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How to convert XLSX to CSV in Google Sheets

Upload an Excel file to Google Drive, open it in Sheets and download each sheet as a CSV. Plus encoding, separator and size limits to know about.

Updated October 2026

Google Sheets is a handy way to convert XLSX to CSV if you don't have Excel. You upload the workbook, open it in Sheets and download the sheet as a CSV. It's free with any Google account and takes about a minute.

Convert XLSX to CSV with Google Sheets

1. Go to Google Drive and click New › File upload. Choose your .xlsx file.
2. When the upload finishes, double-click the file and open it with Google Sheets. You'll see an .XLSX badge next to the name. That's fine, you don't need to convert it to a Google Sheets file.
3. Click the tab of the sheet you want at the bottom of the screen.
4. Click File › Download › Comma Separated Values (.csv).

The file lands in your Downloads folder, named after the workbook and the sheet. Repeat steps 3 and 4 for each sheet you need, because Sheets downloads only the current one.

Already in Google Sheets? You can also bring an Excel file in with File › Import › Upload, then download it the same way.

Good to know

• Comma only. Google Sheets always uses commas between fields. If you need semicolons or tabs, use Tab-separated values (.tsv) from the same menu, or our converter, which lets you pick.
• UTF-8 without a BOM. The CSV keeps every character, but Excel may show accents as junk like é when you double-click it, because there's no BOM to tell Excel it's UTF-8. Here's the fix.
• Values as shown. Numbers and dates are written the way Sheets displays them. Your spreadsheet locale (File › Settings) decides the date order and decimal mark.
• Size limit. A Google spreadsheet can hold up to 10 million cells. Bigger workbooks won't open in Sheets.
• Privacy. Your file is now stored in Google Drive. If it holds personal data, delete it from Drive (and empty the trash) when you're done.

Get a CSV link for a Google Sheet

If a system needs to fetch the CSV from a URL, you can build an export link. Take the sheet's address, for example:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/SPREADSHEET_ID/edit#gid=SHEET_ID

and change the end so it reads:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/SPREADSHEET_ID/export?format=csv&gid=SHEET_ID

Anyone who can view the spreadsheet can download that sheet as a CSV from the link. If the file is private, the link only works when you're signed in. This works for native Google Sheets files, so convert the Excel file first with File › Save as Google Sheets.

A faster way for many sheets

Downloading sheets one at a time gets tedious. With xlsxtocsv.com you drop the .xlsx file onto the page and click Download all sheets to get every sheet as a CSV in one zip. Nothing is uploaded, not even to Google.