---
name: "pdf123-pdf-to-xlsx"
description: "Extract tabular data from a PDF as an Excel (.xlsx) workbook. Runs the PDF123 \"PDF to Excel\" tool (pdf123.xyz) over its REST API with curl, no account needed. Use when the user wants this done to their file. Also known as: PDF 转 Excel, PDF a Excel, PDF से Excel, PDF إلى Excel, PDF para Excel, PDF ke Excel, PDF vers Excel, PDF в Excel, PDFからExcel, PDF in Excel, PDF를 Excel로, PDF sang Excel, PDF'den Excel'e, PDF 轉 Excel, PDF เป็น Excel, PDF na Excel, PDF у Excel, PDF naar Excel, PDF till Excel, PDF σε Excel, PDF към Excel, PDF kuwa Excel."
compatibility: "Needs curl 7.76+ and outbound HTTPS to pdf123.xyz, or PDFX_API_BASE pointing at a self-hosted pdfx-server."
---

# PDF to Excel (PDF123)

Extract tabular data from a PDF as an Excel (.xlsx) workbook.

Web version: https://pdf123.xyz/pdf-to-xlsx · All tools: https://pdf123.xyz/skills/pdf123.md

## When to use

- Open extracted tables directly in Excel or LibreOffice Calc
- Pull a born-digital invoice table into a workbook
- Keep several page tables as sheets instead of one CSV

## Run it

Replace the sample file names and values with the user's, then run:

```bash
API="${PDFX_API_BASE:-https://pdf123.xyz}"
curl -sS --fail-with-body -X POST "$API/api/v1/convert/pdf/xlsx" \
  -F "fileInput=@input.pdf" \
  --output-dir "pdf123-output/$(date +%Y%m%d-%H%M%S)" --create-dirs -OJ -w '%{filename_effective} %{content_type}\n'
```

## Inputs

Everything is `multipart/form-data`. The command above already sends each field with its default; keep them all and change only the values the user asked for, since some endpoints reject a missing optional field.

| Field | Type | Required | Default | Notes |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `fileInput` | file | yes | | .pdf (one file) |

## Result

curl saves the result in a new `pdf123-output/<timestamp>/` directory under the server's file name and prints its path and content type. Several output files come back as one ZIP. Tell the user where the file is.

## Limits

- Needs selectable text and a two-space column gap
- No OCR and no page-range control
- Merged cells and styling are not reconstructed
- Upload limit on this website: 500 MB per file, sent in chunks above about 95 MB. A single direct API request body is capped at 100 MB.

## Errors

- A non-zero curl exit means the request failed. The saved file then holds `application/problem+json`; read it and report its `detail` to the user instead of retrying blindly.
- `413`: the upload exceeds 100 MiB. `429`: wait for `Retry-After` seconds, then retry once.
- Send `X-API-KEY: $PDFX_API_KEY` only if the user has a PDF123 API key; anonymous calls work without it.

## Privacy

Files are uploaded to the API host, processed, and deleted once the response is sent. For confidential files, ask before uploading, or use a self-hosted server via `PDFX_API_BASE`.