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csvlite vs spreadsheets

Keep Excel for spreadsheets.
Open the whole CSV in csvlite.

Checked against each product’s own documentation.

vs Excel50× more rowsa worksheet holds 1,048,576
10 GB CSV2.45 sto open and index every row
Your fileRead-onlynever modified, never uploaded

Pick by the job

Choose Excel or Sheets for

  • Formulas, charts and editing cells
  • Live collaboration (Google Sheets)
  • Data that fits in 1,048,576 rows

Choose csvlite for

  • CSVs with more than 1,048,576 rows
  • Files that must stay on your machine
  • Typed filters, column profiles and pivots on every row
  • CSV, TSV and JSON Lines, straight from disk
Rows you can see from a 52.7-million-row CSV15 columns, 10 GB. Sheets: 20 million cells ÷ 15 columns.
csvlite52,720,416every row
Google Sheets1,333,3332.5%
Excel worksheet1,048,5762.0%

Limits from Microsoft and Google, checked 29 September 2026.

Sources, checked 29 September 2026: Excel specifications and limits · Microsoft’s large-data guidance · Google Sheets limits

All comparisons · Modern CSV · EmEditor · DuckDB & VisiData · Speed vs pandas, Polars & DuckDB

Try it on your own CSV

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