diff --git a/src/qcodes/dataset/data_set.py b/src/qcodes/dataset/data_set.py
index c58aef15ff7c..0bd0d101dc40 100644
--- a/src/qcodes/dataset/data_set.py
+++ b/src/qcodes/dataset/data_set.py
@@ -13,8 +13,9 @@
 from threading import Thread
 from typing import TYPE_CHECKING, Any, Literal
 
+import cf_xarray as cfxr
 import numpy
-from tqdm.auto import trange
+from tqdm.auto import tqdm
 
 import qcodes
 from qcodes.dataset.data_set_protocol import (
@@ -246,7 +247,8 @@ def __init__(
         #: In memory representation of the data in the dataset.
         self._cache: DataSetCacheWithDBBackend = DataSetCacheWithDBBackend(self)
         self._results: list[dict[str, VALUE]] = []
-        self._in_memory_cache = in_memory_cache
+        self._in_memory_cache: bool = in_memory_cache
+        self._max_num_files_export = 100
         self._export_limit = 1000
 
         if run_id is not None:
@@ -1484,6 +1486,21 @@ def _set_export_info(self, export_info: ExportInfo) -> None:
 
     def _export_as_netcdf(self, path: Path, file_name: str) -> Path:
         """Export data as netcdf to a given path with file prefix"""
+
+        def generate_steps(num_rows, max_num_steps) -> list[tuple[int, int]]:
+            if max_num_steps >= num_rows:
+                return [(i + 1, i + 1) for i in range(num_rows)]
+
+            step_size, remainder = divmod(num_rows, max_num_steps)
+            limits = [
+                (i * step_size + 1, (i + 1) * step_size) for i in range(max_num_steps)
+            ]
+
+            if remainder > 0:
+                limits[-1] = (limits[-1][0], (step_size) * max_num_steps + remainder)
+
+            return limits
+
         import xarray as xr
 
         file_path = path / file_name
@@ -1514,16 +1531,22 @@ def _export_as_netcdf(self, path: Path, file_name: str) -> Path:
                         "temp_dir": temp_dir,
                     },
                 )
-                num_files = len(self)
+                num_rows = len(self)
+                steps = generate_steps(num_rows, self._max_num_files_export)
+                num_files = len(steps)
                 num_digits = len(str(num_files))
                 file_name_template = f"ds_{{:0{num_digits}d}}.nc"
-                for i in trange(num_files, desc="Writing individual files"):
+                for i, (start, stop) in tqdm(
+                    enumerate(steps), total=num_files, desc="Writing individual files"
+                ):
                     xarray_to_h5netcdf_with_complex_numbers(
-                        self.to_xarray_dataset(start=i + 1, end=i + 1),
+                        self.to_xarray_dataset(start=start, end=stop),
                         temp_path / file_name_template.format(i),
                     )
                 files = tuple(temp_path.glob("*.nc"))
-                data = xr.open_mfdataset(files)
+                data = xr.open_mfdataset(
+                    files, preprocess=cfxr.coding.decode_compress_to_multi_index
+                )
                 try:
                     log.info(
                         "Combining temp files into one file.",
diff --git a/tests/dataset/test_dataset_export.py b/tests/dataset/test_dataset_export.py
index f9f00195aff0..d38c7cd86ad2 100644
--- a/tests/dataset/test_dataset_export.py
+++ b/tests/dataset/test_dataset_export.py
@@ -5,9 +5,11 @@
 import os
 from pathlib import Path
 
+import hypothesis.strategies as hst
 import numpy as np
 import pytest
 import xarray as xr
+from hypothesis import HealthCheck, given, settings
 from numpy.testing import assert_allclose
 from pytest import LogCaptureFixture, TempPathFactory
 
@@ -826,11 +828,17 @@ def test_export_dataset_small_no_delated(
     assert "Writing netcdf file directly" in caplog.records[0].msg
 
 
+@settings(
+    deadline=None,
+    suppress_health_check=(HealthCheck.function_scoped_fixture,),
+)
+@given(max_num_files=hst.integers(min_value=1, max_value=55))
 def test_export_dataset_delayed_numeric(
-    tmp_path_factory: TempPathFactory, mock_dataset_grid: DataSet, caplog
+    max_num_files, tmp_path_factory: TempPathFactory, mock_dataset_grid: DataSet, caplog
 ) -> None:
-    tmp_path = tmp_path_factory.mktemp("export_netcdf")
+    tmp_path = tmp_path_factory.mktemp(f"export_netcdf_{max_num_files}")
     mock_dataset_grid._export_limit = 0
+    mock_dataset_grid._max_num_files_export = max_num_files
     with caplog.at_level(logging.INFO):
         mock_dataset_grid.export(export_type="netcdf", path=tmp_path, prefix="qcodes_")