JSON to Excel Converter

How to convert JSON to Excel

1. Paste or open the JSON. An array of objects is ideal: each object becomes a row and each key a column. If the array is inside a wrapper, like {"data": {"items": [...]}}, the converter finds it for you. Use Records to pick another array.
2. Check the preview. The table shows the first 200 rows exactly as they will appear in the sheet, with numbers, booleans and dates in their own colours so you can spot anything stored as text.
3. Choose how nested data is flattened (see below), then click Download .xlsx. The workbook opens in Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Apple Numbers with a bold, frozen header row and filters already on.

Need the data somewhere else? Download CSV writes a CSV that Excel opens correctly (UTF-8 with a byte-order mark). Copy table puts tab-separated rows on the clipboard, and they paste into Excel or Google Sheets as separate cells.

How nested JSON is flattened into columns

Spreadsheets are two-dimensional, but JSON is not. Nested objects are flattened by joining the key path, so {"customer": {"address": {"city": "Pune"}}} becomes a column named customer.address.city. Nested arrays need a choice:

Worked example: one row per order item

[
  { "order": 1001, "customer": { "name": "Asha" },
    "items": [ { "sku": "PEN", "qty": 2 }, { "sku": "INK", "qty": 1 } ] }
]

With One row per item and expand: items, this becomes a sheet you can pivot straight away:

JSON to Excel type mapping

A CSV file holds only text, so Excel guesses the type of each cell, and it often guesses wrong. An .xlsx file stores the type with each cell, so this converter writes these types:

XLSX or CSV: which should you download?

If Excel shows your whole CSV in column A, your system uses ; as the list separator (common with German, French, Spanish and Brazilian regional settings). Choose semicolon and download again, or just use .xlsx. For CSV-only workflows, the JSON to CSV converter has more CSV options.

JSON to table: preview before you export

The preview is useful by itself as a JSON-to-table viewer. It shows every record in a grid, with missing fields left empty so gaps stand out, and it keeps the column order in which keys first appear. For deeply nested documents that are not a list of records, the JSON viewer has a tree view and its own table view for any array you select.

Open JSON in Excel without a converter (Power Query)

Excel 2016 and later, and Microsoft 365, can import JSON directly:

1. Data → Get Data → From File → From JSON, and choose the file.
2. In the Power Query editor, click To Table (for a list of records), then click the expand icon on the column header and choose the fields.
3. Repeat the expand step for each nested object or list, then Close & Load.

Power Query is a good choice for a refreshable import from a file or URL. For a one-off conversion, pasting the JSON here is faster, and you do not have to expand every nested column by hand.

Convert JSON to Excel in code

Python (pandas)

import json, pandas as pd
records = json.load(open("orders.json"))
df = pd.json_normalize(records, record_path="items", meta=["order", ["customer", "name"]])
df.to_excel("orders.xlsx", index=False)      # pip install openpyxl

JavaScript (SheetJS)

import * as XLSX from "xlsx";
const ws = XLSX.utils.json_to_sheet(records);          // flat objects only
const wb = XLSX.utils.book_new();
XLSX.utils.book_append_sheet(wb, ws, "Sheet1");
XLSX.writeFile(wb, "data.xlsx");

jq to CSV (command line)

jq -r '(.[0] | keys_unsorted) as $k | $k, (.[] | [.[$k[]]]) | @csv' data.json > data.csv

Frequently asked questions