Best Python libraries for reading and editing Excel files (buyer asking for advice)

Requested by a visitor · October 25, 2026

We asked 10 models: I'm a developer and need a Python library to read and edit Excel files in my projects. Which would you recommend? Each named its own top 10.

Asked 4 ways: List request · Buyer asking for advice · Search query · Worth paying for?. Share of voice pools every wording.

Agreement between models: 78%
Same model, run twice: 88%
Different picks: 27

When agreement between models is well below a model's agreement with itself, the split reflects real differences in taste rather than randomness.

This question was also asked with web search on. See which products change when the models look things up first.

The consensus

Each cell is the position that model gave the pick; blank means it left the pick off. Click a row for each model's reasoning.

#	Pick	Listed by	Claude Haiku 5.5	GPT-6 Luna	Gemini 4 Argon	Qwen 3.8 Flash	DeepSeek V4 Pro	GLM-5.3	Kimi K3	MiniMax M3	Mistral Large 4	Nemotron 3 Ultra
1	openpyxl	10/10	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
Claude Haiku 5.5 (#1) Most popular pure-Python library for reading and editing xlsx files with formatting support. GPT-6 Luna (#1) My top pick: mature, pure-Python support for reading and editing .xlsx files. Gemini 4 Argon (#1) The industry standard for reading, writing, and styling native modern Excel files directly. Qwen 3.8 Flash (#1) Default choice: pure Python, read/write xlsx, great docs. DeepSeek V4 Pro (#1) Best all-around for reading/writing .xlsx without Excel installed, mature and feature-rich. GLM-5.3 (#1) Best all-rounder: reads and edits xlsx files directly, full formatting and formula support. Kimi K3 (#1) Best pure-Python xlsx read/write/editing support; ideal for existing files. MiniMax M3 (#1) Most popular, actively maintained, great for .xlsx read/write. Mistral Large 4 (#1) Best for reading/writing XLSX; simple API, widely adopted, handles styles well. Nemotron 3 Ultra (#1) Most popular pure-Python Excel library, excellent xlsx support
2	Pandas	10/10	2	3	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2
Claude Haiku 5.5 (#2) Best for data analysis; reads and writes Excel via engines like openpyxl. Gemini 4 Argon (#2) Unbeatable for high-level data manipulation, analysis, and bulk Excel reading and writing. Qwen 3.8 Flash (#2) Best for data-heavy Excel read/edit workflows. DeepSeek V4 Pro (#2) Ideal for data analysis and tabular manipulation; built-in Excel I/O via openpyxl/xlrd. GLM-5.3 (#2) Best for data analysis workflows; reads/writes Excel via openpyxl with powerful DataFrames. Kimi K3 (#2) Easiest DataFrame-to-Excel workflows, though underlying engines do the actual IO. MiniMax M3 (#2) Excellent for data analysis with Excel I/O via read_excel/to_excel. Mistral Large 4 (#2) Ideal for data analysis; Excel I/O is seamless with read_excel/to_excel methods. Nemotron 3 Ultra (#2) Powerful data analysis with built-in Excel read/write via openpyxl/xlrd GPT-6 Luna (#3) Ideal for spreadsheet data workflows; reads and writes Excel through engine libraries.
3	XlsxWriter	10/10	3	2	4	3	4	4	3	3	3	5
GPT-6 Luna (#2) Excellent for creating polished .xlsx files, though it does not read existing workbooks. Claude Haiku 5.5 (#3) Excellent for creating new xlsx files with rich formatting, charts, and formulas. Qwen 3.8 Flash (#3) Excellent writing, charts/formatting; no read support. Kimi K3 (#3) Excellent for creating polished, chart-heavy reports; but cannot edit existing files. MiniMax M3 (#3) Best for creating complex formatted Excel files from scratch. Mistral Large 4 (#3) Excellent for creating formatted, formula-heavy Excel files from scratch. Gemini 4 Argon (#4) Superior performance and rich formatting features for generating new, complex Excel reports. DeepSeek V4 Pro (#4) Excellent for creating .xlsx files with charts and formatting; cannot read files. GLM-5.3 (#4) Fastest writer with rich charts and formatting, but cannot read files. Nemotron 3 Ultra (#5) High-performance .xlsx writer with advanced formatting and charts
4	xlwings	10/10	6	4	3	4	5	3	7	6	5	7
