Export AD Users to CSV with PowerShell

Last Updated: May 23, 2023 by Robert Allen

In this tutorial, you will learn how to export Active Directory users to CSV with PowerShell.

I’ll also show you how to export users from an OU, and get specific user attributes like last logon, email addresses, state, city, and so on.

To run the commands from this guide you need to make sure PowerShell is up to date and you have the RSAT tools installed. For this demo, I’m using a Windows 10 computer and using PowerShell version 5.1. You can check your version with this command.

$PSVersionTable

How to Export Active Directory Users to CSV

Here are the steps to export Active Directory users to CSV.

Step 1: Get-ADUser PowerShell Command

To export users with PowerShell, the Get-ADUser cmdlet is used. This command will get user accounts from Active Directory and display all or selected attributes. It’s important to know how this command works so you can export the data you need.

The most important thing to remember is how to display all the user attributes. This will come in useful when you want to export only specific account details.

The below command will get all user attributes for a single user.

get-aduser -identity username -Properties *

Change the “username” to a user in your domain.

Pay attention to the left column. These are the user attribute names and the values on the right. In example 4, I’ll show you how to select specific attributes to include in the export.

Step 2: Export to CSV command

Add “export-CSV -path” to the end of the command to export to a CSV file. See the below example, I’m exporting all the properties for this user to c:\temp\export.csv.

get-aduser -identity username -Properties * | export-csv -path c:\temp\export.csv

You should now have a CSV export of all user properties for a single user.

Step 3: Export specific user attributes

If you don’t want to export all user attributes then use the “select-object” command and enter only the attributes you need. If you have followed along from the beginning then you know how to find the attribute names, if not then jump to example 2.

In the below example I’ll export the DisplayName, City and State.

get-aduser -identity username -Properties * | select DisplayName, City, State | export-csv -path c:\temp\export.csv

Step 4: How to export all users

To export all users remove (-identity) and add (-filter *) to the command. In the below example I’m exporting all users and selecting displayname, city, company, department, EmailAddress, and telephonenumber.

get-aduser -filter * -Properties * | select displayname, city, company, department, EmailAddress, telephonenumber | export-csv -path c:\temp\export-all.csv

Here is what this looks like in Powershell.

Here is the CSV.

Step 5: Export Users from a specific OU

To export users from specific OUs use the “-SearchBase” command and the “distinguishedName” value of the OU.

In the below example I’m getting all the users in my accounting OU.

Get-ADUser -Filter * -Properties * -SearchBase "OU=Accounting,OU=ADPRO Users,DC=ad,DC=activedirectorypro,DC=com" | select displayname, DistinguishedName, Enabled

Here is the PowerShell output.

Then add export-csv -path to the end to export this to CSV.

Get-ADUser -Filter * -Properties * -SearchBase "OU=Accounting,OU=ADPRO Users,DC=ad,DC=activedirectorypro,DC=com" | select displayname, DistinguishedName, Enabled | export-csv -path c:\temp\export-ou.csv

At this point, you should be able to export single, all users, or users from a specific OU. I also showed you how to export all or specific user attributes.

Below are a few more PowerShell examples.

Export only enabled users

To get just the enabled user accounts you need to add a filter that searches for enabled = true.

Get-ADUser -Filter {Enabled -eq $true} -properties * | select-object samaccountname,givenname,surname,Enabled | export-csv -path c:\export\exportusers.csv

Export users to CSV with last logon date

get-aduser -Filter *  -Properties * | select displayname, LastLogonDate | export-csv -path c:\temp\export_lastlogon.csv

Method 2: Export Users With the GUI AD Export Tool

In this example, I’ll use the AD User Export Tool from the AD Pro Toolkit. This tool makes it very easy to export all users, users from an OU or group.

Step 1. Download the AD Pro Toolkit.

Click here to download a free trial

You can install the tool on your local computer or a server.

Step 2. Click on the Export Users Tool.

From the list of tools click on Export Users.

Export User information to CSV using AD Pro Toolkit

Step 3. Choose Paths and click run.

In the search criteria box pick where you want to export from, you can pick the following:

Entire Domain – This will export all users in your domain
Select OU or Group – This allows you to select one or multiple OUs or groups to export.

In this example, I’m going to export all users from the Accounting and HR OUs.

When you click run the results will be displayed in the results area.

Step 4. Export Users to CSV

To export the results to CSV click the export button and choose your format.

Here is an example export.

If you want to add or remove user fields click on the Columns button

The attribute picker has over 50 attributes you can easily add or remove to the export.

Include Users Group Membership in the CSV

One nice feature of the GUI tool is it will include the user’s group membership.

Below is an example from my export. So for each user, it will show you which security groups they are a member of. Of course, you can just uncheck “memberOf” in the columns picker if you don’t want to see this info.

The graphical user export tool makes it easy for anyone to export user information to CSV. If you don’t want to mess with complicated PowerShell scripts then I recommend checking it out.

Method 3: Export Users with Active Directory Users and Computers

This method uses the Active Directory Users and Computers console to export users. If you need a very basic export with limited user fields then this option is for you. The one problem is it is limited to a single folder.

Step 1: Open Active Directory Users and Computers

Step 2: Browse to the container that has the users you want to export.

In my test environment, I’ll be exporting the users from the HR container.

Step 3: Click the export button

Now just browse to where you want to save the file, name it and change save as type to CSV.

I’ll open the CSV file in excel to verify it was exported.

Yes, it worked.

How Do You Export All Users to CSV?

The problem with exporting users from ADUC (Active Directory Users and Computers Console)is that it only exports users from a specific folder. If you have users organized into many different folders, you would have to export from each one of them.

To Export all Users you have two options.

User Export GUI Tool
PowerShell

Using the GUI tool you just select “Entire Domain” and click run.

With PowerShell, the below command will export all users to CSV. This will just export the user’s name, you will need to add additional attributes as needed.

Get-ADUser -Filter * -Properties * | Select-Object name | export-csv -path c:\export\allusers.csv

Recommended Tool: Active Directory Pro Toolkit

The AD Pro Toolkit includes 14 tools in 1 to help simplify and automate Active Directory management.

Automate user creation, bulk update accounts, group management, logon reports, report NTFS permissions, cleanup, and secure AD, troubleshoot account lockouts, and much more.

In addition, the toolkit includes over 200 built-in reports.