete. See what the GoHighLevel CSV export leaves out.
- Coaching and QA. Reviewing how reps handle objections over text.
- Training AI agents. Real conversations make better examples than invented ones.
Where the native way gets slow
Manual copying doesn't scale past a few contacts. The API is the right foundation, but turning it into a reliable export means writing and hosting code, handling pagination and rate limits, joining contact names, and rerunning it for every sub-account. For agencies managing dozens of clients, that's a small internal product to maintain.
How Conversation Exporter handles it
Conversation Exporter from RGS Tools turns any connected sub-account's message history into one CSV.
- SMS and email export: pick SMS, email, calls, or all three. Every row has direction, contact name and ID, and conversation and message IDs.
- Any date range, no row caps: a day, a month, or the full history. It finds every message in your range, including ones in conversations that started long before.
- Background exports: start a large export, close the tab, and download it when it's done.
Connect your agency once through the marketplace app and pick any sub-account from a dropdown, or connect a single sub-account with a Private Integration Token. Conversation Exporter is $67/mo per agency with unlimited sub-accounts and a 7-day free trial. If you also need the audio, see how to export call recordings from GoHighLevel.
Questions
Does GoHighLevel have a native way to export text messages?
Not in the standard interface, as of October 2026. The contact CSV export doesn't include message history, and a request for SMS conversation export has been open on HighLevel's ideas board since 2019. The Conversations API does have an endpoint to export messages by location.
How do I export the conversation history for one contact?
Without a tool, you can scroll the contact's thread and copy or print it, or call the API's export messages endpoint filtered by that contact ID. Neither gives you a formatted file from inside the app.
Does the GoHighLevel contact export include SMS?
No. The contact CSV includes fields like name, email, phone, tags, selected custom fields and the latest note. HighLevel's documentation says automation history such as past emails and SMS logs is not included.