Extract Tables from PDF

Turn a PDF's tables into CSV, JSON or Markdown. Free, and runs entirely in your browser — nothing you enter is uploaded, stored or sent to a server.

About Extract Tables

Finds the tables in a PDF and writes them out as CSV, JSON or Markdown.

A PDF does not contain tables. It contains glyphs at coordinates, and a table is something the eye infers from them lining up. So the columns here are worked out from where the text sits: lines are grouped, the vertical positions text starts at are collected, and a column is a position that enough lines agree on. Ruled tables with left-aligned columns come out well because their alignment is real; a layout held together by graphics rather than by position does not.

The places it guesses wrong are predictable and worth knowing: merged cells, text that wraps inside a cell, right-aligned numbers in a column whose header is left-aligned, and columns separated by a hair. Check the output before working from it — which is true of every PDF table extractor, and honest here rather than discovered later.

Where it helps

Three outputs from one pass: CSV for spreadsheets, JSON for code, Markdown for documents.
Columns are detected from the text's own alignment rather than requiring ruled lines.
A minimum column count keeps a two-word heading from being read as a table.
Shows the first table as a preview, so the guess can be checked before the file is used.
The document stays in your browser.

Limits

Merged cells are not understood: the content lands in one column and the others come out empty.
Text that wraps inside a cell becomes a second row.
A table drawn with ruled lines but loose alignment may not be detected at all.
A scan has no text to read — that is a job for OCR first.
No header row is identified; the first row is assumed to be one in the Markdown output only.

Frequently asked questions

Why did it miss my table?

Most often because the columns do not actually line up: the eye reads the ruled lines, and this reads the text positions. Lowering the minimum column count sometimes helps; a table whose alignment is genuinely irregular will not be found.

Why is everything in one column?

Because the gaps between the columns are not consistent enough to be recognised, which happens with proportional fonts and centred cells. Extracting the page as text and splitting it yourself is sometimes faster than fighting it.

Can it read a scanned table?

Not directly — a scan is a picture. Run the OCR tool first to add a text layer, then this will find whatever the OCR aligned.

How is this different from PDF to Excel?

The same detection, a different destination. PDF to Excel writes a real .xlsx with a sheet per page; this gives you CSV, JSON or Markdown, which is what you want when the destination is code or a document rather than a spreadsheet.

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