TSV to CSV Converter
Convert between TSV and CSV files bidirectionally in your browser.
What it's for
TSV ↔ CSV conversion without complications
Bidirectional
Convert TSV to CSV or CSV to TSV as needed. Preserves the row and column structure.
100% private
Your tabular data is processed in your browser. Nothing is sent to external servers.
Quote handling
Correctly detects and handles quoted fields and special characters within values.
Instant
Conversion of large data files happens in milliseconds with no waiting.
How it works
Three steps, no hassle
Paste your tabular data
Copy and paste the content of your TSV or CSV file into the input area. You can also drag the file directly.
Select conversion direction
Choose TSV → CSV to convert tabs to commas, or CSV → TSV for the reverse. The target delimiter is applied automatically.
Download or copy the result
Copy the result to clipboard or download it as a .csv or .tsv file ready to open in Excel, Google Sheets, or any data editor.
FAQ
Got questions?
TSV (Tab-Separated Values) is a plain text format where each row represents a record and columns are separated by tab characters (\t). It is one of the oldest formats for tabular data exchange, widely used in bioinformatics, databases, and scientific system exports for its simplicity and for avoiding the problem of commas in content.
The difference is the delimiter: TSV uses tabs, CSV uses commas (though in some countries like Spain and Germany, semicolons are used due to conflict with the decimal comma). TSV is simpler: fields containing tabs rarely need quoting (tab characters in content are uncommon), while CSV must quote fields containing commas. TSV is preferred in bioinformatics and data science.
When you copy cells from Excel or Google Sheets to the clipboard, the internal format is TSV: columns are separated by tabs and rows by line breaks. This makes it easy to paste data between spreadsheets. When exporting as a file, Excel offers both .csv and .txt (which is usually TSV), and Google Sheets lets you download as TSV from File → Download.
In TSV, if a text field contains a tab, it should be quoted according to the RFC 4180 extension adapted for TSV. In practice this is exceptional: content rarely includes tab characters. If your dataset contains tabs in values, consider using CSV with quotes or a more robust format like JSON.
Google Sheets exports as CSV (with commas) when you select File → Download → Comma-separated values (.csv). For TSV, select Tab-separated values (.tsv). When you paste data from Sheets to the clipboard and insert it into a text editor, the format is TSV with tabs as separators.
CSV and TSV: RFC 4180, bioinformatics, and the role of delimiters in data exchange
CSV (Comma-Separated Values) lacked a formal standard until RFC 4180, published by the IETF in October 2005, which defined the MIME type text/csv and quoting rules. But the format has existed since the 1970s: early spreadsheet programs like VisiCalc (1979) already exported comma-delimited data. The MIME name text/csv was originally registered in 1993.
TSV is the preferred format in bioinformatics and genomics. The Human Genome Project and databases like UniProt, NCBI, and Ensembl distribute data in TSV because biological data (sequences, annotations) rarely contains tabs but frequently contains commas and semicolons. The BED, GFF3, and VCF formats for genomic variants are TSV variants.
Delimiter choice matters in cultural context: countries that use the comma as a decimal separator (most of continental Europe, Latin America) have problems with pure CSV, so Excel in those countries exports with semicolons (;) instead of commas. TSV completely avoids this ambiguity. For international projects with numerical data, TSV or JSON are more robust options than CSV.