TSV file with tasks

Input data is uploaded to Toloka in a TSV file. TSV (tab-separated values) is a text file format in which data is separated by a tab, and lines are separated by a newline.

Download a sample file for your project by clicking File example for task uploading (tsv) on the pool page.

  1. Structure of the TSV file
  2. Working with the TSV file
  3. Escaping strings

Structure of the TSV file

The first line of the file contains the column headers:
  • INPUT:<name of the input data field> — Input data for tasks.

  • GOLDEN:<name of the output data field> — Responses for control tasks.
  • HINT:text — Hints for training tasks.

  • Point coordinates for field surveys:
    • Al:latitude — Latitude.

    • Al:longitude — Longitude.


You can also add responses and suggestions when creating a pool in task markup mode (you need to use “smart mixing” when uploading tasks).

The columns with required input data fields must be filled. You can delete other columns if you don't use them.

TSV file examples

Working with the TSV file

Popular spreadsheet editors allow you to import and export data in TSV format:

You can work with data in a spreadsheet and then save it to the desired format.
  1. Create a spreadsheet with the appropriate headings or copy them from the TSV file example.
  2. Add data for tasks.
  3. Copy the entire table and paste it into a simple text editor (for example, Note in Windows or TextEdit in Mac OS).
  4. Save the file in the UTF-8 encoding with the tsv extension.

The maximum file size is 100 MB.

Escaping strings

To include several paragraphs or tabulated lines in the string field, you need to escape it — put it in quotation marks " ". The quotation marks are removed when processing the TSV file.

Quotation marks " " in the text data must be escaped. Quotation marks of different shape « » and “ ” don't need to be escaped.
Escaping examples
Input dataResult
"Task in ""Toloka"""

Task in "Toloka"

"Task in «Toloka»"

Task in «Toloka»