How to turn a photo of a table into an Excel sheet

To turn a photo of a table into an Excel sheet, use Excel’s Data from Picture: it reads the rows and columns in the image, shows you the result to correct, and then inserts it as cells. Microsoft documents it in Excel for Microsoft 365 on Windows, Mac, the web, iPhone and Android (Microsoft). Google describes no picture import for Google Sheets, so for Sheets, or without Excel, convert the picture with our free image to Excel tool and open the XLSX or CSV file it gives you. Whichever you use, check a total, the dates and the decimals before you trust the numbers.

Image to Excel: quick answer by app

App or device	Where to find it	Notes
Excel on Windows	Data > From Picture > Picture From File or Picture From Clipboard	Windows 11, or Windows 10 version 1903 or later
Excel on a Mac	Data > Data from Picture > Picture From File or Picture From Clipboard	Can also scan paper with an iPhone through Continuity Camera
Excel for the web	Data > Data From Picture	Upload a picture file
Excel app on iPhone and Android	Insert > Data from Picture	Takes the photo with the camera
Microsoft 365 app on iPhone and Android	Actions > Image to Table	Opens the table in Excel
Google Sheets	No picture import in Google’s help	Import an XLSX or CSV made elsewhere
Any browser	Our image to Excel tool	XLSX, CSV or copy as cells, 10 free a day

Excel’s version suits you if you already work in Excel and the table is in one of the 21 languages Microsoft lists. Our tool suits other scripts, Google Sheets users and devices without Excel. Both make mistakes on a poor photo, so the checks further down apply to either.

How to use Data from Picture in Excel on Windows

1. On the Data tab, select From Picture, then Picture From File, and choose the image. For a screenshot, copy it first and choose Picture From Clipboard instead.
2. Wait while the Data from Picture dialog analyzes the picture.
3. Review the result, correct anything that is wrong, then select Insert Data (Microsoft).

Microsoft says Data from Picture in Excel for Windows needs Windows 11, or Windows 10 version 1903 or later, with the Microsoft Edge WebView2 Runtime installed (Microsoft).

To get a table from a web page, a PDF or an app onto the clipboard, press Windows logo key + Shift + S to open the Snipping Tool overlay, drag around the table, and press Ctrl + C to copy the snip (Microsoft). Then use Picture From Clipboard.

How to use Data from Picture in Excel on a Mac

Microsoft gives three ways in (Microsoft):

• A picture file: choose Data > Data from Picture > Picture From File.
• A screenshot: capture the table, then choose Picture From Clipboard under Data from Picture.
• A paper table, with your iPhone: this needs Continuity Camera. Right-click a cell, choose Scan Documents, take the photo on the iPhone, adjust it and tap Save.

For an iPhone scan, Microsoft recommends good lighting and a frame that shows only the data you want. As on Windows, check what Excel read before you rely on it.

How to use Data from Picture in Excel for the web

1. Select Data > Data From Picture.
2. Browse to the picture file and select Open.
3. Review the results, make any corrections, and select Insert Data (Microsoft).

Microsoft’s steps for the web start from a picture file, so save a screenshot or phone photo as a file first.

Photo of a table to Excel on iPhone and Android

In the Excel app:

1. Tap Insert > Data from Picture.
2. Frame the table until a red border surrounds it, then tap the capture button. Use the sizing handles to crop the picture if you need to.
3. Excel converts the picture and stops at each issue it found. Tap Ignore to move on to the next one, or Edit to correct it.
4. Tap Insert (Microsoft).

In the Microsoft 365 app, select Actions > Image to Table and capture the table. The app crops it for you, and you can adjust the crop before you select Confirm. Select Open to open the table in Excel. If the app found problems, such as typos from the extraction, choose Open Anyway to fix them in Excel or Review to fix them in the app, then save the table (Microsoft).

Older articles often point to Microsoft Lens. Microsoft retired it: removal from iOS and Android began on January 9, 2026, it left the app stores on February 9, 2026, and new scans stopped after March 9, 2026. Microsoft now suggests the OneDrive app for scanning (Microsoft).

What Data from Picture reads, and where it falls short

• Languages: Microsoft lists 21 supported character sets: English, Bosnian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish and Turkish (Microsoft). A table in Hindi, Tamil, Arabic, Greek or Chinese is not covered.
• The picture: Microsoft asks for an image that shows only the data you want, cropped if needed, shot head-on and in focus rather than at an angle, and as well lit as possible.
• Checking: Excel gives you a chance to correct the issues it found before the cells go in. It cannot know that a smudged 3 was really an 8, so a review on screen does not replace checking a total.
• What the page does not say: Microsoft’s page does not mention handwriting, a size limit for the picture, merged cells, or where the picture is processed.

