The short answer: CloudConvert pricing is based on conversion credits. A monthly subscription costs $10 for 1,000 credits, $40 for 5,000 and $74 for 10,000, and one-time packages cost more per credit but never expire. A PDF to Excel conversion is a "PDF to Office" job with a base cost of 4 credits, so on the $10 plan each PDF to Excel file costs about 4 cents. The free tier gives 10 conversions a day.
That makes CloudConvert one of the cheapest ways to turn a PDF into an XLSX file, and it is worth saying so up front. The harder question is what you get for 4 cents when the PDF is a 30 page bank statement or a general ledger export, and whether a cheaper file is the cheaper month once someone has to clean it up. This guide lays out the full price list, the credit math for PDF to Excel specifically, and where a dedicated converter earns its higher price.
How much does CloudConvert cost?
CloudConvert sells the same credits two ways. Subscriptions give you a fixed number of credits every month at the lowest per credit rate, and unused credits expire at the end of the month. Packages are one-time purchases whose credits never expire. CloudConvert says subscriptions can be up to 50% cheaper than packages. The slider on its pricing page runs from 500 to 1,000,000 credits, and these are the US dollar prices before any sales tax, as listed on September 30, 2026.
| Credits | Subscription, per month | Package, one time | PDF to Excel files at 4 credits | Subscription cost per file |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 500 | $5 | $10 | 125 | $0.040 |
| 1,000 | $10 | $18 | 250 | $0.040 |
| 2,000 | $17 | $32 | 500 | $0.034 |
| 5,000 | $40 | $72 | 1,250 | $0.032 |
| 10,000 | $74 | $133 | 2,500 | $0.030 |
| 25,000 | $166 | $294 | 6,250 | $0.027 |
| 50,000 | $306 | $532 | 12,500 | $0.024 |
| 100,000 | $561 | $949 | 25,000 | $0.022 |
Above that, 1,000,000 credits is $3,912 a month on subscription, and there is an Enterprise tier with custom plans, dedicated capacity, SSO and custom contracts. There is no minimum term on subscriptions: you can cancel at any time, although switching plans makes remaining credits expire. Team billing lets a company share one billing account with unlimited team members while each person's files stay private.
How many credits does a PDF to Excel conversion use?
At least 4. CloudConvert's pricing FAQ lists a base credit cost per conversion type: 1 credit for general conversions, 2 for Office to PDF and iWork to PDF, and 4 for PDF to Office, which covers PDF to XLSX. On top of the base, credits are charged by conversion time, roughly one credit per minute, so a very long or heavy file can use more than 4. Only successful conversions are charged.
The base cost is the number that matters for budgeting. People who read "1,000 credits for $10" and expect 1,000 spreadsheets get 250. It is still cheap, but plan the tier on files times four, not on files.
Is CloudConvert free?
There is a free tier for personal use, testing and hobby projects: 10 conversions a day with a daily reset, files up to 1 GB, up to 5 minutes of processing time and low processing priority. Paid credits remove the file size and processing time limits and move jobs to high priority. For a business converting statements every month, the daily cap and low priority make the free tier a trial rather than a workflow, and CloudConvert positions it that way.
What a month of PDF to Excel costs on CloudConvert and on a dedicated converter
Here is the same workload priced both ways. CloudConvert uses the cheapest subscription that covers the files at 4 credits each. The dedicated column is our own list price from the PDFXLSX pricing page, which bills per file regardless of page count.
| Monthly workload | CloudConvert credits | CloudConvert subscription | PDFXLSX plan |
|---|---|---|---|
| 40 statements, one user | 160 | $5 (500 credits) | $49 Starter, 50 files |
| 400 invoices and statements, team of 3 | 1,600 | $17 (2,000 credits) | $99 Plus, 500 files, 5 seats |
| 2,500 documents, team of 10 | 10,000 | $74 (10,000 credits) | $199 Pro, unlimited files and seats |
On sticker price CloudConvert wins every row, by a wide margin. If your PDFs are clean, digitally generated reports with one simple table each and you only need the numbers roughly in cells, that is the rational choice and you should take it.
