Do You Need Text Recognition? Recognize text

PDF to XLS Converter

Extract PDF data into XLS spreadsheets — free online

Drop files here. 1 GB maximum file size or Sign Up
to
Facebook Amazon Microsoft Tesla Nestle Walmart L'Oreal

Data Liberation

Unlock numbers trapped in PDF reports and invoices. The XLS output gives you live spreadsheet cells you can sort, filter, and graph.

Any Device, Any OS

Convert PDF to XLS from your phone, tablet, laptop, or desktop. Convertio runs in the browser on every platform.

Secure Handling

Financial PDFs often contain sensitive data. Uploaded files are deleted after conversion and results are purged within 24 hours.

How to convert PDF to XLS

1

Select files from Computer, Google Drive, Dropbox, URL or by dragging it on the page.

2

Choose xls or any other format you need as a result (more than 200 formats supported)

3

Let the file convert and you can download your xls file right afterwards

About formats

PDF (Portable Document Format) was developed by Adobe Systems, co-founded by John Warnock and Charles Geschke, with the first version released on June 15, 1993. Built on a simplified PostScript imaging model, PDF encapsulates complete document descriptions — text with fonts, vector graphics, raster images, and interactive elements — in a self-contained file that renders identically across every platform, device, and printer. The format evolved through multiple versions, culminating in its adoption as international standard ISO 32000-1 in 2008 (PDF 1.7) and ISO 32000-2 in 2017 (PDF 2.0), ensuring long-term vendor independence. PDF supports an extraordinary range of capabilities: digital signatures, form fields, annotations, bookmarks, accessibility tags, encryption, JavaScript, multimedia embedding, 3D content, and archival-specific profiles (PDF/A). One advantage is absolute visual fidelity — a PDF document looks exactly the same whether opened on Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, or Android, printed on any printer, or viewed decades after creation. Universal software support is another core strength: PDF viewers are built into every major operating system and web browser, and the format is read by hundreds of applications worldwide. Specialized ISO profiles like PDF/A (archival), PDF/X (print production), and PDF/UA (accessibility) extend the format's reach into regulated industries. PDF has become the global standard for document exchange in business, government, legal, academic, and publishing contexts.
Developer: Adobe Systems
Initial release: June 15, 1993
XLS is the binary spreadsheet format of Microsoft Excel, first introduced with Excel 1.0 for Macintosh in September 1985 and becoming the dominant spreadsheet format worldwide. The format stores workbooks as OLE2 compound document files using the Binary Interchange File Format (BIFF), organizing sheets, cells, formulas, formatting, charts, pivot tables, macros, and metadata across multiple internal streams. Each cell record encodes the cell's value (number, string, boolean, error, or formula), position, and formatting index, while shared string tables and style records reduce redundancy. The format evolved through BIFF versions (BIFF2 through BIFF8), with BIFF8 (Excel 97) establishing the structure used through Excel 2003. XLS supports up to 65,536 rows and 256 columns per sheet, a limit that drove the creation of XLSX. One advantage is universal spreadsheet compatibility — XLS files are recognized by every major spreadsheet application including LibreOffice Calc, Google Sheets, Apple Numbers, and dozens of programming libraries across all platforms. The format's mature feature set is another strength: XLS handles complex formulas, conditional formatting, data validation, named ranges, array formulas, external references, and VBA macros. Although XLSX replaced XLS as the default in Office 2007, the binary format persists in financial institutions, legacy reporting systems, and any environment where Excel 97-2003 compatibility is required.
Developer: Microsoft
Initial release: September 1985

Frequently Asked Questions

Why convert PDF to XLS?

XLS puts your PDF data into spreadsheet cells — enabling formulas, pivot tables, charts, and all the analysis tools Excel provides.

What opens an XLS file?

Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets, LibreOffice Calc, Apple Numbers, and WPS Spreadsheets all open XLS files without issues.

Does it handle invoices and reports?

Yes — PDF invoices, financial reports, and data tables convert well. Structured tabular content translates cleanly into XLS rows.

Can I convert several PDFs at once?

Convertio supports batch uploads — add multiple PDFs and convert them all to XLS in a single session.

Is PDF to XLS really free?

Free conversion is available for standard use. Premium plans provide higher capacity for business and bulk data extraction.

Will charts from the PDF appear in XLS?

Charts in PDFs are images, not live data. The conversion extracts underlying text and table data, not graphical chart objects.

PDF to XLS Quality Rating

4.0 (90,140 votes)
You need to convert and download at least 1 file to provide feedback!