How to Display an Excel Spreadsheet on a Web Page

Updated September 2026

There are five ways to put an Excel spreadsheet on a web page, and they answer different questions. Paste an HTML table when the numbers hold still. Use Excel's Save As Web Page when you want Excel to write the file for you. Embed the live workbook from OneDrive or SharePoint when viewers need to sort and filter. Publish from Google Sheets when the page must update itself for free. Build a web app when people need to edit the data or see different rows. Pick by asking one question first: does anyone need to change the numbers once they are on the page?

I get asked this most often by operations managers who have been handed a job that sounds simple. The price list has to be on the website. The schedule has to be on the intranet. The board report has to be readable without a download. Those three jobs need three different answers, and picking the wrong one costs you an hour a week for the next two years.

Method 1: paste an HTML table

You convert the sheet to an HTML table, then paste that markup into your page. This is the cleanest result and it takes about ten seconds with our free Excel to HTML converter. The file is read in your own browser and never uploaded.

The output is a plain table element with header cells and body rows. Your site's own CSS styles it, so it matches the rest of the page. Search engines read the values as text, which matters when the table itself is the reason people find you. A published price list or a specification table earns search traffic. The same numbers inside an embedded viewer earn none, because the viewer loads them after the page does.

The cost is that it is a snapshot. Change the workbook and the page keeps showing yesterday's numbers until you convert and paste again. That is fine monthly. It is painful weekly.

Method 2: Excel's own Save As Web Page

Excel on Windows can write the file itself. Open the workbook, choose Save As, and pick Web Page (.htm, .html) or Single File Web Page (.mht). Microsoft's guide to saving all or part of a workbook to a static web page walks through it, and it also describes the useful part most people miss. In the Publish as Web Page dialog you can tick AutoRepublish every time this workbook is saved, so saving the workbook rewrites the web page.

Two things to know before you rely on it. Microsoft states that when you save a workbook as a webpage, "fewer Excel features are maintained in the file", and recommends keeping the .xlsx as your master copy. And the markup Excel writes is very large, because it carries the formatting and Office metadata with it. If you already have one of those files and it broke your page layout, here is what is inside it and how to clean it up.

Method 3: embed the live workbook from OneDrive or SharePoint

Microsoft lets you embed an Excel for the web workbook by setting the SRC attribute of an iframe element on the web page. Viewers see the real workbook. Microsoft notes it "lets you interact with the data if your workbook has a table or PivotTable that can be sorted and filtered".

The limits are published and they are firm. Workbook size is capped at 10 MB. Up to 1,000 people can view at once, and Microsoft warns that "heavy traffic on the embedded workbook might result in some viewers being throttled". The file has to live on OneDrive for Business or SharePoint Online, and for a public page you have to share it and clear the Require sign-in box. That last step is the one that goes wrong. Clearing it makes the whole workbook readable by anyone who finds the link, including the tabs you forgot were in there.

One more limit worth knowing. Microsoft's own comparison of the browser and the desktop says that for macro enabled workbooks, "a workbook in this format can be opened but macros do not run in a browser window". An embedded workbook that depends on VBA will look right and do nothing.

Method 4: publish from Google Sheets

If the sheet already lives in Google Sheets, this is the least work. Open the file, then choose File, Share, and Publish to web. You get a link or an embed. Google states that "any changes you make to the original document will be updated in the published version", though "the automatic update might take a few minutes". You can switch that off by clearing Automatically republish when changes are made.

Viewers get a version with no toolbar. Google notes that people with view permissions "can see charts, cell formatting, and the values of cells, but can't view or edit formulas", which is a real advantage when the formulas are the valuable part. Google's own warning applies with full force: "be careful when publishing private or sensitive info". Publishing is not sharing. It is broadcasting.

Method 5: build a small web app

The four methods above all display data. None of them lets a visitor change it, and none of them shows different rows to different people. Excel's protection feature does not close that gap either. Microsoft says plainly that "worksheet level protection isn't intended as a security feature". Google says the same about protected ranges: "this shouldn't be used as a security measure".

So when the real requirement goes past showing numbers, the honest answer is software, and which kind depends on who is looking. If the audience is customers or the public, and they need to browse, search and send you something, that is a website built from the sheet. Our Excel to website builder reads the workbook and builds one, with your columns as the search filters.

If the audience is your own team, and a supplier updates their own line or a regional manager sees only their region, that is an internal tool with accounts and permissions. Our Excel to app converter builds that, and there is a longer walkthrough in how to convert an Excel spreadsheet to a web application.

Which method should you use?

Read the table by starting at the right question. If nobody edits, stay in the top two rows and keep your life simple. If the page must be current and nobody edits, embed. If anyone edits, the bottom row is the only row that works, and the other four will cost you months of workarounds before you admit it.

Is "convert Excel to a website" a different job?

Usually it is the same job with bigger words. When people say website they normally mean one of two things. Either they want the numbers visible on a page they already have, which is method 1 or 4 above. Or they want a place where a team logs in and works, which is method 5 and is really an application with a login screen.

The word that separates them is "enter". If anyone will enter data, you are building software. If everyone only reads, you are publishing a page. Deciding that in the first meeting saves a lot of rework.

If it is the first kind, you can see it in about 60 seconds. Upload the workbook to the Excel to website builder and it builds a live site from your rows, with a public form so visitors can send you an enquiry or a booking that lands with the right record.

Three mistakes that cost the most

The first is publishing the whole workbook to show one tab. Both the Microsoft embed and the Google publish flow can expose more than you meant. Copy the tab you want into a fresh file, then publish that file.

The second is treating an embed as access control. A link that works without a sign-in works for everyone who ever receives it, forever. If the data should not be public, do not publish it.

The third is choosing a static export for data that changes daily. You will hold that job manually for years. At about ten minutes a day, a weekly re-export costs more staff time in a year than an application costs to build.

Frequently asked questions

How do I display an Excel sheet in a web page without Microsoft 365?

Convert the sheet to an HTML table and paste it into the page. That needs no account and no subscription. The free Excel to HTML converter does it in your browser.

Can I embed Excel in a web application?

Yes, using the iframe method in Microsoft's embed documentation, within the 10 MB workbook and 1,000 concurrent viewer limits. Inside a real application it is usually the wrong choice, because the embedded workbook has no connection to your application's users, permissions or database.

Will the embedded workbook show my formulas?

A Microsoft embed shows the workbook as Excel for the web renders it, so a viewer can click a cell and see the formula. Google's published version hides formulas and shows values. Choose accordingly when the formula is your intellectual property.

How do I put a spreadsheet on a web page so my team can edit it?

You cannot, with any of the display methods. Editing by more than one person needs an application with accounts. See how to add logins and permissions to a spreadsheet based process.

What about very large sheets?

A pasted HTML table of tens of thousands of rows will make the page slow. Publish a summary and let people search the detail in an application. The Microsoft embed has a hard 10 MB workbook limit, which arrives sooner than most people expect.

Sources: Microsoft, Save all or part of a workbook to a static Web page; Microsoft, Embed your Excel workbook on your web page or blog; Microsoft, Differences between using a workbook in the browser and in Excel; Microsoft, Protect a worksheet; Google, Publish a file from Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, or Forms; Google, Protect a sheet or range. All checked September 2026.