Step 1: Submit your PDF files using the button above or by pull and release.
Step 2: Click the 'Transform' button to start the transformation.
Step 3: Save your converted CSV files.
PDF to CSV Transformation FAQ
What do I get back when I convert PDF to CSV?
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You get CSV output holding the tables that were in your PDF, and nothing else. The tool extracts tabular data; it does not reproduce the document. Paragraphs, headings and pictures are not part of the output by design.
My PDF has no tables - will this still work?
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No, and that is deliberate. Converting a document to a spreadsheet extracts its tables, so PDF files without a single table have nothing to extract. The conversion stops with an explicit message rather than handing you an empty CSV and reporting success.
Where did the body text of my PDF go?
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It was never part of this conversion. Only the tables are extracted into the CSV. To keep the writing, run the PDF through a document conversion - DOCX, ODT or TXT - rather than a spreadsheet target.
What counts as a table in my PDF?
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For a Word source, anything Word itself treats as a table. For a PDF source, a region of the page whose ruled lines or column alignment identify it as tabular - PDFs carry no table markup, so the structure has to be recovered from the layout.
Can it handle PDF files with many tables?
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Yes. Each table found anywhere in the PDF is collected into the CSV. There is no limit on the number of tables, only on the size of the resulting spreadsheet.
Does the PDF to CSV converter run OCR?
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Not on this path. It reads the text layer of the PDF; if that layer is missing - as in a photographed or scanned page - there is nothing to extract. Convert the scan to a searchable document first, then come back for the CSV.
Do merged cells and formatting survive PDF to CSV?
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Cell values and the row-and-column grid are what carry across. Visual styling - fonts, fills, borders - is not reproduced, and a merged cell is flattened into the grid, because the output is data rather than a picture of the original table.
My tables are huge - which target should I pick?
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XLSX, unless you specifically need the legacy format. A .xls file cannot hold more than 256 columns or 65,536 rows, and you will get an explicit message when a table is too wide or too tall for it. XLSX carries roughly a million rows, and CSV has no structural limit at all.
Is CSV the right target for my PDF?
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It is if the PDF is mostly tables and you intend to work with the values. It is not if you want to read or edit the document, in which case DOCX, ODT, RTF or TXT is the conversion you are looking for.
Is the PDF to CSV table extraction free?
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Yes - extracting tables from your PDF into CSV is free with no account. A paid plan lifts the per-file size limit, runs more conversions in parallel and removes ads.
Does batch conversion work for PDF to CSV?
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It does. Multiple PDF files are queued together and each yields a separate CSV. Any file that turns out to contain no tables is flagged on its own rather than quietly returning an empty sheet.
What happens to my PDF after the CSV is generated?
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It is deleted. Conversions run in isolated workers and both the uploaded PDF and the produced CSV are removed within minutes; no human sees the contents. Details are at /privacy/.
