Use Nutrient DWS Processor API to convert Excel spreadsheets (XLS, XLSX) into PDF output without running Microsoft Office on your server. Start free with 50 monthly credits — no credit card, watermarked output — and move to production with credit-based pricing.
Convert XLS and XLSX files to PDF while preserving tables, formatting, charts, and page layout — no Office license or local installation required.
Use REST, Postman, curl, JavaScript, Python, Java, C#, PHP, or HTTP to automate Excel-to-PDF conversion inside larger document processing pipelines.
Excel-to-PDF is one action in the DWS Processor API. Combine it with Word, PowerPoint, HTML, and image conversion in a single request.
This example will convert your uploaded XLSX file to a PDF.
Try it out in three steps
document.xlsx to your project folder.result.pdf to see the output.curl -X POST https://api.nutrient.io/processor/convert_to_pdf \ -H "Content-Type: application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet" \ -H "Authorization: Bearer your_api_key_here" \ -o result.pdf \ --fail \ --data-binary @document.xlsxcurl -X POST https://api.nutrient.io/processor/convert_to_pdf ^ -H "Content-Type: application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet" ^ -H "Authorization: Bearer your_api_key_here" ^ -o result.pdf ^ --fail ^ --data-binary @document.xlsxpackage com.example.pspdfkit;
import java.io.File;import java.io.IOException;import java.nio.file.FileSystems;import java.nio.file.Files;import java.nio.file.StandardCopyOption;
import org.json.JSONArray;import org.json.JSONObject;
import okhttp3.MediaType;import okhttp3.MultipartBody;import okhttp3.OkHttpClient;import okhttp3.Request;import okhttp3.RequestBody;import okhttp3.Response;
public final class PspdfkitApiExample { public static void main(final String[] args) throws IOException { final MediaType mediaType = MediaType.parse("application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet"); final RequestBody body = RequestBody.create( mediaType, new File("document.xlsx") );
final Request request = new Request.Builder() .url("https://api.nutrient.io/processor/convert_to_pdf") .method("POST", body) .addHeader("Content-Type", "application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet") .addHeader("Authorization", "Bearer your_api_key_here") .build();
final OkHttpClient client = new OkHttpClient() .newBuilder() .build();
final Response response = client.newCall(request).execute();
if (response.isSuccessful()) { Files.copy( response.body().byteStream(), FileSystems.getDefault().getPath("result.pdf"), StandardCopyOption.REPLACE_EXISTING ); } else { // Handle the error throw new IOException(response.body().string()); } }}using System;using System.IO;using System.Net;using RestSharp;
namespace PspdfkitApiDemo{ class Program { static void Main(string[] args) { var client = new RestClient("https://api.nutrient.io/processor/convert_to_pdf");
var request = new RestRequest(Method.POST) .AddHeader("Authorization", "Bearer your_api_key_here") .AddFile("document.xlsx", "document.xlsx");
request.AdvancedResponseWriter = (responseStream, response) => { if (response.StatusCode == HttpStatusCode.OK) { using (responseStream) { using var outputFileWriter = File.OpenWrite("result.pdf"); responseStream.CopyTo(outputFileWriter); } } else { var responseStreamReader = new StreamReader(responseStream); Console.Write(responseStreamReader.ReadToEnd()); } };
client.Execute(request); } }}// This code requires Node.js. Do not run this code directly in a web browser.
