How to convert Excel to CSV on your Mac

You don't need Excel to turn an .xlsx into a CSV on a Mac. Apple's Numbers opens Excel files and exports CSV. Koi does it in one drag, without opening the file, and does every sheet at once.

We make Koi, so read this with that in mind. Everything about Koi here is what version 1.12 does. The Numbers steps come from Apple's own guide, checked October 20, 2026.

1. Open the Excel file in Numbers.
2. Choose File, Export To, then CSV.
3. Pick whether each table gets its own file or they all go in one, and whether to include the table names. Text encoding is under Advanced Options.
4. Save the copy.

Numbers is free on the Mac App Store. Apple's guide has the details.

1. Start dragging the .xlsx in Finder or on your desktop. Drag several to do them all.
2. While you're still holding it, press and hold Shift. A wheel of formats opens round your pointer.
3. Drop it on CSV. “Budget.csv” lands beside the original and shows in Finder.

• A workbook with several sheets becomes a folder, “Budget CSV”, with a file for each sheet that has anything in it.
• Each cell is its value as it last worked out. Formulas stay behind, as they do in any CSV.
• Numbers, percentages, dates and TRUE or FALSE stay what they are.
• The CSV is comma-separated UTF-8.
• The original is never touched. When its folder can't be written to, the copy goes to Downloads.

The wheel works on .xlsx, .xls, .ods, .csv and .tsv files, and offers PDF, ODS or XLSX, CSV and TSV: the file's own format gives its place to XLSX, so a CSV can become an Excel file. PDF lays each sheet out as pages on your Mac's paper size, turned sideways when it's wide. Numbers files, and password-locked or pre-1997 Excel files, aren't read.

Word files, slides and books get wheels too: Word to PDF, or the whole Shift wheel.

Numbers is free. Koi has no free plan: Pro is $20 a month, or $192 a year, after a 3-day free trial that needs a card. Lifetime is paid once, from $59. The Shift wheel uses no AI, so it never counts against Koi's usage. See the plans.