Google Sheets: no picture import, and what to do instead

We found no Google help page that describes reading a table out of a picture in Google Sheets. These routes work:

• Import a file made elsewhere. Convert the picture to XLSX or CSV with Excel or our tool. In Sheets, click File > Import, choose the file, and pick where it goes, such as Create new spreadsheet, Insert new sheets or Replace current sheet. For a CSV you can set Separator character to Detect automatically, Tab, Comma or Custom (Google).
• Paste the cells. Our tool’s Copy for Excel button puts the table on your clipboard as cells, which paste into Sheets as well as Excel.
• Copy the words, then split them. Google Lens can copy text from a photo: in Google Photos on Android, open the photo, tap More, then Google Lens, and select the words (Google). Paste them into a sheet, select them, then choose Data > Split text to columns and change the Separator if the columns spread out wrongly (Google). This suits a short list better than a full table.
• Open the image with Google Docs. In Google Drive on a computer, right-click the image and click Open with > Google Docs to get its text. Google says the file should be 2 MB or smaller, the text at least 10 pixels high and the page upright, and that lists, tables and columns are not likely to be detected (Google). Expect to rebuild the columns by hand.

Convert an image to Excel in any browser with our tool

Our image to Excel tool works on a phone or a computer, with no Excel and no account needed.

1. Open image to Excel and drop a photo, scan or screenshot of the table on the page, choose it, or paste it with Ctrl + V (Cmd + V on a Mac). Excel is already selected under Get it as.
2. Press Read the text. The AI finds each table and reads it row by row, usually within a few seconds.
3. Compare a few rows and a total in the preview with the picture.
4. Select Download Excel for an .xlsx file, Download CSV, or Copy for Excel to paste the cells straight into Excel or Google Sheets.

What to know before you use it:

• What is sent, and when: nothing until you press the button. Your browser then makes a smaller copy of the image, up to 1,600 pixels on its long side and without its location or camera details, and sends it to the AI service we use. We keep neither the image nor the result.
• Free amount: 10 images a day without an account, or 30 when you sign in with Google, which is free. Each image counts as one, and the count resets at midnight UTC.
• One picture per read: for a long document, read one page at a time.
• Several tables: if the picture holds more than one table, each gets its own sheet, named after the table’s heading. Text outside the tables, such as a footnote, appears under the result.
• Numbers: plain numbers become real numbers you can add up, written with Western commas (1,250,000.00) or lakh and crore commas (12,50,000.00), negative amounts included. Amounts with currency signs, dates, percentages, codes with leading zeros such as 00123, and long ID or account numbers stay as text exactly as printed, so Excel cannot strip a zero or show 1.23E+11.
• Decimal commas: the XLSX file reads a comma as a thousands separator only when a group of three digits follows it, as in 1,250 or 12,50,000. A European amount such as 12,50 or 1.234,56 stays as text, exactly as printed. One case is ambiguous: 3,141 becomes the number 3141, so if your table uses decimal commas, check those cells, or paste with Copy for Excel, which hands Excel the values as written.
• Formatting: you get values and structure only. Colors, fonts, borders and merged cells are not copied.
• Languages: it reads many languages and scripts, including Devanagari, Bengali and Tamil, and the CSV carries a marker that tells Excel it is UTF-8, so accented letters and those scripts show correctly.

For a handful of rows, or anything you would rather not share with an AI service, typing the table yourself is still the most reliable route.

Tables inside a document: image to Word plus image to Excel

A page that mixes paragraphs with a table needs two reads. Our image to Word tool keeps headings, paragraphs and lists, but it gives you text, not a Word table, and its own page sends mostly tabular pages to image to Excel. So:

1. Read the whole page with image to Word and download the .docx file for the text.
2. Crop the picture to the table and read that with image to Excel.
3. Open the table in Excel, select the cells and press Ctrl + C. Click in the Word document where the table belongs and press Ctrl + V.
4. Select the Paste Options button. Use Destination Styles matches the document’s style, and Microsoft says it is usually the best way to keep the gridlines. Keep Source Formatting keeps the Excel formatting, and Keep Text Only puts each row in its own paragraph with tabs between the values (Microsoft).