const axios = require('axios')const FormData = require('form-data')const fs = require('fs')
const body = fs.createReadStream('document.xlsx')
;(async () => { try { const response = await axios.post('https://api.nutrient.io/processor/convert_to_pdf', body, { headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet', 'Authorization': 'Bearer your_api_key_here' }, responseType: "stream" })
response.data.pipe(fs.createWriteStream("result.pdf")) } catch (e) { const errorString = await streamToString(e.response.data) console.log(errorString) }})()
function streamToString(stream) { const chunks = [] return new Promise((resolve, reject) => { stream.on("data", (chunk) => chunks.push(Buffer.from(chunk))) stream.on("error", (err) => reject(err)) stream.on("end", () => resolve(Buffer.concat(chunks).toString("utf8"))) })}import requestsimport json
body = open('document.xlsx', 'rb')
response = requests.request( 'POST', 'https://api.nutrient.io/processor/convert_to_pdf', headers = { 'Content-Type': 'application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet', 'Authorization': 'Bearer your_api_key_here' }, data = body, stream = True)
if response.ok: with open('result.pdf', 'wb') as fd: for chunk in response.iter_content(chunk_size=8096): fd.write(chunk)else: print(response.text) exit()<?php
$FileHandle = fopen('result.pdf', 'w+');
$curl = curl_init();
$body = file_get_contents('document.xlsx');
curl_setopt_array($curl, array( CURLOPT_URL => 'https://api.nutrient.io/processor/convert_to_pdf', CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST => 'POST', CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true, CURLOPT_ENCODING => '', CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS => $body, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => array( 'Content-Type: application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet', 'Authorization: Bearer your_api_key_here' ), CURLOPT_FILE => $FileHandle,));
$response = curl_exec($curl);
curl_close($curl);
fclose($FileHandle);POST https://api.nutrient.io/processor/convert_to_pdf HTTP/1.1Content-Type: application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheetAuthorization: Bearer your_api_key_here
<document.xlsx contents>curl -X POST https://api.nutrient.io/build \ -H "Authorization: Bearer your_api_key_here" \ -o result.pdf \ --fail \ -F file=@document.xlsx \ -F instructions='{ "parts": [ { "file": "file" } ] }'curl -X POST https://api.nutrient.io/build ^ -H "Authorization: Bearer your_api_key_here" ^ -o result.pdf ^ --fail ^ -F file=@document.xlsx ^ -F instructions="{\"parts\": [{\"file\": \"file\"}]}"package com.example.pspdfkit;
import java.io.File;import java.io.IOException;import java.nio.file.FileSystems;import java.nio.file.Files;import java.nio.file.StandardCopyOption;
import org.json.JSONArray;import org.json.JSONObject;
import okhttp3.MediaType;import okhttp3.MultipartBody;import okhttp3.OkHttpClient;import okhttp3.Request;import okhttp3.RequestBody;import okhttp3.Response;
public final class PspdfkitApiExample { public static void main(final String[] args) throws IOException { final RequestBody body = new MultipartBody.Builder() .setType(MultipartBody.FORM) .addFormDataPart( "file", "document.xlsx", RequestBody.create( MediaType.parse("application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet"), new File("document.xlsx") ) ) .addFormDataPart( "instructions", new JSONObject() .put("parts", new JSONArray() .put(new JSONObject() .put("file", "file") ) ).toString() ) .build();
final Request request = new Request.Builder() .url("https://api.nutrient.io/build") .method("POST", body) .addHeader("Authorization", "Bearer your_api_key_here") .build();
final OkHttpClient client = new OkHttpClient() .newBuilder() .build();
final Response response = client.newCall(request).execute();
if (response.isSuccessful()) { Files.copy( response.body().byteStream(), FileSystems.getDefault().getPath("result.pdf"), StandardCopyOption.REPLACE_EXISTING ); } else { // Handle the error throw new IOException(response.body().string()); } }}using System;using System.IO;using System.Net;using RestSharp;
namespace PspdfkitApiDemo{ class Program { static void Main(string[] args) { var client = new RestClient("https://api.nutrient.io/build");
var request = new RestRequest(Method.POST) .AddHeader("Authorization", "Bearer your_api_key_here") .AddFile("file", "document.xlsx") .AddParameter("instructions", new JsonObject { ["parts"] = new JsonArray { new JsonObject { ["file"] = "file" } } }.ToString());
request.AdvancedResponseWriter = (responseStream, response) => { if (response.StatusCode == HttpStatusCode.OK) { using (responseStream) { using var outputFileWriter = File.OpenWrite("result.pdf"); responseStream.CopyTo(outputFileWriter); } } else { var responseStreamReader = new StreamReader(responseStream); Console.Write(responseStreamReader.ReadToEnd()); } };
client.Execute(request); } }}// This code requires Node.js. Do not run this code directly in a web browser.
