PDF to Excel
Pull tabular data out of a PDF and into a real spreadsheet. This tool reads the position of every piece of text on each page and reconstructs rows and columns based on that layout — text at the same height becomes a row, and wide gaps become column breaks. It's a genuine best-effort reconstruction, not true table detection, so it works best on simple, evenly-spaced tables; complex or merged-cell tables may need manual cleanup afterward.
- Free — no sign-up
- Private — runs in your browser
- Instant results
How to use the PDF to Excel
- 1Select a PDF. Choose the PDF containing the table or data you need.
- 2Convert to Excel. The tool analyzes text positions on every page in your browser.
- 3Download the .xlsx. Open it in Excel, Google Sheets, or Numbers and check the rows.
Frequently asked questions
Will it detect real tables with borders and merged cells?
It doesn't detect table grid lines or cell merges — those aren't stored as data in a PDF. It reconstructs rows and columns purely from text position, which works well on simple tables but can struggle with merged cells or nested tables.
What should I check after converting?
Spot-check that row and column counts match the original, especially for the first few rows — spacing-based column detection can occasionally merge or split columns on unusual layouts.
Does it work on scanned PDFs?
No — scanned PDFs have no positioned text to analyze, only an image. Run OCR PDF first, then convert the recognized text.
Learn more
Why PDFs don't actually contain tables, how position-based row/column reconstruction works, and how to check the result.
How to turn a spreadsheet into a clean, shareable PDF, including tips for wide sheets, hidden columns, and multi-sheet workbooks.