Best Python libraries for reading and editing Excel files (search query)

Requested by a visitor · October 25, 2026

We asked 10 models: best python library for reading and editing excel files 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

82%

Same model, run twice

88%

Different picks

22

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	Score	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
2	pandas		10/10	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2
3	XlsxWriter		10/10	3	3	4	3	4	4	3	3	5	5
4	xlwings		10/10	5	4	3	4	3	3	4	7	4	4
5	xlrd		10/10	4	8	6	5	6	7	6	4	3	3
6	pyexcel		10/10	6	7	8	9	5	8	7	6	10	6
7	python-calamine		6/10	8	5		6	9	5	8
8	pyxlsb		6/10		6	5			10	5	9	7
9	xlwt		6/10			9		7	9		5	6	7
10	pylightxl		2/10	7					6
11	Polars		3/10			7		8		10
12	PyExcelerate		3/10				7	10					10
13	odfpy		2/10							9		8
14	pywin32		2/10				10				8
15	openpyxl-xlrd		1/10										8

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

Every ballot

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

Claude Haiku 5.5

1. openpyxl
2. pandas
3. XlsxWriter
4. xlrd
5. xlwings
6. pyexcel
7. pylightxl
8. python-calamine
9. DataFrame Excel
10. DataNitro

93% with consensus · 92% self-consistent

GPT-6 Luna

1. openpyxl
2. pandas
3. XlsxWriter
4. xlwings
5. python-calamine
6. pyxlsb
7. pyexcel
8. xlrd
9. python-excel
10. formulas

92% with consensus · 86% self-consistent

Gemini 4 Argon

1. openpyxl
2. pandas
3. xlwings
4. XlsxWriter
5. pyxlsb
6. xlrd
7. Polars
8. pyexcel
9. xlwt
10. xlutils

87% with consensus · 94% self-consistent

Qwen 3.8 Flash

1. openpyxl
2. pandas
3. XlsxWriter
4. xlwings
5. xlrd
6. python-calamine
7. PyExcelerate
8. PyXL
9. pyexcel
10. pywin32

92% with consensus · 89% self-consistent

DeepSeek V4 Pro

1. openpyxl
2. pandas
3. xlwings
4. XlsxWriter
5. pyexcel
6. xlrd
7. xlwt
8. Polars
9. python-calamine
10. PyExcelerate

89% with consensus · 97% self-consistent

GLM-5.3

1. openpyxl
2. pandas
3. xlwings
4. XlsxWriter
5. python-calamine
6. pylightxl
7. xlrd
8. pyexcel
9. xlwt
10. pyxlsb

88% with consensus · 92% self-consistent

Kimi K3

1. openpyxl
2. pandas
3. XlsxWriter
4. xlwings
5. pyxlsb
6. xlrd
7. pyexcel
8. python-calamine
9. odfpy
10. Polars

93% with consensus · 78% self-consistent

MiniMax M3

1. openpyxl
2. pandas
3. XlsxWriter
4. xlrd
5. xlwt
6. pyexcel
7. xlwings
8. pywin32
9. pyxlsb
10. formulas

89% with consensus · 91% self-consistent

Mistral Large 4

1. openpyxl
2. pandas
3. xlrd
4. xlwings
5. XlsxWriter
6. xlwt
7. pyxlsb
8. odfpy
9. xlutils
10. pyexcel

85% with consensus · 84% self-consistent

Nemotron 3 Ultra

1. openpyxl
2. pandas
3. xlrd
4. xlwings
5. XlsxWriter
6. pyexcel
7. xlwt
8. openpyxl-xlrd
9. pyexcel-xlsx
10. PyExcelerate

87% with consensus · 78% self-consistent

Who agrees with whom

Overlap between two models' lists, weighted toward the top · 100 means identical · Color runs from 78 (lightest) to 93 (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		86	81	88	85	85	88	89	81	86
GPT-6 Luna	86		86	89	83	88	93	82	80	79
Gemini 4 Argon	81	86		83	91	88	91	80	85	82
Qwen 3.8 Flash	88	89	83		85	86	89	83	81	83
DeepSeek V4 Pro	85	83	91	85		89	87	83	83	88
GLM-5.3	85	88	88	86	89		85	78	80	81
Kimi K3	88	93	91	89	87	85		84	84	82
MiniMax M3	89	82	80	83	83	78	84		84	85
Mistral Large 4	81	80	85	81	83	80	84	84		92
Nemotron 3 Ultra	86	79	82	83	88	81	82	85	92