Open an Excel file in your browser without Excel: .xlsx, .xlsm, .xls, .xlsb or .ods, up to 50MB. Every sheet, including hidden ones, with values shown the way Excel formats them and the formula behind any cell you click.
Nothing is uploaded. The file is opened in your browser and never sent anywhere.
This Excel viewer online opens a workbook in your browser and shows every sheet as a grid, with values formatted the way Excel formats them and the formula behind any cell you click. It's for the file that arrives when Excel isn't there: a supplier's price list sent as an .xlsb to a laptop with no Office licence, or a colleague's model you want to read before you sign in to anything or copy it into someone's cloud.
Nothing downloads, because the viewer is read-only. There's no sign-up and no limit on how many files you open.
The grid shows the values stored in the file, formatted as Excel would show them, plus the parts of a workbook that Excel keeps out of sight.
| In the file | In the viewer |
|---|---|
1234.5 formatted #,##0.00 | 1,234.50, right-aligned |
4 March 2026 formatted yyyy-mm-dd | 2026-03-04, right-aligned |
0.25 formatted 0% | 25% |
| TRUE or FALSE | TRUE or FALSE |
| An error value such as #DIV/0! | The error, in red |
A formula such as =G50001*H50001 | The saved result in the cell, the formula in the formula bar |
| Merged cells | Drawn merged |
| Column widths set in the file | The same widths |
| Hidden rows and columns | Shown, shaded, with italic headers, and counted under the grid |
| A hidden sheet | A tab marked (hidden) |
| A very hidden sheet | A tab marked (very hidden) |
| A chart sheet | A tab that says the viewer shows cells, not charts |
Long sheets scroll without stalling because only the cells in view are drawn. In a test on the production build, a 100,000-row, 10-column sheet (5.5MB) opened in about 4.4 seconds in Chrome, and the page held a few hundred cells at a time while scrolling. The file is read in a Web Worker, so the page stays responsive while a big workbook loads.
An .xlsx file stores each formula next to the result from the last time it was calculated. The viewer displays that stored result. It doesn't recalculate anything.
That explains two things people run into with any viewer that shows saved values. The first is a column of blanks where totals should be. Some programs that write Excel files, including report exports and scripts built on spreadsheet libraries, save the formulas and skip the results, so there's nothing stored to show. Click one of the blank cells: if the formula bar shows =SUM(D2:D41), the cell isn't empty, the file never recorded an answer. Opening it in Excel and saving it again writes the results in.
The second is a stale value. A cell with =TODAY() shows the date the file was last saved, not today's date, and a price pulled from another workbook shows whatever it was at that save.
Every sheet in the file gets a tab here, including the ones Excel won't show you by default.
Excel has two levels of hiding. A hidden sheet appears in the Unhide dialog (right-click any tab, then Unhide). A very hidden sheet doesn't. It's set from the Visual Basic editor, and the only way back in Excel is the same route: Alt+F11 on Windows, select the sheet in the Project Explorer, and change its Visible property in the Properties window. That needs desktop Excel and a change to the file.
Template authors use very hidden sheets for lookup tables and settings they don't want touched, so a pricing model from a vendor can carry a whole sheet of rates you'd never find through Unhide. In the viewer it's a tab marked (very hidden), readable like any other.
Hidden rows and columns work the same way. They stay in the grid, shaded, and the line under the grid counts them: "including 1 hidden column (shaded)". That's worth a look before you forward a quote to a client, in case a hidden column holds your cost prices.
Excel uses the word password for two different locks, and only one of them stops you reading the file.
A password to open encrypts the whole workbook. Nothing can read it without that password, this viewer included. Drop one in and the viewer says plainly that the file has a password to open. The fix is in Excel: open the file with the password, go to File > Info > Protect Workbook > Encrypt with Password, clear the box, and save a copy.
A password that only stops editing (a protected sheet, or a locked workbook structure) encrypts nothing. The cells sit in the file in the clear, and Unprotect Sheet removes that kind of lock.
Excel for the web is free with a Microsoft account. It's the closest match to desktop Excel: formatting, charts, editing and recalculation. The file has to go into OneDrive first.
Google Sheets opens .xls, .xlsx, .xlsm and .ods files once they're in Google Drive, and lets you edit and share them. It needs a Google account, won't import a password-protected file, and .xlsb isn't on its import list.
LibreOffice Calc is a free desktop install for Windows, Mac and Linux that opens and edits Excel files offline.
Microsoft's old desktop Excel Viewer is gone. Microsoft retired it and no longer offers it for download or sends it security updates, so skip the copies still floating around download sites.
Use one of those when you need to see the formatting or change something. Use this viewer when you only need to read the file, don't want to sign in anywhere, have an .xlsb that Google Sheets won't take, or have an old pre-97 .xls (BIFF5), which the viewer also reads.
Drop it on the viewer on this page: it opens .xlsx, .xlsm, .xls, .xlsb and .ods files up to 50MB in your browser, with no account and no upload. Excel for the web and Google Sheets also open Excel files, but both need an account and a copy of the file in their cloud.
Yes. There is no usage limit and no sign-up, and files can be up to 50MB.
No, the viewer is read-only: there is no editing and no download. To change the file, use Excel for the web, Google Sheets or LibreOffice Calc.
The viewer shows the result saved in the file and does not recalculate, so a file saved without results has nothing to display. Some exports and scripts write formulas but no results. Click the cell and the formula bar still shows the formula; opening the file in Excel and saving it stores the results.
In Excel, only the Visual Basic editor can show them: Excel's Unhide dialog leaves very hidden sheets out. This viewer lists every sheet as a tab, and very hidden ones are marked (very hidden), so you can read them without editing the file.
Not if the password is needed to open the file, because that password encrypts it and nothing can read it without the password. Open it in Excel with the password and save a copy without one (File > Info > Protect Workbook > Encrypt with Password, then clear the box). A password that only stops editing is a different lock, and Unprotect Sheet removes it.
Drop it on this viewer, which reads .xlsb alongside .xlsx, .xls, .xlsm and .ods. Google Sheets is the usual free fallback, but .xlsb isn't on its list of importable file types.