Convert a PDF to Excel with editable tables

Updated on October 17, 2026

You have a PDF with a table in it: a list of invoices, a sales report, a price list or a list of grades. You want the figures in a spreadsheet to sort, filter or add them up, without typing everything over. Here is how to convert a PDF to an editable Excel file in your browser, and what to check afterwards.

How it works

1. Open PDF to Excel and choose your PDF. You can add several PDFs at once.
2. Choose the layout. One sheet per page keeps every page on its own sheet. Everything on one sheet puts all pages under each other, with an empty row in between.
3. Click Convert to Excel. Is the PDF protected with a password? The tool asks for it, and the password stays in your browser.
4. Download the .xlsx file. It gets the name of your PDF: report.pdf becomes report.xlsx. Several PDFs give one Excel file each, together in one zip.

The file opens in Microsoft Excel, LibreOffice Calc, Apple Numbers and Google Sheets.

Which PDFs convert well?

A PDF made on a computer contains real text: an invoice from accounting software, a report saved as PDF, an export from a web shop or a school platform. Try to select a number with your mouse. If you can, the tool can read it.

The tool finds tables by their lines, cell backgrounds and columns that line up. Amounts, percentages and numbers with a thousands separator become real numbers, so formulas and filters work. In tables with lines, merged cells stay merged. Text outside the tables comes along line by line, in the order of the page. Page numbers are left out, and a line that comes back at the top or bottom of at least half of the pages is kept only the first time.

Where it stops

• Scans and photos. A scanned page is a picture without a text layer, so there is nothing to put in cells. The tool tells you so instead of giving you an empty sheet. This tool does no text recognition (OCR) itself: you first need a text layer, which OCR PDF adds in your browser.
• Tables that are a picture. A screenshot of a table inside a PDF can’t be read either, even when the rest of the page can.
• Headings over several columns in a table without lines. Those aren’t merged. Check them, and merge or move them yourself where needed.
• Complex layouts. Columns without lines, or a table that continues on the next page, can shift rows. Check the first and last rows of every page.

Tidy up the result

• Numbers that stay text. Codes with a leading zero (0475), numbers longer than 15 digits (account numbers) and numbers that can be read two ways (1.500 in a document without other decimals) stay text on purpose, so no digit or value gets lost. Need such a cell as a number? In Excel, click the green triangle next to it and choose Convert to Number.
• Comma or dot. The tool decides once per document which mark is the decimal mark, from the numbers that can only be read one way. Real numbers then show in your own settings: with Belgian or French settings, you see a decimal comma. Is an amount still text? In Excel, use Data › Text to Columns and set the decimal and thousands separators under Advanced in the last step.
• Dates stay text. To sort or calculate with them, select the column, open Text to Columns and choose Date: DMY in the last step. LibreOffice Calc has the same choice under Data › Text to Columns.
• Two values in one cell? Split the column with Text to Columns in Excel or LibreOffice, or with Data › Split text to columns in Google Sheets.

Bank statements

For bank statements there is a separate guide, with checks for the balance, debit and credit: Bank statement or invoice from PDF to Excel.

Why not upload it?

Tables often hold exactly the data you’d rather keep to yourself: turnover, salaries, client lists, grades. With PDFCommunity, the conversion runs in your own browser and your PDF isn’t uploaded. You can check that in your browser’s network tab; Check it yourself shows how.

The other way round: Excel to PDF

This site has no tool for that, and you don’t need one. In Excel, choose File › Save As and pick PDF as the file type. In LibreOffice Calc, choose Export as PDF in the File menu; in Google Sheets, File › Download › PDF. You can then merge or compress the PDF here.

Frequently asked questions