Gemini 4 Argon (#3) Best for automating live Excel instances, preserving macros, and integrating with VBA. GLM-5.3 (#3) Automates live Excel via COM/Mac APIs; ideal for interacting with open workbooks. GPT-6 Luna (#4) Automates Excel itself for reading and editing, especially useful with macros. Qwen 3.8 Flash (#4) Script real Excel app; full read/edit with macros. DeepSeek V4 Pro (#5) Best when you need Excel automation with a live Excel application on Windows/macOS. Mistral Large 4 (#5) Powerful for automating real Excel via Python; great for macros and live integration. Claude Haiku 5.5 (#6) Controls the live Excel application on Windows and macOS, enabling full fidelity editing. MiniMax M3 (#6) Powerful COM-based Excel automation with VBA/macro support. Kimi K3 (#7) Powerful Excel automation on Windows/Mac, but requires Excel installed. Nemotron 3 Ultra (#7) Excel automation via COM on Windows/macOS, great for live interaction
5	xlrd	8/10	4		7		3	7	4	4	4	3
DeepSeek V4 Pro (#3) Still useful for reading legacy .xls files; .xlsx support dropped in recent versions. Nemotron 3 Ultra (#3) Classic library for reading .xls files, though legacy .xlsx support dropped Claude Haiku 5.5 (#4) Reliable for reading legacy .xls files, though read-only for xlsx now. Kimi K3 (#4) Reliable choice for reading legacy .xls files; no longer handles .xlsx. MiniMax M3 (#4) Reliable legacy .xls reader, still useful for old-format files. Mistral Large 4 (#4) Legacy choice for reading old XLS files; still useful for historical data. Gemini 4 Argon (#7) Necessary for reading legacy xls files from older versions of Microsoft Excel. GLM-5.3 (#7) Legacy reader for old .xls files; now mainly needed for historical formats.
6	xlwt	6/10			8		6		5	7	7	4
Nemotron 3 Ultra (#4) Write-only library for legacy .xls format, still needed for old systems Kimi K3 (#5) Simple writing of old-format .xls files when legacy output is required. DeepSeek V4 Pro (#6) Writes legacy .xls files; limited but reliable for older Excel formats. MiniMax M3 (#7) Lightweight library for writing legacy .xls files. Mistral Large 4 (#7) Creates old-format XLS files when compatibility with ancient systems is required. Gemini 4 Argon (#8) Reliable choice when legacy systems require generating older format xls spreadsheets.
7	pyexcel	6/10	5	9			7	5		5		6
Claude Haiku 5.5 (#5) Unified API across xls, xlsx, ods, and csv formats with simple syntax. GLM-5.3 (#5) Unified simple API across many spreadsheet formats, convenient for mixed sources. MiniMax M3 (#5) Simple unified API wrapping multiple Excel formats easily. Nemotron 3 Ultra (#6) Unified API wrapping multiple backends for flexible format handling DeepSeek V4 Pro (#7) Unified API across .xlsx, .xls, .csv; great for simple multi-format workflows. GPT-6 Luna (#9) Convenient interface for spreadsheet formats, with capabilities depending on plugins.
8	Python-Calamine	6/10	7	6		7		6	8		9
GPT-6 Luna (#6) Fast reader for several Excel formats, but not for editing workbooks. GLM-5.3 (#6) Blazing-fast reader for xlsx/xls/ods, great for large read-heavy workloads. Claude Haiku 5.5 (#7) Very fast read-only parser built on Rust, good for large workbooks. Qwen 3.8 Flash (#7) Very fast Rust-backed reader for xlsx/xls/ods. Kimi K3 (#8) Blazing-fast Rust-based reader for xlsx, xls, xlsb and ods files. Mistral Large 4 (#9) Blazing-fast Rust-based reader for all Excel formats; great for performance-critical apps.
9	pyxlsb	5/10			6	6			6	9	6
Gemini 4 Argon (#6) Essential specialized library for reading data from binary Excel xlsb workbooks. Qwen 3.8 Flash (#6) Fast reading of large binary .xlsb files. Kimi K3 (#6) Essential for reading Excel binary .xlsb files other libraries can't open. Mistral Large 4 (#6) Specialized reader for legacy binary XLSB files that others cannot handle. MiniMax M3 (#9) Specialized reader for binary .xlsb Excel format efficiently.
10	PyExcelerate	4/10	9			5				8		9
Nemotron 3 Ultra (#9) Fastest bulk .xlsx writer for large datasets, minimal formatting
11	Polars	2/10			5		9
Gemini 4 Argon (#5) Blazingly fast DataFrame library with modern, high-speed Excel reading and writing capabilities. DeepSeek V4 Pro (#9) Fast dataframes with Excel read/write support; great for large datasets.
12	Python Excel	2/10		5		9
Qwen 3.8 Flash (#9) PyPI umbrella for xlwings, openpyxl, XlsxWriter.
13	pyexcel-xlsx	2/10	8									8
Claude Haiku 5.5 (#8) Plugin backend for pyexcel that handles xlsx read and write operations.
14	pylightxl	3/10			9			8				10
Gemini 4 Argon (#9) Lightweight, zero-dependency library ideal for simple and fast Excel reading and writing. Nemotron 3 Ultra (#10) Lightweight, zero-dependency reader/writer for simple .xlsx tasks
15	Aspose.Cells for Python via .NET	2/10		7					10
GPT-6 Luna (#7) Broad Excel format and editing capabilities, with a commercial license.

