How to Convert a PDF to Excel on Windows

Yes, if you have Excel from a Microsoft 365 subscription. Excel doesn't open a PDF with File › Open, but its Power Query import can read the tables inside one: go to Data › Get Data › From File › From PDF, pick the file, and a Navigator window lists the tables and pages it found.

This is the best free option when you already pay for Microsoft 365 and the PDF was created digitally, for example exported from accounting software. It has limits you should know before you rely on it.

• Where it shines: tables with clear rows and columns come in cleanly, you can preview each one before loading, and Transform Data lets you clean them up in the Power Query editor.
• Scanned PDFs: a scan is a picture of the page, and the PDF import doesn't recognize text in pictures, so it finds nothing to import.
• Loose layouts: figures that are aligned with spaces rather than drawn as a table may be split into odd tables or missed, and you end up assembling the sheet by hand.

Copying a table from the PDF in Edge and pasting it into Excel is quick, but each line usually lands in a single cell, so you still have to split the columns yourself.

Word can open a PDF and rebuild it as a document, and a table it recognizes can be copied into Excel from there. It works on simple pages; on busy ones the conversion shifts the layout and tables can come apart.

Online PDF-to-Excel sites convert the file on their servers, which means uploading your statement or payroll list to a third party. Before you do, read what happens to files on online PDF tools.

File Acture's Convert Files tool works in both directions. Drop a PDF and choose Word, Excel or PowerPoint as the target; drop an Office file and it becomes a PDF. The Detected format line shows what the tool recognized from the file's contents.

For Excel, every page of the PDF becomes its own worksheet. The text of each line becomes a row and is split into cells by its position on the page, so columns in the PDF become columns in the sheet. The cells are written as text, which keeps long IDs and leading zeros as they were. Only the text comes across: logos, charts and photos in the PDF are not copied into the sheet.

The conversion runs on your PC and the PDF is never uploaded. The result is a new .xlsx file with the same name as the PDF, saved in the folder you choose, and the original stays unchanged. If you cancel or something fails, no half-written file is left behind. You can convert several PDFs at once, and password-protected PDFs, including AES-256 ones, open with their password.

Because the converted cells are text, Excel won't add up an amount column until you convert it. It takes a few seconds per column, and you choose which columns to convert, so account numbers and IDs can stay text.

Use whichever of these fits the sheet:

• Text to Columns: select one column, go to Data › Text to Columns and click Finish. Excel rereads the cells and turns the ones that look like numbers into numbers.
• Convert to Number: when cells show a small green triangle, select them, click the warning icon next to the selection and choose Convert to Number.
• Different decimal separator: if the PDF writes 1.234,56 and your Excel expects 1,234.56 (or the other way round), open Advanced in the last step of Text to Columns and set the decimal and thousands separators before clicking Finish.

The free version includes 3 runs on each PC with up to 5 files per run. Pro is a one-time purchase, and one license covers one PC; see pricing. Nothing leaves your PC during the conversion.

Need an editable document rather than a spreadsheet? See how to convert a PDF to Word on Windows. Comparing File Acture with web suites? Read the offline alternative to iLovePDF for Windows.