Guide
How to convert Excel to CSV
Drop the workbook on Anyfile’s Excel to CSV page: a workbook with one sheet downloads as one CSV, and one with several as a ZIP holding a CSV for each sheet. To save just one sheet, open the workbook in the spreadsheet editor and choose CSV when you download.
Step by step
Open Excel to CSV
Go to Excel to CSV. It takes .xlsx, .xls and .xlsb workbooks, and OpenDocument .ods ones too.
Drop the workbook
Drag it onto the drop card, or click Choose files. Formulas are worked out as the workbook opens, so each CSV holds their results.
Unzip the sheets
When the card says Converted to CSV, the file is in your Downloads folder. A workbook with several sheets arrives as one ZIP named after it, with a CSV per sheet named after the workbook and the sheet.
Or save just one sheet
Open the workbook in the spreadsheet editor and click the sheet’s tab. Open the arrow next to Download, set Format to CSV (.csv), values only and Sheets to This sheet, then press Download.
CSV is plain text, so it holds values only: formulas become their results, and fonts, colours, borders and merged cells are dropped, which the download tells you. Dates and times are written as they show in the sheet; other numbers are written in full, without currency signs or thousands separators, so a database or script reads them as numbers.
Each CSV is UTF-8, with commas between values and Windows line endings, which is what most databases, mailing tools and programming languages expect. Values containing commas, quotes or line breaks are quoted properly.
Nothing is uploaded: your browser reads the file and makes the new one on your device. See how it works, and how to check.
Other ways to do it
In Excel. File › Save As and choose CSV UTF-8 (Comma delimited). Excel saves only the sheet you’re on, so a workbook with ten sheets means ten saves.
Google Sheets. Open the file from Drive, then File › Download › Comma Separated Values. It saves the current sheet only, and the workbook is uploaded to Google first.
Numbers and LibreOffice. Numbers on a Mac exports from File › Export To › CSV, and can write every table at once. LibreOffice Calc saves the current sheet as Text CSV.
When Anyfile is quicker
For one sheet of a workbook already open in Excel, Save As is quickest. Anyfile is quicker for a workbook with many sheets, since every one comes out in one go, and when you don’t have Excel, or need an old .xls or .xlsb turned into something a script can read.
Questions
Why do accented letters look wrong when I open the CSV in Excel?
Some versions of Excel guess the wrong encoding when you double-click a UTF-8 CSV. Open it from Data › From Text/CSV and choose UTF-8, and they show properly.
Are formulas kept?
No. CSV holds values only, so each cell has its formula’s result. Keep the workbook for the formulas.
Can I get tabs instead of commas?
Yes. In the spreadsheet editor, choose TSV (.tsv), values only as the Format. Tab-separated files paste cleanly into most apps.
Is my workbook uploaded?
No. It’s converted in your browser, on your device, and never sent to a server.