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Convert an Excel File to CSV

Processed entirely in your browser. Never uploaded to a server.

Drop an Excel file here or click to browse

.xlsx, .xls, or .xlsm

This tool reads an Excel workbook and writes the cell values of a sheet out as comma-separated text. Drop your file above, pick the sheet you want from the dropdown, then click convert. If you pick the all-sheets option, you get a ZIP with one .csv file per sheet.

What does not survive the conversion

CSV is a plain text format that stores one flat table of values. Everything a spreadsheet adds on top of that is lost, and it is worth knowing which parts before you convert:

  • Formulas become their computed values. The formula text is not kept.
  • Formatting (fonts, colours, borders, column widths, conditional formatting) is dropped.
  • Merged cells are flattened. The value lands in the top-left cell of the range and the rest of the range is empty.
  • Charts, images, pivot tables, comments, and data validation are not written to CSV at all.
  • Multiple sheets cannot share one CSV, which is why you choose a sheet or get a ZIP.
  • Macros in an .xlsm file are ignored and not carried over.

Check your dates

A date in Excel is a number with a display format attached to it. The CSV gets the displayed text, so a cell showing 03/04/2025 stays 03/04/2025, and the next program to read that file has to guess whether that is 3 April or 4 March. Reformat date columns to YYYY-MM-DD in Excel before converting if the values are going into a database or another import.

FAQ

What happens to my formulas?
You get the computed value, not the formula text. A cell containing =B2*C2 that shows 7.50 in Excel becomes 7.5 in the CSV. The formula itself is not written to the file, because CSV has no concept of a formula. If a formula was never calculated by the spreadsheet app, that cell can come out blank.
What about my formatting, colours, and charts?
None of it survives. CSV is plain text with commas, so it stores values only. Fonts, cell colours, borders, column widths, conditional formatting, charts, pivot tables, images, comments, and data validation rules are all dropped. Number formatting is applied as text where it can be, but the styling behind it is gone.
My workbook has several sheets. What do I get?
CSV holds exactly one table, so a multi-sheet workbook cannot become a single CSV. Pick one sheet from the dropdown to get one .csv file, or choose the all-sheets option to get a ZIP containing one .csv per sheet. Merged cells that spanned sheets or rows are not reconstructed.
Will my dates come out right?
Usually, but check them. Excel stores dates as numbers with a display format attached. This tool writes the date as the spreadsheet displayed it, so a cell shown as 03/04/2025 stays that ambiguous text in the CSV, and whatever imports it next may read it as 3 April or 4 March. If dates matter, reformat the column to an unambiguous format like YYYY-MM-DD in Excel before converting.
Are .xls and .xlsm files supported?
Yes. The tool reads .xlsx, the older .xls binary format, and macro-enabled .xlsm files. Macros are not run and not carried over, only the cell values are read.
Is my file uploaded anywhere?
No. The workbook is parsed by JavaScript inside your own browser tab and the CSV is generated there. Nothing is sent to a server.
Is it really free, and is there a file size limit?
Free, with no sign-up and no cap on how many files you convert. There's no hard file size limit either, since nothing leaves your browser, but a very large workbook is limited by your device's memory rather than any rule this tool enforces.

Going the other direction? Use CSV to Excel. Need objects instead of rows? Use Excel to JSON.

Before importing the CSV somewhere else, it is worth running it through CSV Cleaner and reading why CSV imports fail.

Not sure whether CSV or JSON is the right export? Read Excel to CSV vs Excel to JSON: which export should you use?