Open an Excel (.xlsx) file without Excel
Someone sent you an .xlsx and you don’t have Excel on this machine — or you have it, but a 40-second cold start for a ten-second look feels absurd. Drop the workbook here instead: pick the sheet, read it as a fast table, search and filter it, and export to CSV if you need the data somewhere else. The workbook is parsed entirely in your browser; it is never uploaded.
The conversion is done carefully, because .xlsx is sneakier than it looks: dates are stored as serial numbers (45292, not “2024-01-01”), text can live in a shared string table, and the format has two different date epochs. This viewer decodes all of that — dates render as readable dates, TRUE/FALSE come out as booleans, and ZIP codes with leading zeros stay text instead of becoming numbers.
Drop a CSV, TSV or Excel file here
.csv · .tsv · .txt · .csv.gz · .xlsx — files up to 4 GB open here, in your browser. Nothing is uploaded; the file is read in place on your device.
Filters combine with AND. Use the search box for a quick any-column match. Regex filters use JavaScript syntax.
Untick to hide a column (hidden columns are left out of exports). Type to rename — renames apply to exports too.
Exports include your filters, sort, edits and cleanups. Hidden columns are left out; renamed headers apply. The file is generated on your device — nothing is sent anywhere.
How it works
- Drop the .xlsx file. The sheet list appears in the toolbar — pick the one you need.
- Read, search, filter and sort it like any table.
- Switch sheets any time; each loads fresh.
- Export the sheet as CSV, JSON or a cleaned-up .xlsx.
What .xlsx actually is (and why some viewers get it wrong)
An .xlsx file is a ZIP archive of XML parts: one for the workbook structure, one per sheet, one for shared strings, one for styles. Cheap viewers unzip it and dump raw cell values — which is how you end up staring at 45292 where a date should be, since Excel stores dates as “days since January 1900” (or 1904 for workbooks with Mac ancestry — yes, both exist, and this viewer honors the flag). Number formatting lives in the styles part, so telling a date apart from a plain number requires actually reading the styles — which we do.
Formulas are the one honest limitation: .xlsx stores each formula and its last computed value. This viewer shows the stored value and doesn’t recalculate — for reading data that’s exactly what you want; for auditing formulas you need a real spreadsheet.
Good to know
- Multi-sheet workbooks: the toolbar’s sheet dropdown switches between them — each sheet exports separately.
- Password-protected workbooks are encrypted and can’t be opened here — remove the protection in a spreadsheet app first.
- Old .xls (pre-2007 binary) files aren’t supported — save them as .xlsx or .csv first.
Frequently asked questions
Do dates come out correctly?
Yes. Excel stores dates as serial numbers and marks them as dates via number-format styles; this viewer reads the styles and converts the serials — including the historical oddities (the phantom Feb 29, 1900 that Excel inherited from Lotus 1-2-3, and the alternate 1904 epoch some Mac-born workbooks use).
Why does my other converter show numbers like 45292 instead of dates?
It skipped the styles part of the workbook. 45292 is a raw date serial; without reading styles there’s no way to know that cell was date-formatted. If you see serials in this viewer, that column genuinely wasn’t formatted as a date in the workbook.
Can it open .xls or .numbers files?
No — only modern .xlsx. The old binary .xls format and Apple Numbers files need their own apps (or LibreOffice, free) to convert to .xlsx or CSV first.
Is the workbook uploaded to convert it?
No — the ZIP is unpacked and the XML parsed by JavaScript running in your browser. Airplane mode works: load the page, go offline, then open the workbook.