Supported file formats and size limits

Files you can open

• Text files: .csv, .tsv and .txt
• Workbooks: .xlsx, .xlsm, .xls and .ods

Other file types are refused with a message saying the file is not a CSV or Excel file.

How CSV and text files are read

• The separator is detected automatically: comma, semicolon, tab or pipe. A .tsv file is always read as tab separated.
• The text is read as UTF-8 first. If the file is not valid UTF-8, it is read as Windows-1252 (common for older Excel exports) and the file shows a warning.
• If some rows have fewer cells than the header, they are padded with empty cells. If some rows have more, extra columns named extra_1, extra_2 and so on are added, so no data is lost. A warning lists the affected rows.
• Blank header names become column_1, column_2 and so on, and duplicate header names get a _2 suffix.

How workbooks are read

• The first sheet is read by default. Use the Sheet menu to choose another.
• Formulas are read as the values Excel last calculated. Nothing is recalculated.
• The Dates menu chooses whether date cells are read as shown in Excel or as ISO (YYYY-MM-DD).

Files you can download

• CSV: comma, semicolon or tab separator (tab downloads as .tsv). Options: Excel-friendly (UTF-8 BOM) and Windows line endings (CRLF), both on by default, and Neutralise formulas (=, +, @), off by default.
• XLSX: plain numbers are stored as real numbers; values with leading zeros such as 00123 stay as text.
• Batch mode: a ZIP of CSVs, a ZIP of XLSX files, or one XLSX with one sheet per file.

Plan limits

These limits apply to files processed in your browser:

• Free: files up to 5 MB, 50,000 rows per file, 3 files at once
• Pro: files up to 50 MB, 500,000 rows per file, 20 files at once
• Business: files up to 200 MB, 2,000,000 rows per file, 100 files at once

The drop area shows the limits for your current plan. If a file is too big, you see a message such as "your plan handles files up to 5.0 MB" and a link to see plans with larger limits. The row limit applies per file, so merging several full files can produce a larger table.

Browser safety limits on every plan

Because cleaning happens in your browser tab, GridRinse also protects the tab from running out of memory. Even on Business:

• one file can be at most 256 MB
• all loaded files together can be at most 512 MB
• one file can have at most 2,000,000 rows and 40 million cells (rows times columns)
• all loaded files together can have at most 60 million cells

Before reading a file, GridRinse estimates how much memory it needs compared with what your device has. If it is too much, the file is not opened and you are told why. If it is close to the limit, you get a warning that cleaning may be slow. See Troubleshooting for tips on large files.