When paying more than CloudConvert makes sense
CloudConvert is a general file converter. It handles more than 200 formats through one account and one API, and its own PDF to Excel page says it extracts tables automatically. That breadth is the product. A dedicated PDF to Excel tool is narrower on purpose, and the extra cost buys things that matter mainly for financial documents:
- Statements and ledgers that run long. A 40 page bank statement is one file on every plan, and each table in it lands on its own sheet, so the transactions are not mixed in with the account summary.
- Numbers that stay numbers. Amounts, dates and running balances land as values Excel can sum, and where a total row adds up we write a SUM formula instead of a pasted figure, so a reviewer can tie out the statement in one click.
- Scanned pages. OCR is included on every plan, so a scanned lender packet or a faxed invoice converts the same way as a digital PDF. See OCR to Excel converter for how that works.
- Team work in one place. Plus and Pro keep a shared conversion history for the team, handle batches of up to 20 files and send one email when a batch finishes. The batch PDF to Excel converter page covers the limits.
The fair test is not the price list. Take the three ugliest PDFs your team converted last month, run them through both, and time how long it takes to get each workbook to the point where it ties out. If CloudConvert's files need five minutes of cleanup each and your team costs $40 an hour, 400 files a month is over $1,300 of labor, which dwarfs the $82 gap between the two plans. If the files come out clean, keep the $17 plan.
CloudConvert API pricing for developers
The API uses the same credits as the web app, and every plan, including free, includes all API features. That is a real advantage: a developer can call the PDF to XLSX conversion from code at the same 4 credit base cost with no separate API tier. Our PDF to Excel API is included on the Pro plan only, at $199 a month for unlimited files, so for a developer converting a few hundred simple PDFs a month CloudConvert is again the cheaper route. Another per page API worth pricing is PDF.co, whose PDF.co pricing works out to under 2 cents a page for PDF to XLSX. The case for ours is the same as above, output built for financial tables, and it only pays off if cleanup time is the bigger cost.
Should I buy a CloudConvert package or a subscription?
Buy a subscription if your volume is steady every month, because it is roughly 45% cheaper per credit at most tiers and credits reset monthly anyway. Buy a package if your conversions come in bursts, such as a year end cleanup or a one-off migration, because package credits never expire. You can hold both: CloudConvert spends subscription credits first and package credits after, and packages can auto-refill when they run out.
Common questions about CloudConvert pricing
How much is CloudConvert per month?
CloudConvert subscriptions start at $5 a month for 500 credits and $10 a month for 1,000 credits, rising to $74 for 10,000 and $561 for 100,000. There is no minimum term. Enterprise plans with custom capacity and contracts are priced on request.
Does CloudConvert charge per page?
No. CloudConvert charges per conversion, using a base credit cost by conversion type plus roughly one credit per minute of processing time. A PDF to Excel conversion starts at 4 credits whatever the page count, though a very large file that takes longer can use more.
Do CloudConvert credits expire?
Subscription credits reset at the end of each month and do not roll over. Package credits never expire. Changing to a different subscription also makes any remaining subscription credits expire, so switch at the end of a billing month.
What is a good CloudConvert alternative for PDF to Excel?
For simple, digital PDFs, CloudConvert is hard to beat on price. For bank statements, ledgers, scanned documents and team workflows, a dedicated converter is the usual alternative; our CloudConvert alternative page compares the two side by side, and the PDF to Excel cost per page guide covers the other billing models on the market.
One more route worth knowing: if the statement is headed for QuickBooks rather than a spreadsheet, a bank statement to QuickBooks converter that writes QBO files skips the Excel step entirely. And if your extraction tool bills by the page instead of the file, the DocuPipe alternative page shows how quickly per page credits add up on long documents.