PDF to Excel
Turn the tables in a PDF into a real spreadsheet. The converter reads the position of every piece of text, rebuilds rows and columns, turns figures like $1,234.50 or 12.5% into numbers, and lets you check each sheet before you download XLSX or CSV. Your file never leaves your device.
Your spreadsheet preview appears here: one tab per worksheet, with columns A, B, C… exactly as they will be saved.
How to use the PDF to Excel
- Open your PDF by dropping it into the box or clicking to choose it. Extraction starts right away.
- Pick what to extract: Tables only keeps the rows that have several columns, All text keeps the whole page layout.
- Check the preview. Each tab is one worksheet. If two columns are merged or one is split, change Column detection.
- Limit pages if you only need part of the document, for example 2-4.
- Download Excel (.xlsx), download a CSV of the current sheet, or press Copy table and paste into any spreadsheet.
How PDF table extraction works
A PDF page has no idea what a “table” is. It only says: draw the text North America at x = 72 pt, y = 640 pt, draw $1,234,567.50 at x = 237 pt, and so on. Turning that back into rows and columns takes three steps:
- Rows. Text pieces whose baselines are within about half a line height of each other form one row, read left to right.
- Cells. Inside a row, a horizontal gap wider than the Column detection setting (about 0.9 times the font size on Normal) starts a new cell. Normal word spaces are much narrower, roughly 0.25 to 0.35 of the font size.
- Columns. The cells of all rows are projected onto the horizontal axis. Vertical strips that no cell touches are the gutters between columns, and each cell is placed in the column its center falls into.
Because columns come from shared white space rather than from the first row, right-aligned figures, empty cells and short labels all end up in the right place.
Which mode to use
| Your PDF | Best settings |
|---|---|
| Report with a few tables between paragraphs | Tables only, one sheet per page |
| Bank or credit card statement over many pages | Tables only, all pages in one sheet |
| Price list, timetable or form where every line matters | All text (keep page layout) |
| Dense table with narrow gaps between columns | Column detection: Fine |
| Table with long descriptions that contain wide spaces | Column detection: Wide |
Tips for a clean spreadsheet
- Cells whose text wraps onto a second line inside the PDF become an extra row. Merge them in Excel, or fix them before you sort.
- Numbers in parentheses are treated as negative, as in accounting: (4.1%) becomes -0.041 shown as (4.1%).
- European number formats such as 1.234,50 are kept as text so they are never misread. Use Excel's Text to Columns with the right locale to convert them.
- Need the text instead of a table? Use PDF to Text or PDF to Word.
Frequently asked questions
How do I convert a PDF table to Excel for free?
Open the PDF on this page and the tables are extracted automatically. Check the preview, then press Download Excel (.xlsx). Everything runs in your browser, so there is no upload, no account and no watermark.
How does the tool find the columns of a table?
A PDF does not store tables, only pieces of text at exact positions. The converter groups text that shares a baseline into rows, splits a row wherever there is a wide horizontal gap, and then looks for vertical strips of white space shared by the rows. Those strips become the column boundaries, so left-aligned text and right-aligned numbers both land in the right column.
Why are two columns merged or one column split in two?
Very tight tables can have gaps smaller than the space between words, and very loose tables can have wide gaps inside one cell. Change Column detection to Fine to split on narrower gaps, or to Wide to split only on large gaps. The preview updates instantly.
Will numbers be real numbers in Excel?
Yes, when Convert numbers is on. Values such as 1,234.50, $99.95, 12.5% and (4.1%) are stored as numbers with a matching number format, so you can sum and sort them. Values with leading zeros, like ZIP codes or IDs such as 00123, are kept as text so the zeros are not lost.
Can I convert a scanned PDF to Excel?
Not directly. A scanned PDF is a picture of a page with no text layer, so there is nothing to read positions from. Run it through OCR first, for example with an image to text tool, and then convert the result.
What is the difference between XLSX and CSV?
XLSX is a full Excel workbook: it keeps one worksheet per page, number formats and column widths. CSV is plain text with commas between values, holds one sheet only and opens in any spreadsheet app or database tool.
Is my PDF uploaded to a server?
No. The PDF is opened with the pdf.js library inside your browser and the spreadsheet is created on your device. Nothing is sent anywhere, which makes it safe for bank statements, invoices and other private documents.