How to Open an XLSX File Without Excel
You can open an .xlsx file without Excel in several free ways: Excel on the web or Google Sheets in a browser, LibreOffice Calc or Apple Numbers on a computer, or a spreadsheet app on your phone. If you only need to look up prices and maybe pull the data into another system, Opener’s Excel viewer opens it in the browser with no account and without uploading the file.
Which option fits
A supplier’s price list is usually a simple workbook: a sheet or two of product codes, descriptions, units and prices, sometimes with a discount formula. What you need to do with it decides the tool.
| Option | Works on | Account | Edit | Recalculates formulas | File uploaded |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Excel on the web | Any browser | Microsoft account | Yes | Yes | Yes, to OneDrive |
| Google Sheets | Any browser, Android, iPhone | Google account | Yes | Yes | Yes, to Google Drive |
| LibreOffice Calc | Windows, Mac, Linux | No | Yes | Yes | No |
| Numbers | Mac, iPhone, iPad | No | Yes | Yes | No |
| Opener | Any browser, incl. phones | No | No (read-only) | No — shows saved values | No |
If you want to change prices, add your margin or build an order from the list, use a full spreadsheet app. If you want to find a product, compare prices or export the data, a viewer is quicker.
Full spreadsheet apps
Excel on the web and Google Sheets
Excel on the web is Microsoft’s free browser version of Excel. Sign in with a free Microsoft account, upload the file to OneDrive and open it. It handles formulas, multiple sheets and formatting faithfully. Macros don’t run in the browser version, and some advanced features need the desktop app.
Google Sheets works the same way with a Google account: upload the .xlsx to Google Drive and open it with Google Sheets, or import it from inside a blank spreadsheet. Most formulas carry over and recalculate; a few Excel-only functions and features have no exact equivalent and may show errors or be dropped. Drive can also show a quick preview without converting.
Both are good choices when you work with the supplier’s file often, but both put a copy of it in a cloud account — worth thinking about if the price list includes confidential terms.
LibreOffice Calc and Numbers
LibreOffice Calc is part of the free, open-source LibreOffice suite. It opens .xlsx directly, recalculates formulas and keeps everything on your computer. Complex formatting or charts may look a little different, but data and formulas come through well. It’s also one of the best tools for old .xls files.
Numbers is free on every Mac and opens .xlsx files directly, converting them to its own format as they open. It may list anything it couldn’t import exactly. Numbers lays sheets out as separate tables on a canvas, which looks different from Excel’s grid but holds the same data. To send changes back, export to Excel format.
On your phone
- iPhone: tapping the attachment in Mail or the file in the Files app shows a Quick Look preview — fine for a quick price check. Numbers and the Google Sheets app open it for editing.
- Android: the Google Sheets app opens
.xlsxfrom Downloads or Gmail. - Either: Microsoft’s mobile Excel app (or the combined Microsoft 365 app) gives the most Excel-like view and may ask you to sign in.
Wide price lists are hard to read on a small screen, so turn the phone sideways and use search rather than scrolling.
Opener: look up, sort and export without an account
Drop the file into the Excel viewer, or open it on your phone’s browser, and every sheet appears as a fast, scrollable table. The file is read in your browser and never sent anywhere.
What it’s good at for a price list:
- Every sheet as a tab. Suppliers often split lists by category or by currency; click a tab to switch.
- Search across all columns. Type a product code or part of a name and only matching rows remain.
- Sort by any column. Click the price header to sort low to high; numbers sort as numbers, text alphabetically.
- Export the current view as CSV or JSON. Filter and sort first, then export exactly what you see — handy for importing into your shop, accounting or ordering system.
What it doesn’t do: it’s read-only, so you can’t change prices or add columns. It shows values as Excel displayed them but does not recalculate or edit formulas. Formatting such as colours, merged cells and charts is not shown — the focus is on the data. It opens .xlsx and .csv, but not the old .xls format.
What happens to formulas, sheets and hidden columns
Formulas. When Excel saves a workbook, it stores both the formula and its last calculated result in each cell. Full spreadsheet apps (Excel on the web, Google Sheets, LibreOffice, Numbers) read the formula and calculate it again. A viewer like Opener shows the stored result — the number the supplier saw when they saved the file. Usually these are identical. They can differ if a formula depends on today’s date, a function another app doesn’t support, or a link to another workbook you don’t have.
Multiple sheets. All the options above show every sheet. Exporting to CSV is different: CSV holds a single table, so each sheet has to be exported separately. The guide What is a CSV file? explains why.
Hidden rows and columns. Suppliers sometimes hide columns such as cost prices or internal codes. How hidden content is treated varies between apps, and it’s easy to miss either way. Hidden doesn’t mean deleted: if the supplier hid something, assume the data is still inside the file. If what you see doesn’t add up — a missing column letter, a total that doesn’t match — open the file in a full spreadsheet app and unhide everything.
Old .xls files
If the file ends in .xls rather than .xlsx, it’s in the older Excel 97–2003 binary format. Excel on the web, Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers can open it; many lightweight viewers, including Opener, can’t. Open it in one of those apps and save it as .xlsx (or export a sheet as CSV), then it opens anywhere. The same old-versus-new story applies to Word and PowerPoint — the guide on .doc vs .docx explains it in full.
Frequently asked questions
Can I open an .xlsx file on my phone without Excel?
Yes. iPhones preview it with Quick Look, Google Sheets works on both iPhone and Android, and the Excel viewer runs in any mobile browser without an app or account.
Why does a cell show a different number in another app?
Full spreadsheet apps recalculate formulas when they open the file; viewers show the value Excel saved. Differences usually come from date-based formulas, unsupported functions or links to other files.
Can I convert the price list to CSV?
Yes. Any spreadsheet app can save a sheet as CSV, and the Excel viewer exports the current sheet — filtered and sorted — as CSV or JSON.
Will the supplier’s formatting be kept?
In Excel on the web, mostly. Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers keep most of it with small differences. Opener shows only the data, without colours, merged cells or charts.