Export Overleaf comments to Markdown, JSON or a spreadsheet

Overleaf does not include comments or tracked changes in the source download, and it does not include them in the Git sync either. They exist only inside the web editor. This gets them out, onto your own computer, in one click.

Add to Chrome Source on GitHub Command line version

Free and open source under the MIT licence. Works in Chrome, Edge, Brave and other Chromium browsers.

Why you need this

Download an Overleaf project as a zip and open it. The .tex files are all there. The comments are not. Pull the same project through the Git integration and the result is the same. Nothing warns you at any point.

So every note your co-authors and supervisors left lives in exactly one place, behind a login, in a web editor. If you lose access to the project, or somebody resolves a thread to tidy up, that feedback is gone. There is an open request for Overleaf to fix this that has been running since 2023.

What you get

How to use it

  1. Open your paper on Overleaf.
  2. Click the extension icon in the toolbar.
  3. Tick what you want to keep.
  4. Press Export current project.

The files land in your downloads folder. Nothing is uploaded anywhere.

If you would rather not install anything in the browser, there is a command line version.

pip install overleaf-comments-export
overleaf-comments-export --gui

That opens a window. Paste your project link, choose a folder, press the button. For a script, pass --project-url and --out instead.

Questions

Does Overleaf include comments when you download a project?

No. The source download and the Git sync both contain only the LaTeX files. Comments and tracked changes are stripped out with no warning, because they are stored separately from the document text.

Can you export Overleaf comments to Word or Excel?

This tool writes a spreadsheet with three sheets, one for comments, one for replies and one for tracked changes, which opens in Excel, Numbers and Google Sheets. It also writes Markdown, which pastes into Word.

Does it work on resolved comments?

Yes. Resolved threads are included by default and are marked as resolved, so you can keep them or filter them out.

Is my Overleaf login safe?

The extension never reads, stores or transmits your session cookie. It runs in the tab you are already signed in to and asks the same endpoints the editor itself asks. It requests three permissions and no host permissions at all, and everything it writes goes straight to your downloads folder.

Does it handle a paper split across several files?

Yes. It follows \input, \include and \subfile from the root document, so a comment is reported with the section and the figure or table it actually sits in rather than a line number in a file you do not remember.

Is it free?

Yes, and it is open source under the MIT licence. There is no account, no paid tier and no telemetry.