How to export your Kindle highlights
Your Kindle keeps every highlight and note, but not anywhere you can use them. Here is how to get them out, from a Kindle or from the Kindle app, and into Notion, Obsidian, Markdown or a spreadsheet, free.
Runs in your browser. Your file is not uploaded.
Two ways to get your highlights off Amazon
From a Kindle: My Clippings.txt
Every Kindle e-reader writes each highlight, note and bookmark to one text file, for every book, sideloaded ones included. It never syncs anywhere, so it is the most complete copy you have.
From the Kindle app: the notebook
The Kindle app on a phone, a tablet or a computer can export one book's highlights and notes at a time as an HTML file, sent to your email. Only books bought from the Kindle store have a notebook.
Step by step: My Clippings.txt from a Kindle
- Connect your Kindle to a computer with its USB cable. Windows shows it as a drive; on a Mac, a newer Kindle may need a file transfer app to show up.
- Open the Kindle drive, then the documents folder.
- Copy My Clippings.txt to your computer.
- Open the Kindle clippings converter and drop the file on it.
Step by step: the notebook from the Kindle app
- Open the book in the Kindle app on your phone, tablet or computer.
- Open Notebook.
- Choose Export notebook, then any citation style.
- Open the email the app sends and save the HTML file.
- Drop the file on the Kindle clippings converter.
Kindle highlights to Notion
- In the converter, tap Download for Notion. You get a zip with one Markdown file a book.
- Unzip it.
- In Notion, open Settings, then Import (or the Import button in the sidebar), and choose Text and Markdown.
- Select the Markdown files. Each book becomes a page, its highlights as quotes and your notes under them.
Kindle highlights to Obsidian
- In the converter, tap Download for Obsidian.
- Unzip the folder into your vault, for example into a folder named Kindle.
- Each book is a note with properties (title, author, highlights, notes, tags) and a block id on every highlight, so you can link to one with [[Book title#^dr-...]]. Export again later and unzip over the folder: the files keep their names, so they are replaced, not copied.
Markdown and CSV
- Download for Markdown gives one file with every book under its own heading, ready for any notes app, a blog draft or an email.
- Download for CSV gives a spreadsheet with a row a highlight: title, author, highlight, note, page, location and date added. It opens in Excel, Google Sheets and Numbers.
Good to know
- Publishers set a clipping limit, often around 10 percent of a book. Past it, the Kindle writes a notice instead of your highlight; the converter leaves those out and says how many.
- Edit a highlight on a Kindle and it writes a new clipping without removing the old one. The converter keeps only the latest.
- Amazon's notebook page in a browser shows your highlights for store books, but has no export button; the app's Export notebook is the way out.
Then: keep them where you read
Most exported highlights are never read again. Doomreader imports My Clippings.txt and notebooks for free and keeps your Kindle highlights in one Saved list with the passages you highlight in Doomreader itself, with a chip for each book and a tap to read on from there. With Pro, they sync across your devices and are found by search, and they export to Notion and Obsidian from the app whenever you like.
Questions
Can I export Kindle highlights for free?
Yes. My Clippings.txt and the Kindle app's Export notebook are free, and so is the Doomreader converter, which turns either into Markdown, Notion, Obsidian or CSV files in your browser.
Does this work for books I did not buy from Amazon?
From a Kindle, yes: My Clippings.txt has highlights from every book on it, sideloaded ones included. The Kindle app's notebook only covers books from the Kindle store.
Do I need Readwise to get Kindle highlights into Notion or Obsidian?
No. Readwise syncs them automatically for a monthly fee. If an export when you want one is enough, the free converter and this guide do it.
Is my file uploaded?
No. The converter reads the file in your browser and makes the downloads on your device.