Keep

Export X bookmarks into Keep

Get X bookmarks into a searchable Markdown library. How to export the old list, import CSV or JSON into Keep, and sync new saves without scraping X every month.

Ian Nuttall

Most “export X bookmarks” guides stop at the file. A CSV on your desktop is a backup. It is not a library you can search, clip into, or hand to an agent.

Keep is the destination. ilo is the tool that actually walks your private X history and writes CSV or JSON. They are sister products, not two versions of the same page.

If you only want the exporter roundup, use ilo’s export guide. This page is about what happens after you have the file, and how new bookmarks keep landing in Keep without repeating that scrape.

Two jobs people mix up

Historical export. You already have hundreds or thousands of bookmarks. X will not put them in the official data archive. You need a browser extension that reads the signed-in bookmark list and writes a file.

Ongoing capture. You will bookmark more posts tomorrow. Repeating a full scrape every month is a bad habit. You want new saves to arrive as Markdown without opening Chrome’s export UI again.

Keep does the second job well, and it imports the first. It does not replace a dedicated X exporter for a full historical dump. Treat any page that still says “the Keep extension walks your whole bookmark timeline for free” as out of date.

Get the file

Use a browser exporter while you are signed in to the right X account. Keep the tab open until it finishes. Download the file, then copy it somewhere that is not the Downloads folder.

ilo X Analytics writes CSV or JSON and leaves finished files in Chrome. Bookmark Save is a reasonable pick if you want Markdown or PDF and nothing else. Dewey still works if you already live there, but a one-off export sits behind Pro or a 48-hour Export Pass.

CSV is the easiest import into Keep, Notion, or a spreadsheet. JSON keeps more fields when the exporter bothers to include them. A URL-only dump is better than nothing. It is not a copy of the post.

Large libraries take time because the exporter has to load X’s own list. Pause and resume matters more than a pretty progress bar.

Import the file into Keep

Keep accepts CSV, JSON, TSV, and bookmark HTML through the normal bookmark import.

  1. Open Settings in Keep.
  2. Open Data, then Import.
  3. Choose Bookmarks from another app for CSV or generic JSON. Choose X bookmark export only if the file is a compatible Keep-format JSON dump.
  4. Select the file.
  5. Check URL, title, notes, tags, and saved-date columns in the preview.
  6. Import a small batch first, then the rest.

Each generic import job accepts up to 1,000 items. Split a bigger file. Starter keeps available link metadata. Personal can fetch full content from reachable linked pages.

Do not delete the original export after a successful import. Apps disagree about text, media, dates, and tags. The raw file is the restart point if you move again.

What you get once it is Markdown

A row in a spreadsheet proves the list existed. A Keep item is the post (and often the linked page) as Markdown you can search, tag, clip highlights from, and expose to Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, or anything else on MCP or the CLI.

That is the product difference versus leaving the file in Chrome. ilo is built so the export stays on your machine. Keep is built so the useful posts sit next to articles, videos, feeds, files, and notes.

You can ask an agent for every saved post about onboarding last year and get answers from the library, not from X’s shallow bookmark search.

New bookmarks without another scrape

A one-time file starts ageing the moment you create it.

Keep Web Clipper can save a public X post when you bookmark it in the desktop browser. The optional X Sync add-on imports new private bookmarks in the background. It can start with a capped recent backfill. It is not a promise to replay your entire history.

Use the exporter for the old list. Use clipper or X Sync for everything after that.

Where Keep is the wrong destination

Stay in Dewey if social posts across X, LinkedIn, Bluesky, and TikTok are the whole job and you want Dewey’s UI for that. See Dewey alternatives if you are already on the way out.

Stay in Readwise Reader if the habit is highlight-first reading and daily review, not a mixed Markdown library.

Stay in ilo if you want CSV or JSON and you do not want another library. That is a complete outcome for a lot of people.

Use Keep when X is one source among many, and you want the result as Markdown your future self (or an agent) can actually find.

Start Keep for free, import a small test file, and check the result before you move the whole library.