XLS to CSV Converter

Turn old Excel 97–2003 .xls files into clean CSV, right in your browser. No Excel needed and nothing is uploaded.

  • Excel 95 to 2003 files
  • All sheets in one go
  • Protected files unlocked locally
  • Files never uploaded
No upload. No sign-up. No file size cap.

Your files are converted on your own device. Nothing is uploaded, stored or seen by us.

How it works

How to convert XLS to CSV

  1. Add your .xls file

    Drag it onto the box above, or click Choose files. Several files at once are fine.

  2. Check the preview

    Click through the sheet tabs. Dates, money and leading zeros look the way they do in Excel.

  3. Download the CSV

    Save one sheet, or every sheet at once as a zip. Each CSV is named after its sheet.

About the format

What is an XLS file?

XLS is the binary format Excel used from Excel 97 through Excel 2003. Excel 2007 switched to .xlsx, but plenty of banks, accounting packages and older business systems still export .xls, and many archives are full of them.

An .xls sheet holds up to 65,536 rows and 256 columns, so very large exports from those systems are often split across several sheets. That makes the Download all sheets button especially useful here.

Files other converters choke on

  • “.xls” files that aren't really .xls. Many systems save a web page table, an Excel 2003 XML file or a plain CSV with an .xls name. Excel warns that “the file format and extension don't match”. This converter checks what's actually inside and reads it either way.
  • Protected workbooks. Files locked with Excel's built-in protection open on their own. If a file needs a password, type it in, and it's unlocked on your computer.
  • Excel 95 files and other languages. Older files store text in a regional code page (Cyrillic, Greek, Central European and others). The converter reads the file's code page, so the text comes out right in UTF-8.

Prefer to use Excel?

Open the .xls file, click the sheet you want, then choose File › Save As and pick CSV UTF-8 (Comma delimited). Excel saves one sheet at a time. Our Excel guide has the details and a macro for every sheet.

FAQ

Questions

Can it open .xls files from Excel 95?

Yes. It reads files from Excel 95 (BIFF5) and Excel 97–2003 (BIFF8), including text stored in regional code pages. Files from Excel 4 and earlier are too old. Open those in Excel or LibreOffice and save them as .xlsx first.

Google Sheets won't open my .xls file. Will this?

Probably. Google Sheets only imports .xls files newer than Office 95, and it rejects password-protected files. This converter reads both.

Excel says the file format and extension don't match. Can I still convert it?

Yes. That warning usually means the file is really a web page table, an Excel 2003 XML file or a CSV with an .xls name. The converter detects the real format and converts it, and tells you what it found.

Is anything lost when converting XLS to CSV?

Formatting, formulas, charts and extra sheets can't live in a CSV, so they're left out. The values are kept exactly as Excel displays them. Use Download all sheets to get every sheet as its own CSV.

Is my .xls file uploaded?

No. The conversion runs in your browser tab, so the file never leaves your computer.