const axios = require('axios')const FormData = require('form-data')const fs = require('fs')
const formData = new FormData()formData.append('instructions', JSON.stringify({ parts: [ { file: "file" } ]}))formData.append('file', fs.createReadStream('document.xlsx'))
;(async () => { try { const response = await axios.post('https://api.nutrient.io/build', formData, { headers: formData.getHeaders({ 'Authorization': 'Bearer your_api_key_here' }), responseType: "stream" })
response.data.pipe(fs.createWriteStream("result.pdf")) } catch (e) { const errorString = await streamToString(e.response.data) console.log(errorString) }})()
function streamToString(stream) { const chunks = [] return new Promise((resolve, reject) => { stream.on("data", (chunk) => chunks.push(Buffer.from(chunk))) stream.on("error", (err) => reject(err)) stream.on("end", () => resolve(Buffer.concat(chunks).toString("utf8"))) })}import requestsimport json
response = requests.request( 'POST', 'https://api.nutrient.io/build', headers = { 'Authorization': 'Bearer your_api_key_here' }, files = { 'file': open('document.xlsx', 'rb') }, data = { 'instructions': json.dumps({ 'parts': [ { 'file': 'file' } ] }) }, stream = True)
if response.ok: with open('result.pdf', 'wb') as fd: for chunk in response.iter_content(chunk_size=8096): fd.write(chunk)else: print(response.text) exit()<?php
$FileHandle = fopen('result.pdf', 'w+');
$curl = curl_init();
curl_setopt_array($curl, array( CURLOPT_URL => 'https://api.nutrient.io/build', CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST => 'POST', CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true, CURLOPT_ENCODING => '', CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS => array( 'instructions' => '{ "parts": [ { "file": "file" } ] }', 'file' => new CURLFILE('document.xlsx') ), CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => array( 'Authorization: Bearer your_api_key_here' ), CURLOPT_FILE => $FileHandle,));
$response = curl_exec($curl);
curl_close($curl);
fclose($FileHandle);POST https://api.nutrient.io/build HTTP/1.1Content-Type: multipart/form-data; boundary=--customboundaryAuthorization: Bearer your_api_key_here
--customboundaryContent-Disposition: form-data; name="instructions"Content-Type: application/json
{ "parts": [ { "file": "file" } ]}--customboundaryContent-Disposition: form-data; name="file"; filename="document.xlsx"Content-Type: application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet
(file data)--customboundary--Most common next steps
Use the following:
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Nutrient’s infrastructure is SOC 2 Type 2 audited and GDPR-compliant. See our privacy policy and security documentation for details on data handling.
All communication between your application and Nutrient is done via HTTPS to ensure your data is encrypted when it’s sent to us.
All payments are handled by Paddle. Nutrient DWS Processor API never has direct access to any of your payment data.
The Excel-to-PDF API handles both legacy .xls and modern .xlsx spreadsheets through one endpoint, while the XLSX-to-PDF API is a dedicated endpoint for .xlsx only. Use Excel-to-PDF when your inputs include either format; use XLSX-to-PDF when you only ever send .xlsx.
No. Nutrient DWS Processor API converts spreadsheets to PDF server-side with no Microsoft Office license or installation required, so it runs in headless and containerized environments.
Both the legacy binary .xls format and the modern Office Open XML .xlsx format are supported. For exact version coverage, see the Processor API reference.
Tables, cell formatting, charts, and page layout are carried into the PDF output. Formula results are rendered as shown in the sheet rather than as live, recalculable formulas.
You can start free with Nutrient DWS credits and test with Postman before moving to credit-based Processor API pricing. For current per-request size and rate limits, see the Processor API reference and pricing.
Create an account to get your DWS Processor API key and start making API calls.