Make Markdown tables without counting pipes
The Markdown Table Generator lets you build tables for README files, GitHub issues, wikis and documentation in a spreadsheet-style grid. Type in the cells, or paste a block of cells straight from Excel or Google Sheets, a CSV or TSV file, an HTML table or an existing Markdown table, and it writes the GitHub Flavored Markdown for you — with every pipe lined up.
Set left, centre or right alignment per column, add, delete and move rows and columns, and copy the result as Markdown or clean HTML. Pipes inside cells are escaped automatically, line breaks become <br>, and alignment counts Chinese, Japanese and Korean characters and most emoji as two columns wide, so the source looks tidy in a monospaced editor too.
The grid, your data and the output all stay in your browser; the table is saved on this device so you can come back to it.
How to use the Markdown Table Generator
- Copy cells in Excel or Google Sheets and paste them into Paste or import data (or straight into a grid cell). CSV, TSV, Markdown and HTML tables work too, or press Open file.
- Untick First row is the header if your data has no header row; columns are then named Column 1, Column 2 and so on.
- Edit cells in the grid. Use the Row and Column buttons to insert, move or delete around the selected cell; press Enter to move down a row.
- Choose each column’s alignment in the drop-down above it.
- Copy the Markdown or switch to HTML, and check the live preview.
Markdown Table Generator features
Spreadsheet-style grid
Edit cells directly, insert rows above or below, insert columns left or right, and move or delete them. Pasting a block into a cell fills the cells around it and grows the grid.
Imports from anywhere
Excel and Google Sheets (tab-separated), CSV with comma or semicolon delimiters and quoted fields, HTML tables (colspan and text-align respected) and existing Markdown tables.
Properly aligned output
Columns are padded to equal width using display width, so CJK text and emoji line up; switch off padding for compact tables.
Safe cell content
Pipes are escaped as \|, multi-line cells use <br>, and HTML output escapes special characters.
Live GitHub-style preview
The preview renders the Markdown with a GFM parser, so inline code, links and bold in cells look as they will on GitHub.
Worked example: from a spreadsheet to Markdown
Copy four rows from a spreadsheet — Name, Qty, Price; 苹果, 12, 0.99; Banana 🍌, 3, 1.5; A|B, 1, 2 — and paste them. Set Qty to right-aligned and Price to centred. The generator produces:
| Name | Qty | Price || --------- | --: | :---: || 苹果 | 12 | 0.99 || Banana 🍌 | 3 | 1.5 || A\|B | 1 | 2 |
The first column is 9 characters wide because “Banana 🍌” takes 9 columns (the emoji counts as two), 苹果 counts as 4, and A|B became A\|B so the pipe does not split the cell. Centred values get the odd space on the right.
Markdown table syntax in brief
- The header row and the delimiter row are required; GitHub Flavored Markdown has no table without a header.
- Cells cannot contain block elements such as lists or code blocks — only inline Markdown (bold, links,
code) and<br>for line breaks. - A literal pipe must be escaped as
\|, even inside inline code.
| Delimiter cell | Alignment | Renders as |
|---|---|---|
--- | Default | Left in most renderers (no align attribute) |
:-- | Left | Explicitly left-aligned |
:-: | Centre | Centred |
--: | Right | Right-aligned — best for numbers, prices in ₹, $ or £ |
Related tools
To tidy a whole document — including re-aligning every table in it — use the Markdown Formatter. To turn Markdown into a web page, use Markdown to HTML; for data work, CSV to JSON converts the same spreadsheet data for code.
Markdown Table Generator FAQ
How do I convert an Excel table to Markdown?
Select the cells in Excel, copy them, and paste into the import box or any grid cell. Excel copies cells as tab-separated text, which the generator reads, including cells that contain line breaks. The Markdown appears instantly.
Can I paste from Google Sheets?
Yes. Google Sheets copies tab-separated text just like Excel, so pasting works the same way. You can also download the sheet as CSV and open the file here.
How do I convert CSV to a Markdown table?
Paste the CSV or open the .csv file. Quoted fields, doubled quotes and line breaks inside quotes are handled, and semicolon-separated files (common in Europe) are detected automatically.
How do I put a pipe character in a Markdown table?
Type it normally — the generator writes it as \| in the Markdown so it does not start a new cell. When you import Markdown, \| is read back as a plain pipe.
Why don’t my columns line up in the output?
They do in a monospaced font with standard East Asian widths. Some fonts draw emoji or CJK characters at a different width, and proportional fonts never line up; the rendered table is unaffected either way. Untick “Align columns” for compact output.
Is my data uploaded?
No. Parsing, editing and output all happen in your browser. Only the small Markdown renderer for the preview is loaded from a public CDN.