diff --git a/src/__phutil_library_map__.php b/src/__phutil_library_map__.php
--- a/src/__phutil_library_map__.php
+++ b/src/__phutil_library_map__.php
@@ -2852,6 +2852,7 @@
     'PhabricatorExportEngineExtension' => 'infrastructure/export/engine/PhabricatorExportEngineExtension.php',
     'PhabricatorExportField' => 'infrastructure/export/field/PhabricatorExportField.php',
     'PhabricatorExportFormat' => 'infrastructure/export/format/PhabricatorExportFormat.php',
+    'PhabricatorExportFormatSetting' => 'infrastructure/export/engine/PhabricatorExportFormatSetting.php',
     'PhabricatorExtendedPolicyInterface' => 'applications/policy/interface/PhabricatorExtendedPolicyInterface.php',
     'PhabricatorExtendingPhabricatorConfigOptions' => 'applications/config/option/PhabricatorExtendingPhabricatorConfigOptions.php',
     'PhabricatorExtensionsSetupCheck' => 'applications/config/check/PhabricatorExtensionsSetupCheck.php',
@@ -8288,6 +8289,7 @@
     'PhabricatorExportEngineExtension' => 'Phobject',
     'PhabricatorExportField' => 'Phobject',
     'PhabricatorExportFormat' => 'Phobject',
+    'PhabricatorExportFormatSetting' => 'PhabricatorInternalSetting',
     'PhabricatorExtendingPhabricatorConfigOptions' => 'PhabricatorApplicationConfigOptions',
     'PhabricatorExtensionsSetupCheck' => 'PhabricatorSetupCheck',
     'PhabricatorExternalAccount' => array(
diff --git a/src/applications/search/controller/PhabricatorApplicationSearchController.php b/src/applications/search/controller/PhabricatorApplicationSearchController.php
--- a/src/applications/search/controller/PhabricatorApplicationSearchController.php
+++ b/src/applications/search/controller/PhabricatorApplicationSearchController.php
@@ -421,6 +421,13 @@
     $formats = PhabricatorExportFormat::getAllEnabledExportFormats();
     $format_options = mpull($formats, 'getExportFormatName');
 
+    // Try to default to the format the user used last time. If you just
+    // exported to Excel, you probably want to export to Excel again.
+    $format_key = $this->readExportFormatPreference();
+    if (!isset($formats[$format_key])) {
+      $format_key = head_key($format_options);
+    }
+
     $errors = array();
 
     $e_format = null;
@@ -434,6 +441,8 @@
       }
 
       if (!$errors) {
+        $this->writeExportFormatPreference($format_key);
+
         $query = $engine->buildQueryFromSavedQuery($saved_query);
 
         // NOTE: We aren't reading the pager from the request. Exports always
@@ -497,6 +506,7 @@
           ->setName('format')
           ->setLabel(pht('Format'))
           ->setError($e_format)
+          ->setValue($format_key)
           ->setOptions($format_options));
 
     return $this->newDialog()
@@ -912,4 +922,32 @@
     return true;
   }
 
+  private function readExportFormatPreference() {
+    $viewer = $this->getViewer();
+    $export_key = PhabricatorPolicyFavoritesSetting::SETTINGKEY;
+    return $viewer->getUserSetting($export_key);
+  }
+
+  private function writeExportFormatPreference($value) {
+    $viewer = $this->getViewer();
+    $request = $this->getRequest();
+
+    if (!$viewer->isLoggedIn()) {
+      return;
+    }
+
+    $export_key = PhabricatorPolicyFavoritesSetting::SETTINGKEY;
+    $preferences = PhabricatorUserPreferences::loadUserPreferences($viewer);
+
+    $editor = id(new PhabricatorUserPreferencesEditor())
+      ->setActor($viewer)
+      ->setContentSourceFromRequest($request)
+      ->setContinueOnNoEffect(true)
+      ->setContinueOnMissingFields(true);
+
+    $xactions = array();
+    $xactions[] = $preferences->newTransaction($export_key, $value);
+    $editor->applyTransactions($preferences, $xactions);
+  }
+
 }
diff --git a/src/infrastructure/export/engine/PhabricatorExportFormatSetting.php b/src/infrastructure/export/engine/PhabricatorExportFormatSetting.php
new file mode 100644
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/infrastructure/export/engine/PhabricatorExportFormatSetting.php
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+<?php
+
+final class PhabricatorExportFormatSetting
+  extends PhabricatorInternalSetting {
+
+  const SETTINGKEY = 'export.format';
+
+  public function getSettingName() {
+    return pht('Export Format');
+  }
+
+  public function getSettingDefaultValue() {
+    return null;
+  }
+
+}