Download free sample XLSX files instantly — real Excel workbooks generated in your browser with formatted headers, data types, and formulas. No upload, no login.
Realistic datasets — formatted headers, correct data types, ready to open in Excel or Google Sheets
Specific row counts — for benchmarking import performance, testing row limits, and pagination
Multi-sheet workbooks — for testing workbook parsers, sheet navigation, and cross-sheet references
Build exactly the file you need — choose dataset, row count, and formatting options
| Dataset | Columns | Numeric Fields | Dates | Totals Row | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Employee Directory | 11 | ✓ Salary, tenure | ✓ Hire date | No | HRIS imports, org chart tools, payroll testing |
| Sales / Revenue | 10 | ✓ Amount, qty, margin | ✓ Sale date | ✓ Totals | CRM exports, BI tools, revenue reporting |
| Inventory / Products | 10 | ✓ Price, stock, value | No | ✓ Stock totals | Ecommerce imports, PIM testing, warehouse tools |
| Customer List | 10 | ✓ LTV, order count | ✓ Signup date | No | CRM imports, email platforms, segmentation tools |
| Expense Report | 9 | ✓ Amount, tax, total | ✓ Date | ✓ Grand total | Accounting software, AP automation, expense tools |
| Time-series / Metrics | 7 | ✓ All numeric | ✓ Timestamp | ✓ Averages | Monitoring dashboards, BI imports, trend analysis |
| Project Schedule | 9 | ✓ Duration, progress % | ✓ Start & end | No | Project management imports, Gantt tool testing |
| Survey Responses | 10 | ✓ Rating scores | ✓ Submit date | ✓ Averages | Survey platform exports, NPS analysis, form data |
| Financial Summary | 8 | ✓ Revenue, costs, profit | No | ✓ Totals + margin | Finance tools, P&L testing, reporting dashboards |
| Contact List | 9 | No | No | No | Mail merge, outreach tools, address book imports |
Will these files open correctly in Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets?
Yes. All files are generated as genuine .xlsx files using the SheetJS library, which produces the Office Open XML format that Excel, Google Sheets, LibreOffice Calc, and Apple Numbers all read natively. Column widths, header formatting, and data types (numbers, dates, text) are set correctly so the file opens cleanly without import warnings or conversion dialogs.
What is the difference between an XLSX file and a CSV file?
A CSV file is plain text — just delimited values with no formatting, no data types, no multiple sheets, and no formulas. An XLSX file is a full spreadsheet workbook: it stores data types separately (so a number stays a number, a date stays a date), supports multiple sheets, can contain formulas, cell formatting, column widths, and conditional formatting. Use CSV when you need the simplest possible interchange format. Use XLSX when the receiving tool is a spreadsheet application and you want formatting, types, and multi-sheet support preserved.
What is the maximum number of rows Excel supports?
Excel supports up to 1,048,576 rows and 16,384 columns per worksheet. Google Sheets has a lower limit of 10 million cells total per spreadsheet (which works out to roughly 500,000 rows across multiple sheets for typical datasets). The generator on this page caps at 50,000 rows, which is large enough to stress-test most import workflows and chart renderers while keeping browser generation fast — a 50,000-row file typically generates in 2–3 seconds.
Why do dates sometimes look wrong when I open an XLSX file?
Excel stores dates as serial numbers (the number of days since January 1, 1900) and applies a display format on top. If a date column appears as a large number like 45292 instead of a formatted date, the number format wasn't applied correctly. The files generated here use SheetJS's built-in date type, which sets the correct number format automatically. If you're building your own XLSX files and see this issue, make sure you're setting the cell type to d (date) or applying a number format like yyyy-mm-dd rather than writing dates as plain strings.
What does a "totals row" include?
For datasets that include a totals row, the last row of the sheet contains summary values for numeric columns — typically SUM for amount/value columns and AVERAGE for rate/score columns, with a "TOTAL" or "AVERAGE" label in the first column. This is useful for testing how import tools handle mixed-type rows at the end of a dataset, and for verifying that chart tools don't accidentally include the totals row in their data range.
How do I use a sample XLSX file to test a file upload handler?
Download a file close to your size or row-count threshold. For upload size testing, the By Row Count tab has files ranging from 10 rows (~8 KB) up to 50,000 rows (~8 MB). For format validation testing, make sure your handler accepts application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet as a MIME type — that's the correct MIME type for .xlsx files. Some handlers incorrectly check only for application/vnd.ms-excel, which is the older .xls format.
What is the correct MIME type for an XLSX file?
The correct MIME type for .xlsx (Office Open XML) is application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet. The older binary Excel format (.xls) uses application/vnd.ms-excel. These are frequently confused in upload validators. All files generated on this page are .xlsx and use the correct modern MIME type.
Can I generate an XLSX file with multiple sheets?
Yes — the Multi-Sheet tab has pre-configured multi-sheet workbooks. The custom generator currently creates single-sheet files, but the multi-sheet tab covers the most common testing scenarios: a workbook with the same data across 3 sheets (for testing sheet navigation), a workbook with 5 differently-structured sheets (for testing parser robustness), a dashboard-style workbook with a summary sheet plus detail sheets, and an empty-sheets workbook for testing edge-case handling.