12 lower-scoring picks are not shown; every ballot below lists them in full.

Most divisive

Picks most models listed, at very different positions

xlwings#3 for Gemini 4 Argon #7 for Nemotron 3 Ultra
xlrd#3 for DeepSeek V4 Pro #7 for GLM-5.3
xlwt#4 for Nemotron 3 Ultra #8 for Gemini 4 Argon

Hot takes

Picks that appear on only one ballot

Apache POI at #8, only GPT-6 Luna
Mito at #8, only Qwen 3.8 Flash
gspread at #9, only GLM-5.3
DataNitro at #10, only Claude Haiku 5.5
LibreOffice at #10, only GPT-6 Luna
xlutils at #10, only Gemini 4 Argon
pywin32 at #10, only Qwen 3.8 Flash
openpyxl-dictreader at #10, only DeepSeek V4 Pro
formulas at #10, only MiniMax M3
pyxlsb2 at #10, only Mistral Large 4

Every ballot

Hover a pick to find it on the other ballots. Marked picks appear on no other ballot.

Claude Haiku 5.5

openpyxl
Pandas
XlsxWriter
xlrd
pyexcel
xlwings
Python-Calamine
pyexcel-xlsx
PyExcelerate
DataNitro

89% with consensus · 96% self-consistent

GPT-6 Luna

openpyxl
XlsxWriter
Pandas
xlwings
Python Excel
Python-Calamine
Aspose.Cells for Python via .NET
Apache POI
pyexcel
LibreOffice

77% with consensus · 80% self-consistent

Gemini 4 Argon

openpyxl
Pandas
xlwings
XlsxWriter
Polars
pyxlsb
xlrd
xlwt
pylightxl
xlutils

83% with consensus · 97% self-consistent

Qwen 3.8 Flash

openpyxl
Pandas
XlsxWriter
xlwings
PyExcelerate
pyxlsb
Python-Calamine
Mito
Python Excel
pywin32

85% with consensus · 82% self-consistent

DeepSeek V4 Pro

openpyxl
Pandas
xlrd
XlsxWriter
xlwings
xlwt
pyexcel
tablib
Polars
openpyxl-dictreader

89% with consensus · 82% self-consistent

GLM-5.3

openpyxl
Pandas
xlwings
XlsxWriter
pyexcel
Python-Calamine
xlrd
pylightxl
gspread
tablib

86% with consensus · 91% self-consistent

Kimi K3

openpyxl
Pandas
XlsxWriter
xlrd
xlwt
pyxlsb
xlwings
Python-Calamine
odfpy
Aspose.Cells for Python via .NET

90% with consensus · 88% self-consistent

MiniMax M3

openpyxl
Pandas
XlsxWriter
xlrd
pyexcel
xlwings
xlwt
PyExcelerate
pyxlsb
formulas

91% with consensus · 86% self-consistent

Mistral Large 4

openpyxl
Pandas
XlsxWriter
xlrd
xlwings
pyxlsb
xlwt
odfpy
Python-Calamine
pyxlsb2

91% with consensus · 90% self-consistent

Nemotron 3 Ultra

openpyxl
Pandas
xlrd
xlwt
XlsxWriter
pyexcel
xlwings
pyexcel-xlsx
PyExcelerate
pylightxl

83% with consensus · 93% self-consistent

Who agrees with whom

Overlap between two models' lists, weighted toward the top · 100 means identical · Color runs from 62 (lightest) to 95 (darkest)

	Claude Haiku 5.5	GPT-6 Luna	Gemini 4 Argon	Qwen 3.8 Flash	DeepSeek V4 Pro	GLM-5.3	Kimi K3	MiniMax M3	Mistral Large 4	Nemotron 3 Ultra
Claude Haiku 5.5		74	75	81	85	85	86	94	87	86
GPT-6 Luna	74		70	78	68	76	70	70	72	62
Gemini 4 Argon	75	70		81	81	85	81	79	84	74
Qwen 3.8 Flash	81	78	81		74	80	81	79	84	69
DeepSeek V4 Pro	85	68	81	74		81	85	88	87	90
GLM-5.3	85	76	85	80	81		76	82	78	76
Kimi K3	86	70	81	81	85	76		89	95	84
MiniMax M3	94	70	79	79	88	82	89		90	87
Mistral Large 4	87	72	84	84	87	78	95	90		80
Nemotron 3 Ultra	86	62	74	69	90	76	84	87	80