How to convert Google Sheets to Excel
Google Sheets saves any Sheet as an Excel file in two clicks. Opening it in Excel is where it goes wrong: functions Excel doesn't have, formulas that give a different answer, and files Excel won't open at all.
The quick way: Google's own download
In Google Sheets, File → Download → Microsoft Excel (.xlsx). Your Sheet isn't touched; you get a copy.
For a Sheet of plain formulas (SUM, IF, VLOOKUP) that's often enough. The file carries the formulas exactly as Sheets wrote them, though, and Excel calculates them its own way. The rest of this page is what that changes.
What breaks when Excel opens the download
=SUMPRODUCT(A2:A9>0,B2:B9)=SUMPRODUCT(--(A2:A9>0),B2:B9)Functions only Google Sheets has
QUERY, SPLIT, IMPORTRANGE, GOOGLEFINANCE and the like reach Excel as formulas it can't calculate. On 1,094 Sheets shared on r/googlesheets, 674 used at least one.
The same formula, a different answer
Some formulas Excel knows give another result. Empty text ("") is 0 in Sheets' arithmetic and #VALUE! in Excel. A whole column like A:A is the Sheet's own rows in Sheets and a million rows in Excel, so COUNTBLANK and friends count differently. Every difference we've measured.
Files Excel won't open
Excel refuses a whole workbook over one formula it can't read. Of 2,035 public Google Sheets with formulas, Excel refused 123 of Google's own downloads, for things like a one-argument IFERROR, an array formula inside a table or text over 32,767 characters. SheetSure's converted file opens for 113 of those 123.
Convert it with SheetSure
- 1Download your SheetFile → Download → Microsoft Excel (.xlsx).
- 2Upload that downloadSheetSure recognizes Google's download and shows you every formula, and what will happen to it.
- 3Download the file for ExcelFormulas rewritten for Excel, plus a SheetSure report tab.
- 4Open it in ExcelDouble-click it. Excel calculates the file, and the report tab checks it.
Functions Excel doesn't have
- QUERYReview
- Rewritten with Excel's FILTER, SORT and friends. One it can't rewrite keeps Sheets' result, and the report asks you to redo it.
- SPLIT, REGEXMATCH, COUNTUNIQUE…Review
- Rewritten with the Excel function that does the same job (TEXTSPLIT, REGEXTEST, UNIQUE), with a note where they differ.
- IMPORTRANGE, IMPORTHTML, IMPORTXMLNo equivalent
- No Excel formula reads another Google Sheet or a web page. The cells keep their last values; the report suggests Power Query.
- GOOGLEFINANCENo equivalent
- Keeps its last values. Excel's STOCKHISTORY and Stocks data type are similar, not the same.
- SPARKLINENo equivalent
- No Excel formula draws one. The report says where to recreate it with Insert → Sparklines.
How you know nothing changed
The file has one extra tab, SheetSure report. When Excel opens the file, the tab compares every converted cell with the value Google Sheets calculated and sums it up in one line. Excel does that calculation itself, inside your file.
On 28 Google Sheets downloaded and recalculated in real Excel, 99.18% of 90,406 formula cells matched Sheets' values. How we test, and every result.
Good to know
- Free, no account. Up to 850,000 filled cells per workbook and 10 conversions a day.
- The file you upload is deleted as soon as the converted file is ready.
- Charts, conditional formats, dropdowns and named ranges in Google's download come through to Excel. A rule Excel can't read is rewritten, or left out and counted in the report.