CSV to JSON Converter

Why convert CSV to JSON?

CSV is the format spreadsheets export; JSON is the format APIs and JavaScript consume. Every data pipeline that moves information from a spreadsheet into an application passes through this conversion: exporting a customer list, loading seed data into a database, feeding rows into a script, or testing an API with realistic data. Doing it with a one-liner in code is easy once, but the twentieth time you need it, a tool that handles quoted fields and odd delimiters correctly is faster than debugging your own parser again.

How it works

Paste CSV into the left box or upload a file, choose the delimiter if your file uses semicolons or tabs instead of commas, and say whether the first row is a header. Each row becomes one JSON object, with the header names as keys. Quoted fields are handled properly, including commas inside quotes and doubled quotes as escapes — the two cases where naive split-on-comma converters produce wrong output. The result is formatted with two-space indentation and can be copied or downloaded as a .json file.

Common gotchas

The most frequent problem is the wrong delimiter: European exports often use semicolons because commas are decimal separators there, so if your output looks like one big column, switch the delimiter. Numbers come out as strings in this converter — that is deliberate, because CSV has no type information and guessing types corrupts values such as ZIP codes with leading zeros. If you need numbers, convert them in your own code after import, where you control the rules.

Frequently asked questions

Does this handle commas inside quoted fields?

Yes. The parser follows the standard CSV rules: fields wrapped in double quotes may contain commas, line breaks and doubled quotes. A naive split on commas would break those rows — this one does not.

Why are numbers output as strings?

CSV has no type information, so guessing types is risky — a ZIP code like 02134 would lose its leading zero if converted to a number. This converter keeps every value as a string and lets your code decide the types.

What delimiter should I choose?

Comma for most exports from Excel and Google Sheets. Semicolon for many European exports, where the comma is a decimal separator. Tab for TSV files. If the output looks like a single column, you have the wrong delimiter.