PDF to CSV: Turn PDF Tables Into Spreadsheet Rows

A price list, statement or report in a PDF is easy to read and slow to reuse, because copying cells by hand loses rows and invites typos. Converting PDF to CSV puts the values into plain text rows that any spreadsheet opens. This converter reads the text of every page and writes the rows that look like a table into one CSV file.

How to convert a PDF to CSV

It takes one PDF at a time, up to 25 MB.

1. Pick the PDF with the table you need, or drag it into the upload area.
2. Click Extract Tables to CSV.
3. Download the CSV and open it in Excel, Google Sheets or LibreOffice Calc.

The CSV keeps your PDF's name, so statement.pdf becomes statement.csv. Our three-row test table came back as exactly these three lines:

Name,Age,City
Ada,36,London
Lin,29,Taipei

How the converter turns PDF text into CSV rows

A PDF doesn't store a table as cells. It stores bits of text at positions on the page, and the converter works from those positions.

Text pieces within 4 points of a row's first piece (measured on the page as it's displayed) form one row, read left to right, and each piece becomes a cell. Rows with only one piece of text get dropped, which takes care of most headings and paragraph lines.

All the rows that are left, from every page, go into one file from top to bottom. Cells with a comma, a quotation mark or a line break in them are quoted, and quotation marks inside get doubled, as RFC 4180, the common definition of the CSV format, describes.

Why columns can shift, and how to check the CSV

An empty cell in the PDF table leaves no text behind, so it isn't written as an empty field. In a row with a blank cell, everything after it slides one column to the left.

A cell the PDF stores in two pieces (say, a bold label followed by a normal value) can also turn into two cells. Compare a few rows with the original page, especially totals and dates.

Long reports often repeat their header row on every page, and you'll get those repeats in the CSV too. Delete them in your spreadsheet once you've checked where each page starts.

Accents, euro signs and decimal commas

The CSV is UTF-8 without a byte order mark, comma separated, with plain line feeds between rows. We checked the bytes in October 2026 with a table holding Zürich, Café Müller, € 12,50 and 1.234,50.

Every character made it through. The two amounts with a decimal comma were put in quotes, as "€ 12,50" and "1.234,50", so each stays one field. If your spreadsheet shows odd characters or crams each row into one column, import the file and pick UTF-8 and comma yourself.

PDF to CSV or Extract PDF Tables?

Our Extract PDF Tables tool writes a CSV too, and both read the page with the same code, so you get the same file. Only the size limit and the way the file comes back differ.

In October 2026 we ran a two-page sample statement through both. Its second page was stored portrait and turned to landscape with a rotation setting.

Both tools returned the same 459 B CSV, and the five rows of the rotated page came out the right way round, just like the first page's. So choose by size: this converter up to 25 MB, Extract PDF Tables for anything bigger.

Bank statement PDF to CSV for QuickBooks, Xero or Wave

Bank statements are the most common reason people convert a PDF to CSV, and accounting software is fussy about the columns it imports. Our guides walk you through it: how to convert a PDF bank statement to CSV for QuickBooks and how to convert a PDF bank statement to CSV for Xero or Wave.

Check the dates, the minus signs and the decimal separators before you import. One wrong sign throws off the whole reconciliation.

Scanned PDFs, passwords and other limits

The converter needs text you can select. A scanned statement is a picture of text, so you'll get the message that no table data could be found; make it searchable with our OCR PDF tool first.

A PDF that asks for a password when you open it can't be read either. Take the password off with one of our PDF security tools, then convert the copy.

Want a workbook rather than plain text? PDF to Excel writes an .xlsx file, and CSV to PDF turns a finished CSV back into a readable document.

What happened when we tested PDF to CSV

We uploaded pdf-table-extract.pdf, a small one-page test file of 930 B. There were no options to set.

The conversion took 0.1 seconds on our test server, and the download, pdf-table-extract.csv, was 41 B. Tested in October 2026.

The CSV is built on our server and sent straight back to you. The uploaded PDF gets deleted automatically within two hours.

Frequently Asked Questions About PDF to CSV

Can I convert any PDF to CSV?

Any PDF with selectable text and rows that look like a table. Scans need OCR first, and a PDF that needs a password to open has to be unlocked.

Will the converter keep the PDF's formatting?

No. CSV is plain text, so fonts, colors, merged cells and page layout don't come along. You keep the text values and their row order.

Can I open the CSV in Excel or Google Sheets?

Yes. If accented letters look wrong in Excel, import the file with UTF-8 as the encoding and comma as the delimiter rather than double-clicking it.

Does it convert every page?

Yes. It reads every page and keeps each row with two or more pieces of text, all in one CSV file.

Why are some values in the wrong column?

Blank cells in the PDF aren't written as empty fields, so the later values in that row move left. Fix those rows in your spreadsheet.

Is PDF to CSV free?

Yes. It costs nothing and you don't need an account.