Excel to CSV

What the Excel to CSV Converter Does

The Excel to CSV Converter reads an .xlsx or .xls workbook and turns the selected sheet into plain CSV text. Upload a spreadsheet, pick the sheet if the workbook has more than one, choose the delimiter you need, and the CSV appears instantly. From there you can copy it to the clipboard or download it as a .csv file named after your original file.

The file never leaves your device. Parsing is done entirely in the browser with JavaScript, which matters when a spreadsheet contains customer lists, salaries, or other business data that should not be uploaded to a random server.

How to Convert Excel to CSV

1. Click the upload field and choose an .xlsx or .xls file.
2. If the workbook has multiple sheets, select the one you want from the Sheet dropdown.
3. Choose a delimiter: comma, semicolon, or tab.
4. Review the row and column count to confirm the right range was read.
5. Copy the CSV or download it as a file.

Choosing the Right Delimiter

A comma is the default for CSV files and works with most tools. Use a semicolon when your data contains many commas, which is common for addresses and product descriptions, and for locales where Excel expects semicolon separated values. Use a tab when you need tab separated values that paste cleanly into a spreadsheet grid. The converter quotes any value that contains the active delimiter, a quote character, or a line break, so the output stays valid whichever option you pick.

Working with Multiple Sheets

Excel workbooks can hold many sheets, and CSV files can only hold one table. The converter lists every sheet in the workbook so you can export them individually. Change the Sheet dropdown and the CSV output, row count, and column count update immediately. Repeat the copy or download step once per sheet when you need all of them as separate files.

Why Convert Excel to CSV?

• Import into databases and apps: most import wizards accept CSV but not XLSX.
• Smaller, simpler files: CSV is plain text with no formatting layers, macros, or formulas.
• Version control friendly: text diffs work on CSV, while binary XLSX files cannot be compared line by line.
• Tool compatibility: script languages and command line tools read CSV without extra libraries.

What Gets Preserved and What Does Not

The converter exports the displayed cell values: text, numbers, and dates. Formulas are replaced by their results, and formatting such as colors, fonts, merged cells, and charts is dropped, because CSV only stores rows and columns. Cells read as values rather than formulas, which is exactly what database imports expect. If you need to keep the formula markup for a spreadsheet program, export to Excel instead and save the workbook itself.

Related Tools

To tidy the exported data, the CSV Formatter validates and reformats it, and the CSV Viewer shows it as a table. Going the other way, the CSV to Excel Converter rebuilds a spreadsheet, the Excel to JSON tool exports the same workbook as JSON, and the JSON to CSV Converter handles API responses.