How to convert TSV to CSV
- Paste your tab-separated data into the TSV box. Cells copied from Excel or Google Sheets work as they are. You can also press Open file or Load sample.
- The CSV box fills in as you type. Pick the CSV separator: comma, semicolon or pipe.
- Press Copy or Download .csv. Leave the UTF-8 BOM ticked if the file is going into Excel.
- To go the other way, paste CSV into the CSV box and the TSV box updates.
What changes between TSV and CSV
TSV puts a tab between cells and CSV puts a comma, or a semicolon in many European versions of Excel. Commas show up in real text, so CSV wraps a cell in double quotes when it contains the separator, a double quote or a line break, and doubles any quote inside it. This is the rule in RFC 4180. Tabs are rare in data, so plain TSV needs no quoting, but Excel and Google Sheets still wrap a copied cell in quotes when it holds a line break or a quote. The tool reads those quotes properly, so a multi-line cell stays one cell instead of splitting into extra rows.
Worked example
With the sample loaded, three rows and four columns convert like this:
Name,Role,Salary,Notes
Alice Smith,Engineer,"$85,000","Likes ""dark mode"""
Bob Jones,Designer,"$72,500.50","Remote, part-time"The salary $85,000 and the note Remote, part-time contain commas, so they are quoted. The note Likes "dark mode" has quotes, so it is quoted and each quote is doubled. The tool reports "Converted 3 rows and 4 columns to CSV (comma separated)."
Excel and the downloaded file
Excel on Windows opens a CSV with an old code page unless the file starts with a UTF-8 byte order mark, so accents and non-Latin text can look garbled. The BOM option fixes that, and it is applied only to the download, never to Copy. If Excel puts everything in one column, your region probably expects semicolons, so choose Semicolon and download again.
Limits and edge cases
Rows with different numbers of cells are kept as they are and flagged in the message. Blank lines stay blank. A quote in the middle of an unquoted cell, such as 5" pipe, is plain text, and a quoted cell that is never closed is reported. Line endings become line feeds. Cells that start with =, +, - or @ are not changed, so Excel may treat them as formulas when it opens the file. Input is limited to 5 million characters. Your data is converted in your browser and is not uploaded. To work with the data afterwards, try the CSV to JSON converter, the CSV data generator or the whitespace cleaner.
Frequently asked questions
How do I convert a TSV file to CSV?
Press Open file, or paste the contents into the TSV box, then use Copy or Download .csv under the CSV box. The conversion runs as you type.
Does it handle commas inside cells?
Yes. A cell that contains the separator, a double quote or a line break is wrapped in double quotes, and any quote inside it is doubled. Excel, Google Sheets and CSV libraries read that correctly.
Why do accented letters look wrong when I open the CSV in Excel?
Excel on Windows assumes an old code page unless the file starts with a UTF-8 byte order mark. Leave Add UTF-8 BOM ticked when you download.
Why does Excel show everything in one column?
Some regional versions of Excel expect semicolons instead of commas. Choose Semicolon as the CSV separator and download the file again.
Can I convert CSV back to TSV?
Yes. Paste CSV into the CSV box and the TSV box fills in. Cells that contain tabs or line breaks are wrapped in quotes, the same way spreadsheets do it.
Sources: RFC 4180 (CSV) and the IANA text/tab-separated-values registration.