| 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.
- GPT-6 Luna (#1) Best general-purpose choice for reading and editing modern .xlsx files with a clear, mature API.
- Gemini 4 Argon (#1) The gold standard for comprehensive reading, editing, and formatting of modern xlsx files.
- Qwen 3.8 Flash (#1) De facto standard for reading and writing .xlsx files in Python.
- DeepSeek V4 Pro (#1) Best all-around for .xlsx reading/writing, styling, and charts without Excel installed.
- GLM-5.3 (#1) Best-in-class engine for reading/writing xlsx with rich formatting and performance.
- Kimi K3 (#1) The gold standard for full xlsx read/write control without Excel installed.
- MiniMax M3 (#1) De facto standard for reading/writing modern .xlsx files.
- Mistral Large 4 (#1) The go-to standard for reading and writing .xlsx files in pure Python.
- Nemotron 3 Ultra (#1) Most popular for .xlsx read/write with full features
|
| 2 |
pandas |
|
10/10 |
2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
- Claude Haiku 5.5 (#2) Best for data analysis; reads and writes Excel via openpyxl or xlsxwriter engines.
- GPT-6 Luna (#2) Excellent for tabular imports, transformations, and exports, especially alongside openpyxl.
- Gemini 4 Argon (#2) Unmatched data analysis capabilities with effortless reading and writing via unified Excel wrappers.
- Qwen 3.8 Flash (#2) Most common way to read Excel into dataframes; edit via export.
- DeepSeek V4 Pro (#2) Unmatched for data analysis, bulk reading, and quick Excel I/O via its ExcelWriter.
- GLM-5.3 (#2) Great for data analysis; converts Excel to dataframes easily.
- Kimi K3 (#2) Best for data analysis workflows; read_excel/to_excel cover most practical needs.
- MiniMax M3 (#2) Excel I/O built-in, ideal for data analysis workflows.
- Mistral Large 4 (#2) Essential for Excel data analysis; read_excel and to_excel are incredibly convenient.
- Nemotron 3 Ultra (#2) Best for data analysis workflows with Excel I/O
|
| 3 |
XlsxWriter |
|
10/10 |
3 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 4 |
- Claude Haiku 5.5 (#3) Excellent for creating rich, formatted new xlsx files; write-only though.
- GPT-6 Luna (#3) Best for creating polished .xlsx workbooks, charts, formatting, and formulas; not for reading.
- Qwen 3.8 Flash (#3) Best-in-class for writing rich, formatted xlsx output.
- DeepSeek V4 Pro (#3) Fastest .xlsx creation with rich formatting, charts, and conditional formatting.
- Kimi K3 (#3) Fastest, richest formatting for writing new Excel files from scratch.
- MiniMax M3 (#3) Fastest writer, rich formatting and chart support for new files.
- Mistral Large 4 (#3) Best for creating Excel files with advanced formatting, charts, and formulas.
- Gemini 4 Argon (#4) Superior performance and formatting features when creating complex, chart-heavy Excel files from scratch.
- GLM-5.3 (#4) Fast, low-memory streaming writer for large xlsx files.
- Nemotron 3 Ultra (#4) Excellent for creating formatted .xlsx files fast
|
| 4 |
xlwings |
|
10/10 |
6 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 6 |
- Gemini 4 Argon (#3) Best for automating live Excel instances, executing VBA macros, and building custom add-ins.
- GLM-5.3 (#3) Convenient, keeps formatting intact for in-place edits.
- Qwen 3.8 Flash (#4) Drives live Excel app for full read/edit automation.
- DeepSeek V4 Pro (#4) Best for automating Excel itself; uses COM on Windows, preserves macros and VBA.
- GPT-6 Luna (#5) Strong Excel automation and editing when you need the actual desktop application.
- Kimi K3 (#5) Automates real Excel, enabling macros, formulas, and live workbook interaction.
- MiniMax M3 (#5) Automates real Excel via COM, great for macros and VBA bridges.
- Claude Haiku 5.5 (#6) Drives the live Excel application, ideal for interactive workbook automation on Windows and macOS.
- Mistral Large 4 (#6) Powerful for controlling Excel via Python on Windows and Mac with VBA integration.
- Nemotron 3 Ultra (#6) Top choice for Excel automation via Python
|
| 5 |
xlrd |
|
10/10 |
4 | 9 | 7 | 5 | 5 | 7 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 |
- Nemotron 3 Ultra (#3) Classic for reading legacy .xls files only
- Claude Haiku 5.5 (#4) Classic reader for legacy xls files; reading xlsx support was removed.
- Kimi K3 (#4) Still the go-to for legacy .xls files, read-only but reliable.
- MiniMax M3 (#4) Classic reader for legacy .xls files, still widely used.
- Mistral Large 4 (#4) Still useful for reading legacy .xls files, though .xlsx support was removed.
- Qwen 3.8 Flash (#5) Classic reader, still needed for legacy .xls files.
