How to Extract Tables from PDF to Excel

2026-02-20

Financial reports, product catalogs, research data, and invoices are often locked inside PDF files. When you need to analyze the numbers, copying tables from a PDF and pasting into Excel usually produces a jumbled mess. Proper PDF to Excel conversion solves this by intelligently detecting table structures and mapping them to spreadsheet cells.

Why Copy-Paste Fails for PDF Tables

PDFs do not store tables the way spreadsheets do. There are no rows, columns, or cells in the PDF format. Instead, text is positioned at exact coordinates on the page, and lines are drawn as separate graphic elements. When you copy and paste, your computer grabs the text in reading order but loses all the column alignment and structure.

How to Convert PDF Tables to Excel

Use Luleit's PDF to Excel converter to open your file in the browser and extract tables into a downloadable .xlsx file. The tool detects table boundaries, maps text into the correct cells, and preserves numeric formatting where possible. Everything processes locally, so your financial data stays on your device.

When OCR Is Needed

If your PDF was created by scanning a paper document, the table exists only as an image. No converter can extract text from an image without OCR (Optical Character Recognition). Run the scanned PDF through an OCR tool first to create a text layer, then convert to Excel. OCR accuracy is generally high for clean, high-resolution scans but drops significantly with poor scan quality or handwritten text.

Tips for Clean Extraction

For best results, use PDFs that were digitally created rather than scanned. Simpler table layouts with consistent column widths convert more accurately than complex nested tables. After conversion, always review the spreadsheet for merged cells, misaligned columns, or numbers that were interpreted as text. A quick formatting pass in Excel can fix most minor issues.

Handling Multi-Page Tables

Tables that span multiple PDF pages are trickier. Some converters treat each page as a separate table, producing fragmented output. Look for tools that detect continued tables across pages and combine them into a single sheet. If your tool does not support this, convert each page separately and then merge the rows manually in Excel.