CSV -> TABLE · Local tool
CSV Viewer
Open a CSV file as a readable table, without a spreadsheet app.
Last updated
How do I open a CSV file without Excel?
Drop the file onto filetity's CSV viewer and it is drawn as a table in the browser tab. Nothing is uploaded and the file on disk is never modified. Every cell is shown as the text that was actually in the file, so leading zeros, long reference numbers and values like 3-4 are not silently converted into numbers or dates the way a spreadsheet converts them on import. Quoted fields containing commas or line breaks are read correctly, the separator is detected across comma, semicolon, tab and pipe and can be overridden, and the byte order mark Excel writes at the start of a file is stripped rather than appearing inside the first column name. Large files are parsed in full with the first few thousand rows drawn and the rest counted.
01 / Your device
the file stays here
02 / Browser memory
the work runs locally
03 / Back to you
saved on this device
When you would use this
Situations, not settings.
- A CSV on a machine with no spreadsheet installed
- A locked-down work laptop, a borrowed computer or a phone. The file opens as a table in the browser, with nothing to install and nothing uploaded.
- Checking an export before you trust it
- Row and column counts, the separator that was detected, and any rows that do not match the header, all before the file goes anywhere near a spreadsheet.
- Numbers that Excel keeps ruining
- Order references, postcodes and long IDs are shown as the text that is actually in the file. Nothing here turns 007123 into 7123 or reads 3-4 as a date.
How it works / no cloud
A conversion engine, not an upload form.
filetity reads the file off your disk with the browser's file reader and draws it as a table in the page. There is no upload and no spreadsheet engine: it is the same parser the CSV to JSON page uses, so quoted fields, embedded line breaks, semicolon and tab separators and the byte order mark Excel writes are all handled before a single cell is drawn.
- Offline ready
- Installable app
- No file limit queue
Straight answers
No accordion. Nothing hidden.
- Is it free?
- Yes, with no watermark and no page limit.
- Does it need an account?
- No. There is no account system.
- Is my file processed on my device?
- Yes. The file is read by your browser and never uploaded. There is no server to send it to.
- What formats are supported?
- CSV, TSV and semicolon or pipe separated text in. Shown as a table, with the parsed data available as JSON or as a cleaned CSV to download.
- What are the limits?
- The file is held in memory and the first few thousand rows are drawn, with the rest counted rather than rendered, because a browser drawing a hundred thousand table rows stops responding.
- Does it work on mobile?
- Yes, on any modern mobile browser. Large files are limited by the memory the phone gives the browser.
- Does it work offline?
- Yes, once the page has loaded. The tool keeps working with no network connection.
- Why not just open the CSV in Excel?
- Two reasons people arrive here. Excel mangles things on the way in: it turns 007123 into 7123, reads 3-4 as a date, and truncates at about a million rows. And it is not always installed, on a locked-down work laptop or a phone. This draws the file as it actually is, without interpreting any cell as a number or a date.
- Does it change my file?
- Not on disk, ever. The file is read and drawn, and nothing is written back over it. The download button hands you a new file containing what was parsed, which is useful when the original had a byte order mark or inconsistent line endings you want cleaned up, and it leaves the original exactly where it was.
- How big a file can it open?
- Tens of megabytes is comfortable on a desktop. The whole file is parsed but only the first few thousand rows are drawn as table cells, with the remainder counted in the header, because a browser asked to lay out a hundred thousand rows of a table will hang rather than scroll.
- Are leading zeros and long numbers preserved?
- Yes, because nothing here treats a cell as a number. Every value is the text that was in the file, so a postcode, a phone number, an order reference and a sixteen digit card number all survive intact. This is the single most common reason a CSV looks wrong after a trip through a spreadsheet.
- Can it open a file with an unusual separator?
- The separator is detected from the header line across comma, semicolon, tab and pipe, and if the guess is wrong you can set it by hand and the table redraws. Detection uses the header rather than the whole file, because a body row containing prose will happily out-vote the real separator.
Keep working locally
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