Each read counts once toward your free daily amount. If you only need the words of a page, plain image to text is enough.

Tables in a PDF

Excel can read tables from a PDF file directly. Choose Data > Get Data > From File > From PDF, select the file and select Open. The Navigator window lists the tables it found. Load the ones you want to a sheet, or select Transform Data to tidy them in Power Query first. Microsoft notes that this connector needs .NET Framework 4.5 or later installed (Microsoft).

A scanned PDF holds pictures of pages rather than text. If Navigator finds nothing useful, or your Excel has no PDF option, take a screenshot of the table and use Data from Picture or our tool, which reads images rather than PDF files. Google Drive can also open a PDF with Google Docs, with the same warning about tables (Google).

Check the result before you use it

A misread digit in a table is easy to miss, so spend two minutes on these checks whichever method you used:

• Add up a column and compare it with the printed total. Spot-check the first and last rows too, where a tight crop can cut a row off.
• Numbers stored as text. Excel usually shows an alert next to a number stored as text. Select the cells, select the error indicator (or press Alt + Shift + F10) and choose Convert to Number. Another way is the VALUE function in a new column, pasted back as values (Microsoft).
• Dates. Dates imported as text sit on the left of the cell instead of the right. For two-digit years, Excel’s error button offers Convert XX to 20XX or Convert XX to 19XX. For other text dates, Microsoft suggests the DATEVALUE function, then pasting the results as values and applying a date format (Microsoft). Check the day and month order as well: 03/04/2026 is 3 April in India or the UK, and March 4 in the US.
• Decimal and thousands separators. Excel uses the separators from your computer’s regional settings. To change them in Excel only, select File > Options, and on the Advanced tab clear Use system separators, then type the Decimal separator and Thousands separator you need (Microsoft).
• A CSV that opens in one column. Import it instead of opening it: on the Data tab, select From Text/CSV, choose the file and pick the comma under Delimiter, and the preview updates as you choose (Microsoft).
• Merged cells. A heading that spans several columns in the picture usually arrives in a single cell, because our tool does not copy merged cells. Move it where it belongs, or merge again with Home > Merge & Center. Microsoft warns that merging keeps only the upper-left cell’s contents and deletes the rest (Microsoft).
• Leading zeros and long numbers. Codes like 00123 and long card or account numbers must stay as text. If you retype one into a number cell, Excel drops the zeros or shows it in scientific notation.
• Words the AI could not read. Press Ctrl + F and search for [unclear]. Our tool writes it in place of anything it could not make out.

Handwritten tables

Microsoft’s page for Data from Picture is written around pictures of printed data and does not mention handwriting (Microsoft). Try it if you have it, but plan to check every cell.

Our image to Excel tool reads handwriting as well as print, and it writes [unclear] instead of guessing at a word it cannot read. Handwriting still goes wrong more often than print, mostly in digits, so:

• Write in dark ink, with clear digits and block capitals, one entry per box.
• Keep lines out of the digits. Ruled lines or grid lines running through the numbers cause misreads, so write inside the boxes, or on plain paper.
• Photograph one page at a time, flat and from straight above.
• Compare every number with the paper, not just the totals.

For handwritten notes that are not a table, handwriting to text keeps the writer’s own line breaks instead.

Tips for a photo that converts cleanly

Most mistakes start with the picture, not the reader:

• Shoot straight on. Lay the page flat and hold the phone directly above it. Microsoft asks for a head-on, focused picture rather than one taken at an angle (Microsoft).
• Use bright, even light. Daylight from a window works well. Keep the shadow of your hand and phone off the page, and avoid glare on glossy paper.
• Crop to the table. Leave out the desk, the page header and anything else you do not want imported. Microsoft asks for a picture that shows only the data you want (Microsoft). Our crop tool does this in the browser.
• Turn it upright. A sideways page stays sideways, and Google’s OCR needs the page upright (Google). Rotate the image first.
• Make the text big. Move closer rather than zooming afterwards. Our tool sends a copy up to 1,600 pixels on its long side, so read a very long table in two halves.
• Prefer a screenshot. For a table on a screen, a screenshot beats a photo of the screen: the grid lines are sharp and there is no glare or striped pattern from the screen.

If a cell keeps coming out wrong, retake that part of the table closer and read it on its own, then paste the corrected rows into your sheet.