What exactly happens to formulas when I convert?

Each formula cell is replaced by its last-calculated result — the number or text Excel was displaying, not the formula expression itself. If you need the underlying formula preserved, keep the original XLSX; CSV has no mechanism for storing formulas at all.

I have a workbook with five tabs — what do I get?

Five separate CSV files, one per worksheet, each named using the original sheet tab name. CSV is a flat single-table format with no concept of multiple sheets, so there is no way to combine several tabs into one CSV without merging the data yourself first.

Will cell formatting like currency symbols or bold headers survive?

No — and this is expected. CSV stores only raw values as plain text, so a cell formatted to display "$1,204.50" is written as the underlying number, and bold, colors, borders, and conditional formatting are all discarded. If a destination system needs formatted currency strings rather than raw numbers, format the source cells as text before converting.

Are commas and quote characters inside a cell handled safely?

Yes. Any cell value containing a comma, a double quote, or a line break is automatically wrapped in double quotes and internal quotes are escaped, following the RFC 4180 CSV standard. This prevents a product description like "Widget, Blue, Large" from being split into three columns by mistake.

Can I convert an old .xls file, not just .xlsx?

Yes — both the legacy binary XLS format (Excel 97–2003) and the modern XLSX format are read with the same conversion quality, so you don't need to upgrade an old file to XLSX first.

Why would I want to throw away all my formatting on purpose?

Because the system receiving the file — a SQL database, a Python script, a CRM bulk-import tool, a payment gateway's reconciliation import — only understands plain rows of values. Formatting, formulas, and multiple sheets are meaningless to a database column, so stripping them out is exactly what those tools expect.

Are dates exported in a predictable format?

Dates are exported based on how Excel is currently displaying them in that cell. If you need a specific machine-readable format like ISO 8601 (YYYY-MM-DD), format the date column that way in Excel before exporting to avoid ambiguity on the receiving end.

Is there a practical size limit for the spreadsheet?

There's no hard limit built into the tool, but very large workbooks — tens of thousands of rows across multiple sheets — take longer to read and write since everything happens in your browser's memory rather than on a server.

Does my spreadsheet get uploaded anywhere during conversion?

No. SheetJS parses the workbook and writes the CSV output entirely inside your browser tab. Nothing is transmitted to a server, which matters if the spreadsheet contains customer records, payroll data, or other sensitive business information.

All ToolsExcel to CSV

Excel to CSV

Convert XLSX and XLS spreadsheets to CSV files. Each sheet is exported separately. Runs entirely in your browser.

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Excel to CSV

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Microsoft Excel spreadsheet

Your files never leave your device. All processing happens locally in your browser — nothing is uploaded to our servers.Files are never stored on our servers · No tracking of your file contentsPrivacy Policy

What is Excel to CSV?

Excel to CSV strips a spreadsheet down to its raw data — no fonts, no colors, no formulas, no charts, no merged cells — and writes it as plain comma-separated text. This is the opposite trade-off from converting the other direction: you are deliberately throwing away everything Excel added on top of the numbers, because the destination you're sending the file to (a database import, a script, an API) doesn't understand XLSX and never will. Most data pipelines outside the Microsoft ecosystem — PostgreSQL's COPY command, a Python pandas.read_csv() call, a bulk import screen in Salesforce or Mailchimp — expect flat rows of text, not a ZIP archive of XML parts describing cell styles and worksheet relationships.

The conversion is lossy by design, and understanding what gets dropped matters. Formulas are replaced by their last-calculated result — a cell showing =VLOOKUP(A2,Sheet2!A:B,2,0) becomes whatever value it evaluated to, with no way to recover the formula afterward. Cell formatting (currency symbols, date display formats, bold headers, conditional formatting colors) disappears entirely, since CSV has no concept of cell styling. Multiple worksheets in one workbook don't fit into a single CSV file either, since CSV is a flat, single-table format — a workbook with several tabs produces several separate CSV files, one per sheet.

This matters most to people building or feeding systems rather than just reading data: developers writing an import script, analysts loading a dataset into R or a BI tool, and ops teams pushing spreadsheet-based lead lists into a CRM that only accepts CSV uploads.

How It Works

Drop your XLSX or XLS file and SheetJS reads every worksheet's cell grid directly in your browser tab. For any cell containing a formula, the last-computed value is written out rather than the formula text. If the workbook contains more than one sheet, each is exported as its own .csv file named after the sheet, and all files download one after another. Values that would otherwise be ambiguous in plain text — commas or line breaks embedded inside a cell — are automatically wrapped in double quotes per the RFC 4180 CSV standard so nothing gets misread as an extra column when the file is opened elsewhere.

How to Use

1
Upload your Excel file
Drop an XLSX or XLS file onto the upload zone.
2
Select sheet
If the workbook has multiple sheets, choose which one to export as CSV.
3
Choose delimiter
Select comma, semicolon, or tab as the column separator in the output CSV.
4
Convert
Click "Convert to CSV". The sheet data is exported as a plain text CSV file.
5
Download
Save the .csv file to import into databases, data analysis tools, or other applications.

Who Uses This Tool

🗄️

Database Import

Export Excel data to CSV for direct import into SQL databases, PostgreSQL, or data warehouses.

🤖

Script Processing

Convert spreadsheets to CSV so Python, R, or Node.js scripts can read and process the data without Excel dependencies.

🔗

API Integration

Produce CSV output from Excel reports to feed into APIs, webhooks, or third-party data platforms.

📬

CRM Uploads

Convert contact or lead Excel spreadsheets to CSV for direct bulk import into Salesforce, HubSpot, or Mailchimp.

🔬

Research Sharing

Share research datasets as CSV files so collaborators using any programming language or tool can access the data.

💾

Lightweight Archiving

Export Excel sheets to CSV for a plain-text archive that remains readable without any spreadsheet application.

Why Choose This Tool

Per-Sheet Export

Each worksheet is exported as a separate named CSV file, keeping your data logically organized.

Calculated Values Exported

Formula results are written to CSV, not the formula strings, so downstream tools receive clean numeric values.

XLS and XLSX Support

Both the legacy XLS format and the modern XLSX format are supported with the same conversion quality.

RFC 4180 Compliance

Cells containing commas or quotes are automatically wrapped in double quotes following the CSV standard.

Browser-Only Processing

Your spreadsheet data is processed entirely in the browser by SheetJS — nothing is uploaded to any server.

Free to Start — Sign Up for More

Use free with no account for standard file sizes. Sign up free to raise your limit to 80 MB, or upgrade to Pro for 250 MB per file.

Also Try

CSV to Excel Excel to PDF XLS to XLSX JSON Formatter PDF to Excel ODS to Excel

Key Benefits

100% browser-based — your spreadsheet data never leaves your device
Each worksheet exported as its own correctly-named CSV file
Handles both modern XLSX and legacy XLS (Excel 97–2003) formats
Formula results exported as computed values, ready for downstream tools
RFC 4180-safe quoting for commas, quotes, and line breaks inside cells
Free up to 40 MB — sign up free for 80 MB, upgrade to Pro for 250 MB

Frequently Asked Questions

Also Known As

excel to csv converter free onlineconvert xlsx spreadsheet to csvexcel to csv browser based no uploadexport excel sheet as csv freexlsx to csv per sheet exportconvert excel file to comma separated valuesexcel to csv free no install

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