How to open an .xls or .xlsx file without Excel
No Excel on this computer? Here are the free ways to open a spreadsheet and how to get the data out of an old .xls file in a form anything can read.
Someone sends you a spreadsheet and the computer in front of you doesn’t have Excel. Or you have a report from an old system that only exports .xls and you need the numbers in something else. Neither needs Excel.
If you just want to look at it
Google Sheets opens .xls and .xlsx files uploaded to Google Drive and it is free with a Google account. LibreOffice Calc is a free desktop spreadsheet program that opens both formats, including very old ones. Numbers on a Mac opens Excel files directly. Excel for the web, free with a Microsoft account, can usually open them too once they’re in OneDrive.
All of these either upload the file somewhere or ask you to install something. For a quick look at a file you would rather keep on your own machine, that is worth knowing.
If you want the data
Most of the time the goal isn’t to look at the spreadsheet but to get its data into something else: a database, a mailing tool, a script, a different spreadsheet. The universal format for that is CSV, plain text with one row per line.
Excel to CSV reads the workbook in your browser, shows each sheet so you can check it and gives you a CSV for one sheet or a zip with every sheet. It reads the old binary .xls format as well as .xlsx, which matters because old systems are exactly the ones still producing .xls files. Hidden sheets are listed and marked, since they’re often where the lookup tables are.
Values as shown or values as stored
A spreadsheet cell has two versions of its value: what it stores, such as 1234.5 and what it shows, such as $1,234.50. When you convert, choose which one you want. The displayed value is right when a person will read the CSV. The stored value, at full precision, is right when another program will read it, because formatted numbers with currency signs and thousands separators often fail to import.
When the file won’t open at all
A surprising number of files named .xls aren’t Excel files. Some systems export an HTML table or a tab-separated text file and give it an .xls name so that Excel will open it. Other programs then refuse it. The file type checker reads the start of the file and tells you what it really is and a file that turns out to be CSV can be opened as one directly.
If the file really is a workbook and still fails, it may be password protected. That has to be removed in Excel, by someone who knows the password.
Common questions
What is the difference between .xls and .xlsx?
.xls is the binary format Excel used until 2007. .xlsx is the newer format, which is actually a zip of XML files. Modern software reads both, but some web tools and older systems only accept one or the other.
Will I lose formulas if I convert to CSV?
Yes. A CSV holds values only, so each formula cell becomes the result Excel last calculated. If you need the formulas, open the file in a spreadsheet program instead of converting it.
Why does the file open with strange characters?
Usually because it isn’t really an Excel file. Some systems export a CSV or an HTML table and name it .xls. The file type checker on this site reads the file's first bytes and tells you what it really is.
Is it safe to open an .xls from an email?
Old Office files can contain macros, which is how a lot of malware has historically spread. Opening a file in a browser-based viewer or converting it to CSV doesn’t run macros. Be cautious with any attachment you weren’t expecting.