iLovePDF is one of the most popular free PDF toolboxes on the web. It merges, splits, compresses, edits, signs, and converts files, with browser tools plus desktop and mobile apps, and a lot of it costs nothing. If you came here to turn a PDF table into a spreadsheet, the real question is narrower than "is the whole product free": it is what the free version actually converts to Excel, and where it stops and asks you to pay. Here is the honest answer for 2026, with the catch most people only find after they upload a scan.
Is iLovePDF free?
Yes, iLovePDF is genuinely free for a wide range of everyday PDF tasks, with no account required for the basics. Merging, splitting, compressing, rotating, and converting clean digital PDFs all work on the free tier, which is why the brand is so widely used. The free version comes with file-size and processing limits, and a handful of features sit on the paid Premium and Business plans. So "free" is accurate for most simple jobs, but not for every job, and the PDF to Excel case is where the line matters.
Does iLovePDF convert PDF to Excel for free?
For a clean, digital PDF, yes: iLovePDF has a dedicated PDF to Excel tool that works on the free tier and produces a usable spreadsheet from a table that already has a text layer. The free conversion handles native PDFs, the kind exported straight from accounting software or a bank's online portal. Where it breaks is the scanned or photographed document, because that page is an image with no text to pull, and reading it needs OCR, which iLovePDF reserves for its paid plans.
Why won't iLovePDF convert my scanned PDF to Excel?
Because a scan is a picture of a page, not text, and turning that picture back into rows and numbers takes OCR (optical character recognition). iLovePDF lists PDF to Excel with OCR as a Premium and Business feature, so a free user who uploads a scanned bank statement or a phone photo of an invoice gets an empty or garbled result. This is the single most common reason people search for an iLovePDF alternative: the free converter is fine until the file is a scan, and then it asks for an upgrade exactly when you need it most.
Not sure which kind of file you have? Open the PDF and try to select a row of text with your cursor. If the text highlights, it is a digital PDF with a real text layer, and the free tool can usually handle it. If your cursor selects the whole page as one image and nothing highlights, it is a scan, and you will need OCR to get it into Excel. Statements downloaded from a bank's website are almost always digital; anything that came off a copier, a fax, or a phone camera is almost always a scan.
Does iLovePDF have a file size or daily limit?
Yes. The free tier caps file sizes (smaller limits than the multi-gigabyte ceilings on Premium) and limits how many documents you can process before it prompts you to upgrade, and it allows lower batch counts. For a one-off conversion you may never notice. For a stack of statements or a large multi-page report, you can hit a wall: a file that is too big, or a batch that is larger than the free tier allows. Premium raises or removes those limits, which is part of what you pay for.
How much does iLovePDF Premium cost?
As of 2026, iLovePDF Premium is around $9 a month, or roughly $60 a year when billed annually, and the Business plan is custom priced through their sales team. Premium removes file-size limits and unlocks OCR for scanned files, higher batch counts, the desktop and mobile apps, and ad-free use. If your only need is getting tables out of PDFs, paying a monthly subscription for the whole toolbox can be more than the job requires. Pricing changes, so confirm the current figure on iLovePDF's own site before you subscribe.
Is iLovePDF's PDF to Excel quality good?
On clean, simple tables it is good enough for most quick jobs. On busy or multi-column layouts, reviewers note the output can trail dedicated extractors: columns drift, numbers occasionally land as text, and merged cells need cleanup. That is the trade-off of a general toolbox where PDF to Excel is one of more than twenty-five tools rather than the whole focus. If your tables are dense financial documents and the figures have to total correctly the first time, a converter built specifically for tables tends to hold structure better.
Is iLovePDF safe to use?
iLovePDF is an established company that encrypts files in transit and deletes them from its servers after processing, and it offers desktop apps for work that should stay offline. As with any online tool, the safe habit is to upload only documents you are comfortable processing in the cloud, and to use an offline option for anything that genuinely cannot leave your machine. Read the privacy terms of any converter before you send it sensitive financial data, regardless of brand.
How do I convert a PDF to Excel for free, scans included?
If your file is a scan and you do not want to subscribe just to unlock OCR, use a focused converter that includes OCR on its free tier. Our iLovePDF alternative reads digital and scanned PDFs, applies OCR automatically, and keeps numbers numeric so a column totals on the first try. Upload one file or a batch, then download a clean XLSX or CSV. For the steps on image-only files, see how to convert a scanned PDF to Excel, and for tricky layouts the accurate PDF to Excel converter.
One more tip: match the tool to the document. If the PDF is a bank statement, a converter built for that format will line up the columns more reliably, like this bank statement to Excel converter. If it is a vendor bill, an invoice to Excel extractor is tuned for invoice fields, and for piles of receipts a dedicated receipt data extractor saves the most cleanup. The right tool for the document beats forcing every file through a single general converter.