How do I import my books from Goodreads?

Moving to Chapter doesn’t mean starting your library from scratch. In a few steps you can bring over your Goodreads books, ratings, reviews, and reading progress. Your CSV file stays on your device — only the books you choose to import are saved to Chapter.

*Chapter is not affiliated with or endorsed by Goodreads.

Step 1: Export your library from Goodreads

1. Sign in to goodreads.com from a web browser.
2. Go to My Books → Import and export.
3. Press Export Library and wait a moment while Goodreads prepares the file.
4. When it’s ready, a download link appears at the top of the same page. Download the CSV to your device.

You can also start from the app: on the import screen, tap “Tap here to open the export page.” and Chapter will take you straight there.

Step 2: Open the importer in Chapter

1. Open the Library tab.
2. Tap the ••• icon in the top right corner.
3. Tap Import your books.
4. Tap Choose CSV file and select the file you downloaded from Goodreads.

Step 3: Review your migration plan

Before anything is saved, Chapter analyzes your file and checks for matches and duplicates. When it finishes, you’ll see how many books are:

• Ready to import — matched with confidence.
• Already in your library — these are skipped.
• Review after import — no exact match yet, you’ll pick the right one later.
• Couldn’t analyze — rows we weren’t able to read.

On the same screen you can choose what comes over:

• Shelves. Want to read, Read, Currently reading, and Did not finish are selected by default. Any custom shelves you created on Goodreads can be added too.
• Import ratings and reviews. Keeps your star ratings and written reviews.
• Import currently-reading status. Creates active reading progress for the books you’re in the middle of.
• Keep reviews private. Available with Chapter Premium. On free accounts, imported reviews are published to the community anonymously.

When it looks right, tap Import books to begin.

Step 4: While the import runs

Chapter saves your books one at a time and checkpoints each one as it goes. You can leave the screen — the import keeps running while the app is open and picks up where it left off when you come back.

Step 5: Books that need your attention

Some books can’t be matched automatically, usually because the ISBN was missing from the export or didn’t match exactly. For each of these, you can:

• Pick the right match from the options we found.
• Add it as a custom book if none of them are right.
• Skip it and move on.

You don’t have to do this right away. To pick it up later, go to Library → ••• → Import in progress.

Troubleshooting

• “This file doesn’t seem to be a Goodreads CSV.” Upload the file exactly as Goodreads gives it to you — a .csv that hasn’t been unzipped from another format, opened and re-saved in a spreadsheet app, or renamed to another extension. If in doubt, export it again.
• No books were found in the file. Check that at least one shelf is selected on the migration plan screen, and that the shelves you picked actually contain books.
• Some books failed. Tap Retry failed on the summary screen — your progress is safe, and only the books that didn’t save are tried again.