Software to Convert PDF to Excel: Desktop and App Options

Quick Answer: For most people the best PDF to Excel software is Excel itself, through Data > Get Data > From PDF on Windows. If you need more, Able2Extract Professional gives the finest table control with a one-time licence, Foxit PDF Editor is the cheapest full PDF editor with a perpetual option, and Acrobat Pro and Nitro suit teams that already live in those ecosystems. All four work offline once installed.

Installable PDF to Excel software falls into two groups: full PDF editors that include an Excel export (Acrobat Pro, Foxit PDF Editor, Nitro PDF Pro) and dedicated converters built around table extraction (Able2Extract). Excel on Windows also reads PDFs natively. The right pick depends on whether you need offline use, OCR for scans, precise control over columns, or simply a one-time price.

Which PDF to Excel programs are worth considering?

Figures below come from each vendor's own site on 2026-10-26. Where a vendor's page did not display a price, the table says so rather than guessing.

Sources: Foxit PDF Editor, Nitro pricing, Investintech, Acrobat plans.

What is the best free software to convert PDF to Excel?

If you pay for Microsoft 365 on Windows, it is Excel. Data > Get Data > From File > From PDF opens a Navigator that lists the tables Power Query found in the document; you tick the ones you want and load them or clean them first. It runs offline, has no page quota and keeps a refreshable link to the PDF. Microsoft's Power Query PDF connector page documents the options, including page ranges for long files.

Beyond Excel, "free download" PDF to Excel software is almost always a trial. Foxit and Nitro give 14 days without a card. Able2Extract's trial lasts seven days and, after one full conversion, limits you to three pages per PDF. Acrobat Pro's trial is seven days. Freeware that claims full conversion with no limits is worth treating with caution; installers bundling adware are a long-standing problem in this category, so download only from the vendor's own site.

How do the paid programs differ in practice?

Adobe Acrobat Pro

Acrobat's Export PDF tool converts to a Microsoft Excel Workbook and, according to Adobe's how-to page, runs text recognition automatically when the PDF is a scan. You can also select just the data you need on the page. It is the reference product many organisations standardise on, and its subscription includes editing, signing and cloud storage. If you only want Excel export, you are paying for a lot you will not use. Our walkthrough of Acrobat Pro's Excel export covers its settings.

Foxit PDF Editor

Foxit lists PDF to Excel conversion and OCR in its core editor, sells an annual plan and, unusually now, a perpetual licence for Windows and macOS. If you dislike subscriptions and want a full editor, this is the simplest answer. The Editor+ tier adds iOS and Android apps. See our Foxit conversion guide for the menu steps.

Nitro PDF Pro

Nitro's Standard plan includes batch OCR and what it calls Table and Form Extract. It runs natively on Windows and Mac, with an iOS app. Prices are quoted at checkout. Nitro suits offices that convert and edit many documents and want volume licensing. Our Nitro PDF to Excel guide has the details.

Able2Extract Professional

Able2Extract is the specialist. Instead of exporting a whole page and hoping, you draw a selection around the table, adjust the column and row lines the engine proposes, preview the result, and save the layout as a template for documents that recur. It is also the only one here with a Linux build. The interface is more technical than the editors, and it does nothing else a PDF editor does. The Investintech PDF to Excel walkthrough shows the custom selection steps.

Is there a good app to convert PDF to Excel on a phone?

Phones are poor places to clean spreadsheets, but they are good at capturing them. The most useful mobile tool is Excel's own Insert > Data from Picture in the iOS and Android apps: you frame a printed table with the camera, review any cells Excel flags, and insert it. Microsoft's Data from Picture help recommends a head-on angle, even lighting and cropping to just the data. For PDFs already on the phone, the Adobe, Foxit (Editor+) and Nitro mobile apps belong to the paid plans above.

How should you choose?

Ask these in order:

1. Do you have Excel for Windows with Microsoft 365? Try its PDF import first. If the tables come through cleanly, stop here.
2. Are your PDFs scans? You need OCR: Acrobat Pro, Foxit, Nitro or Able2Extract, or Excel's Data from Picture for single pages.
3. Do the same layouts recur? Able2Extract's templates save time every month.
4. Do you also edit, sign or redact PDFs? A full editor (Acrobat, Foxit, Nitro) covers both jobs.
5. Do you refuse subscriptions? Foxit's perpetual licence or Able2Extract's lifetime licence.
6. Must the file stay offline? Any installed program here keeps processing on your computer.

How do you test a trial before buying?

A trial is only useful if you test it on your hardest file, not the vendor's sample. Pick three PDFs: your cleanest, your messiest, and a scan if you have one. For each, convert and then check four things in Excel:

• Row integrity. Does every record sit on one row, or did long text spill into extra rows?
• Numeric types. Select an amount column and look at the status bar. If it shows a count but no sum, the numbers came through as text.
• Junk rows. Filter each column for blanks and for header words repeated mid-sheet.
• Totals. Compare a column total with the figure printed in the PDF.

Time yourself fixing what fails. The program that leaves the least cleanup on your own documents is the best one for you, whatever the review sites say.

What about bank statements?

General PDF software treats a statement as a page layout, so you get the page's columns back and then do the accounting work yourself: removing repeated headers, joining wrapped descriptions, turning debit and credit columns into one signed amount, and checking balances. If statements are a large share of what you convert, a statement-specific service such as QuickBankConvert is worth comparing, with the caveat that it is a web service that uploads the file rather than installed software. It returns transaction rows ready for a spreadsheet or for QuickBooks, Quicken and Xero imports. If offline processing is a requirement, our list of offline bank statement converters covers installable tools made for statements, and the statement to Excel page shows what our output looks like.

Related guides

• Offline converters built for statements
• Able2Extract's custom table selection
• Exporting tables with Foxit
• Nitro's PDF to Excel conversion