Export VM ESX Thin Provisionned

As mentioned, the resulting size of the export will be the actual utilized space stored on disk. You can reclaim space on the VMDK and see the actual usage. The following article has the vmkfstools command to do that: https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2004155 More information about the VMDK types: https://www.vmwareblog.org/vmware-esxi-disk-provision-work-difference-one-better/