Convert Excel files to PDFs using Nutrient DWS Processor’s XLSX-to-PDF PHP API. The free plan includes 200 credits. Different operations consume different amounts of credits. Create a free account(opens in a new tab) to get your API key.

Why convert Excel to PDF?

Converting Excel files to PDF is essential for workflows requiring document standardization and sharing. Common use cases include:

• Document preservation — Convert spreadsheets to PDFs to preserve formatting, formulas, and layouts regardless of software or device used to view them.
• Professional reporting — Generate polished financial reports, invoices, and data summaries that maintain consistent appearance across platforms.
• Compliance and archiving — Create tamper-resistant records for auditing, regulatory compliance, and long-term document storage.
• Universal sharing — Share data with stakeholders who don’t have Excel or who prefer read-only formats that prevent accidental editing.
• Print-ready documents — Ensure spreadsheets print exactly as intended without pagination or formatting issues.

The Excel-to-PDF API automates this process in your workflow.

Nutrient DWS Processor API

Converting Excel-to-PDF is one of 30+ operations available through our PDF API tools. Combine Excel-to-PDF conversion with other tools for complex workflows:

• Converting various file formats and consolidating them into PDFs
• Converting Excel files and then watermarking and flattening the PDFs
• Processing multiple Excel files before merging them into a single PDF

Your account includes access to all PDF API tools.

Step 1 — Creating a free account on Nutrient

Go to our website(opens in a new tab), where you’ll see the page below, prompting you to create your free account.

Once you’ve created your account, you’ll be welcomed by a page showing an overview of your plan details.

You’ll start with 200 credits to process, and you’ll be able to access all our PDF API tools.

Step 2 — Obtaining the API key

After you’ve verified your email, you can get your API key from the dashboard. In the menu on the left, click API keys. You’ll see the following page, which is an overview of your keys.

Copy the Live API key, because you’ll need this for the Excel-to-PDF API.

Step 3 — Setting up folders and files

Now, create a folder called excel_to_pdf and open it in a code editor. For this tutorial, you’ll use VS Code as your primary code editor. Next, create two folders inside excel_to_pdf and name them input_documents and processed_documents.

Copy your Excel file to the input_documents folder and rename it to document.xlsx. You can use our demo document as an example.

Then, in the root folder, excel_to_pdf, create a file called processor.php. This is the file where you’ll keep your code.

Your folder structure will look like this:

excel_to_pdf
├── input_documents
|    └── document.xlsx
├── processed_documents
└── processor.php

Step 4 — Writing the code

Open the processor.php file and paste the code below into it:

<?php

$FileHandle = fopen('processed_documents/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('input_documents/document.xlsx')
  ),
  CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => array(
    'Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY_HERE'
  ),
  CURLOPT_FILE => $FileHandle,
));

$response = curl_exec($curl);

curl_close($curl);

fclose($FileHandle);

Code explanation

The code creates a FileHandle variable to save the file in the processed_documents folder.

The instructions variable stores all API instructions as a JSON string. The script makes a CURL request to process the conversion.

Output

To execute the code, run the command below:

php processor.php

On successful execution, you’ll see a new processed file, result.pdf, located in the processed_documents folder.

The folder structure will look like this:

excel_to_pdf
├── input_documents
|    └── document.xlsx
├── processed_documents
|    └── result.pdf
└── processor.php

Additional resources

Explore more ways to work with Nutrient API:

• Postman collection — Test API endpoints directly in Postman
• Zapier integration — Automate document workflows without code
• MCP Server — PDF automation for LLM applications

Conclusion

This post covered converting Excel files to PDF documents using the PHP API.

Integrate these functions into your existing applications. The same API token works for other operations like merging documents, adding watermarks, and more. Sign up(opens in a new tab) for a free trial.

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