Convert an .xlsx or .xlsm workbook to the Excel 97-2003 .xls format, for software or people that only accept the old format. Before you download, the page lists what the .xls can't hold.
Nothing is uploaded. Your workbook is read and converted in your browser and never sent anywhere.
XLSX to XLS conversion on this page turns an .xlsx or .xlsm workbook into an Excel 97-2003 Workbook (.xls, the BIFF8 binary format), in your browser. People need it when the thing at the other end stopped in 2003, like a bank's payment upload form that rejects anything but .xls, or a colleague on Excel 2003 who can't open what you sent.
sales.xlsx downloads as sales (xlsx.com).xls, and Excel opens it in Compatibility Mode. In a check in Excel for Mac, a 45-sheet workbook and an .xlsm both converted and opened with no repair prompt.The whole workbook converts in one go: every worksheet, in the same order, with the same names. The .xls opens on the first visible sheet.
Values, number formats, widths, merges, notes and links come through. Fonts and colours don't, and neither does anything Excel draws or calculates on top of the cells.
| Kept in the .xls | Left out |
|---|---|
| Every cell value: text, numbers, dates, TRUE/FALSE, error values | Formulas (each becomes its last calculated value) |
| Number and date formats, such as $1,234.50, 12.5% and 4 Mar 2026 | Fonts, fill colours, borders and row heights |
| Column widths and hidden columns | Charts, pictures, shapes and form controls |
| Merged cells, however many (tested with 2,057) | Pivot tables, slicers and sparklines |
| Notes, with threaded comments turned into notes | Excel tables (the cells stay, as a plain range) |
| Web links and links to a place in the workbook | Data validation, dropdowns included, and conditional formatting |
| Hidden sheets | Frozen panes, filters and grouped rows or columns |
| Long text, in full | Macros, defined names and links to other workbooks |
| The workbook's own author and title | Sheet protection and workbook structure protection |
The per-sheet notes list only what each sheet actually has, so a plain data export gets a short list.
A few items on the right change what the recipient can do with the file, not only how it looks. Sheet protection is gone, so cells you locked are editable in the .xls. Rows hidden by a filter show again, and so do rows you hid by hand. Print areas and print titles are defined names, so they go too; set them again in the .xls if someone will print it.
Chart sheets hold no cells, so the .xls leaves them out and the page names each one. A workbook made only of chart or macro sheets gets an error instead of a file. If every sheet left is hidden, the converter shows the first one, since a workbook needs one visible sheet, and the notes say so.
Nothing of the converter goes into the file. The workbook keeps its own author and title, the usual "SheetJS" marks that library writes are stripped out, and the only branding is the download's file name.
Changing the extension changes the name, not the format. An .xlsx is a ZIP archive of XML files; an .xls is one binary file laid out in BIFF8. Rename the first and you have a ZIP archive with the wrong label on it.
Renaming the file in File Explorer is common advice, and it's easy to see why it looks like it works. Excel 365 warns that the file format and extension don't match and asks whether to open it anyway; click Yes and it opens fine. The upload form that checks only the extension may accept it too. The trouble arrives at the next step, when the program behind the form, or Excel 2003 on your colleague's machine, tries to read BIFF8 and finds a ZIP.
A real .xls has to be written out again in the old format, which is what Excel's Save As and this converter both do.
Every formula is saved as its last calculated value. The .xls shows what the formulas showed ($48,210.75 in the total cell, the name a lookup found), but nothing recalculates: change a quantity and the total stays where it was. The notes count them, for example "412 formulas, each saved as its last calculated value", so you know how much of the workbook was live.
For newer functions that's the safer result. Excel 2003 has no XLOOKUP, FILTER or UNIQUE. If you keep those formulas with Excel's Save As, Microsoft's formula compatibility notes say they return #NAME? instead of their results once the older version recalculates. The converter writes the result itself, so there's no formula left to break.
One case comes out empty. Some programs that write .xlsx files save formulas without a calculated value, and if the file never went through Excel, there's no result to keep. Those cells come out blank in the .xls, and the notes count them per sheet. Opening and saving the file in Excel first usually fills the values in.
An .xls sheet holds 65,536 rows and 256 columns (A to IV). An .xlsx sheet holds 1,048,576 rows and 16,384 columns, so a 90,000-row transaction export or a sheet running to column JZ doesn't fit.
The converter cuts what doesn't fit rather than refusing the file, and says so before you download. A yellow box names each sheet with the rows, columns and cells left out: "Orders: 24,464 rows (171,248 cells)". Two ways round it:
Excel's Save As hits the same wall. Microsoft's compatibility notes say data beyond 65,536 rows by 256 columns isn't saved, and formulas that pointed at it return #REF!.
In Excel 365 for Windows, go to File > Save As, pick a folder and set Save as type to Excel 97-2003 Workbook (*.xls). File > Export > Change File Type gets you to the same place. In Excel for Mac it's File > Save As with File Format set to Excel 97-2004 Workbook (.xls). The Compatibility Checker runs as you save and lists what the old format loses; on Windows you can run it beforehand from File > Info > Check for Issues > Check Compatibility.
Save As is the better route when the recipient will edit the workbook. It keeps formulas, fonts, colours, borders and an .xlsm's macros, as far as the old format can hold them. Watch the Checker for old-format formula limits too: 7 levels of nesting instead of 64, and 1,024 characters instead of 8,192.
Use this converter when there's no desktop Excel on the machine you're working from, or when you want a values-only .xls and a list of what it lost before you send it.
To check the .xls before you send it, open it in the Excel Viewer, which reads .xls as well as .xlsx and lists every sheet as a tab, hidden ones included. If the receiving system also takes CSV, Excel to CSV writes each sheet of the original .xlsx with values the way Excel displays them.
No. Renaming changes the label, not the contents: the file is still a ZIP archive of XML parts, and a program that reads .xls expects Excel's single binary file. Excel itself warns that the file format and extension don't match. Save the workbook as Excel 97-2003 Workbook in Excel, or convert it on this page.
No. Each formula is saved as its last calculated value, so the .xls shows the same numbers and text but recalculates nothing. That includes XLOOKUP and FILTER, whose results come through as plain values. If the recipient needs working formulas, use File > Save As > Excel 97-2003 Workbook in Excel instead.
The rows past 65,536, and any columns past IV, are cut from the .xls, because that is all an Excel 97-2003 sheet holds. Before you download, a yellow box names each sheet and says how many rows, columns and cells are left out. Move the extra rows to another sheet first if you need them.
Yes, but the macros don't come with it. The .xls gets every worksheet and value without the VBA project, and the page says the macros were left behind. To keep the macros, open the .xlsm in Excel and save it as Excel 97-2003 Workbook, a format that can hold VBA.
XLS is Excel's binary format for Excel 97 to 2003, and XLSX is the XML-based format that replaced it as the default in Excel 2007. An .xls sheet holds 65,536 rows by 256 columns, against 1,048,576 by 16,384 in an .xlsx. Excel 365 still opens .xls files, in Compatibility Mode.
Fonts, fill colours, borders and row heights aren't carried over. What does come through is every value, number and date formats such as $1,234.50 and 4 Mar 2026, column widths and merged cells. If the look matters, Excel's own Save As keeps the formatting.
No. The workbook is read and the .xls is written in your browser, so the file never leaves your computer. The converter is free, with no usage limit and no sign-up, for files up to 50MB.