TSV to CSV Converter - Free & Private

How the TSV to CSV Converter Works

1. 01Paste tab separated text or drop a .tsv file. Data copied straight out of a spreadsheet is already tab separated, so pasting is usually enough.
2. 02Choose the output separator: a comma for international use, or a semicolon for Excel on a locale that writes decimals with a comma.
3. 03Decide whether to add a UTF-8 byte order mark and whether lines should end with CRLF, which is what RFC 4180 specifies and what Excel prefers.
4. 04Copy the result or download the .csv file. The counter tells you how many fields needed quoting.

Quoting is the whole job

Replacing every tab with a comma takes one line of code and corrupts real data on the first row that contains a comma of its own. A description such as Anchor set, M10 turns into two fields, the row grows by one column, and every value to the right slides out of place. Nothing rejects the file, because a shifted row is still syntactically valid CSV, so the mistake surfaces weeks later as a customer with the wrong price. The rule that prevents it is short: wrap a field in double quotes whenever it contains the separator, a double quote, or a line break, and represent a literal double quote by doubling it. Leading and trailing spaces are quoted too, because many importers strip unquoted whitespace. The reader on this page applies the same rules in reverse to the input, so a spreadsheet cell that held a line break and arrived wrapped in quotes survives the trip intact. Line endings are normalised on the way in, whether the file came from Windows, macOS or a Unix pipeline, and are written back in the style you select. The quoted field counter above the output is a quick sanity check: if it reads zero on a file full of prose, the parse probably went wrong.

When to Use the TSV to CSV Converter

The most common trigger is a clipboard. Copying a block of cells from Excel, Numbers or Google Sheets puts tab separated text on the clipboard, not CSV, so pasting it into an import screen that expects commas dumps the entire row into the first field. Database export tools that only offer tab output cause the same problem, as do advertising and marketplace feeds that insist on a comma delimited file. Converting first means the import either succeeds or fails loudly, rather than succeeding with shifted columns.

Common Use Cases

• ·Converting a block of cells copied from a spreadsheet into a file a bulk import screen will accept.
• ·Preparing a product feed for an advertising platform that only documents comma delimited input.
• ·Handing a colleague in another country a file that opens in columns on their copy of Excel.
• ·Checking the converted file column by column before you send it CSV/Excel Viewer - Sortable Table Free
• ·Turning the same rows into structured records for an API CSV to JSON Converter - Auto-Detect Format

Expert Tips

• ✻Watch the uneven rows warning. A tab separated export with a ragged row usually means a cell contained a literal tab, and that has to be fixed in the source rather than in the CSV.
• ✻Numbers written with a comma as the decimal mark stay strings here, exactly as they were in the input. Convert them to a dot before importing into a system that expects a machine readable decimal.
• ✻If Excel still shows one column after conversion, the file separator and the system list separator disagree. Rather than fighting it, use the Data tab and the From Text option, where you can state the separator explicitly.

Frequently Asked Questions

When should I pick the semicolon instead of the comma?→

Whenever the file will be opened in Excel by someone whose system uses a comma as the decimal separator, which covers the Netherlands, Germany, France, Spain, Italy and most of continental Europe. Excel reads the list separator from the operating system, so a comma delimited file lands entirely in column A on those machines.

What does the byte order mark actually do?→

It puts three invisible bytes at the very start of the file that identify the text as UTF-8. Without them Excel often guesses a legacy code page, which turns accented letters and the euro sign into unreadable characters. Leave it switched off for databases, importers and command line tools, which tend to read it as part of the first column name.

Should I keep CRLF line endings?→

RFC 4180 specifies them and Excel is happiest with them, so they are on by default. Switch to plain line feeds when the file is destined for a Unix pipeline, a Git repository with strict line ending rules, or a parser that treats a stray carriage return as part of the last field.

Can it read a file where a cell contains a line break?→

Yes, provided the cell was quoted, which is what every spreadsheet does when it exports such a value. The line break is preserved inside the field and the output quotes it again, so the row count stays correct on both sides.