- DeepSeek V4 Pro (#5) Classic .xls reader; still essential for legacy Excel 97-2003 files.
- Gemini 4 Argon (#7) The reliable standard for extracting data from legacy xls spreadsheets.
- GLM-5.3 (#7) Handles legacy xls files well.
- GPT-6 Luna (#9) A lightweight reader for older .xls files; limited to reading.
|
| 6 |
pyexcel |
|
9/10 |
5 | 6 | 8 | | 8 | 6 | 9 | 6 | 8 | 5 |
- Claude Haiku 5.5 (#5) Unified API across xls, xlsx, ods and csv formats with simple syntax.
- Nemotron 3 Ultra (#5) Unified API supporting many Excel formats
- GPT-6 Luna (#6) Convenient unified interface for basic spreadsheet reading and writing across formats.
- GLM-5.3 (#6) Unified interface across many spreadsheet formats.
- MiniMax M3 (#6) Unified API across xlsx, xls, ods, csv formats with one call.
- Gemini 4 Argon (#8) Provides a simple, unified API for handling spreadsheet data across multiple file formats.
- Mistral Large 4 (#8) Unified API for reading and writing multiple spreadsheet formats including Excel.
- Kimi K3 (#9) Simple unified API across many spreadsheet formats for quick conversions.
|
| 7 |
xlwt |
|
8/10 |
10 | | 9 | | 6 | 9 | 7 | 8 | 5 | 7 |
- Mistral Large 4 (#5) Legacy option for writing old .xls format; largely superseded by XlsxWriter.
- DeepSeek V4 Pro (#6) Write-only companion to xlrd for legacy .xls format generation.
- Kimi K3 (#7) Only practical writer for legacy .xls files when format is required.
- MiniMax M3 (#8) Lightweight writer for legacy .xls files, simple and stable.
- Gemini 4 Argon (#9) Dependable tool for generating and formatting legacy xls files for older systems.
|
| 8 |
pyxlsb |
|
7/10 |
| 7 | 6 | 8 | 7 | | 6 | 9 | 7 | |
- Gemini 4 Argon (#6) Essential specialized library for reading data quickly from binary xlsb Excel workbooks.
- Kimi K3 (#6) Only solid choice for reading Excel binary .xlsb files.
- GPT-6 Luna (#7) Specialized option for reading legacy .xlsb workbooks efficiently.
- DeepSeek V4 Pro (#7) Top pick for reading binary .xlsb files, much faster than OOXML for large data.
- Mistral Large 4 (#7) Specialized for reading Excel binary .xlsb workbooks that other libraries can't handle.
- Qwen 3.8 Flash (#8) Simple dedicated reader for binary xlsb workbooks.
|
| 9 |
Python calamine |
|
7/10 |
7 | 4 | | 6 | 9 | 10 | 8 | 10 | | |
- GPT-6 Luna (#4) Fast reader for .xls, .xlsx, .xlsm, and .xlsb files, with broad format support.
- Qwen 3.8 Flash (#6) Fastest reader for large xls/xlsx/xlsb files.
- Claude Haiku 5.5 (#7) Very fast Rust-based reader for xlsx and xls files.
- Kimi K3 (#8) Extremely fast Rust-based reader supporting xlsx, xls, xlsb, and ods.
- DeepSeek V4 Pro (#9) Blazing fast reading via Rust-backed Calamine engine, ideal for huge datasets.
- GLM-5.3 (#10) High-performance reader for legacy xls and ods formats.
- MiniMax M3 (#10) Rust-backed fast reader supporting xlsx, xls, ods, and more.
|
| 10 |
pylightxl |
|
2/10 |
8 | | | | | 5 | | | | |
- GLM-5.3 (#5) Fast writing of large tabular data with basic styling.
|
| 11 |
PyExcelerate |
|
3/10 |
| 8 | | 7 | | | | | | 9 |
- GPT-6 Luna (#8) Useful for rapidly writing large spreadsheets, though less feature-rich for editing existing files.
- Nemotron 3 Ultra (#9) Fastest for writing large Excel files
|
| 12 |
Polars |
|
1/10 |
| | 5 | | | | | | | |
- Gemini 4 Argon (#5) Blazingly fast, memory-efficient DataFrame library ideal for processing massive Excel datasets quickly.
|
| 13 |
pywin32 |
|
2/10 |
9 | | | | | | | 7 | | |
- MiniMax M3 (#7) Low-level COM access to Excel on Windows for full control.
- Claude Haiku 5.5 (#9) Full COM access to Excel on Windows; powerful but Windows-only.
|
| 14 |
openpyxl (read-only) is not a product; pyexcel |
|
1/10 |
| | | | | 8 | | | | |
- GLM-5.3 (#8) Lightweight, fast reader and writer for xlsx files.
|
| 15 |
pyexcel-xls |
|
1/10 |
| | | | | | | | | 8 |
|