The 11 Best Large CSV File Editors to Consider

There are so many CSV file editors on the internet. But are they powerful enough to handle large datasets (like over a billion rows)? 

In reality, either their performance slows down or they hit a row limit. Some are too technical for complex calculations, while others are too basic and lack built-in functions.

While most allow you to filter and sort, what if your need goes beyond that? 

We tried out different CSV file editors and came up with the 11 best options that truly deliver. 

Scroll down to find out which one is the best for you. 

Best part? Most of these are either free or start at $0/monthly. 

TL;DR: Top large CSV file editors

1. Gigasheet – best for editing large CSV files
2. Microsoft Excel – best for data manipulation
3. Google Sheets – best for real-time collaboration 
4. Datablist – best for minimizing incorrect data entries
5. Row Zero – best for integrating data warehouses
6. Rows – best for data visualization 
7. Modern CSV – best for intense CSV editing 
8. LibreOffice Calc – best for testing different solutions
9. Numbers – best for creating reports
10. Zoho Sheet – best for AI-powered data analysis (maybe)
11. Grist – best for data representation

Let’s dive deep and check out my top 11 picks of large CSV editors. 

Gigasheet

Gigasheet is one of the few spreadsheets on the list to handle a billion-row CSV file. You can load your data in seconds, bulk edit it, apply multiple filters, and even group (arrange) your data, all without your spreadsheet file crashing or freezing.

Traditional software like MS Excel or Google Sheets has a row limit too short for big data. Gigasheet surpasses this, making it a popular choice for data manipulation.

The platform has a clean and user-friendly interface. Also, it runs on the cloud. This means you aren’t limited by your computer’s memory and capacity.

It’s packed with features to clean up, extract, validate, sort, and filter data.

Gigasheet leverages the power of AI and does the work for you. It’s a data-powered AI assistant that groups, filters, calculates, aggregates, finds, and replaces data. Best part? You don’t have to type formulas either. Just enter the command in plain language like I did here:

You can also remove duplicates, clean up the company name, or extract the domain in one click. 

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With Gigasheet, you can also visualize the data in the form of beautiful charts.

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Gigasheet lets you enrich data with third-party apps. For instance, you can use Hunter to verify the email address or Apollo to find more information on the company. 

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Gigasheet can run large-scale calculations that normal spreadsheets like Excel and Google Sheets can’t. That’s because of how it calculates data: math on one field, like finding a sum of a column of values, or math with formulas across fields, like figuring out the outstanding difference between the invoiced amount and the received amount.

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Microsoft Excel

In the history of CSV file editors, MS Excel is the most popular choice. Its user-friendly interface, complex set of formulas, and advanced tools like Power Query and Power Pivot put it ahead of others.

But we aren’t living in the past. CSV files aren’t restricted to thousands or millions of datasets. Many are in billions and Excel’s row limit of 1,048,576 can’t handle that. Even after a couple thousand rows, it crashes or slows down.

But let’s talk about what’s good now.

It has an extensive library of formulas and functions. 

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Highlight cells with different colors based on their values and identify trends.

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You can restrict the data that’s entered by setting up data validation rules. This minimizes the chances of human error and provides immediate feedback to users when they enter incorrect data. 

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Now, the best for the last. Macros!

You can easily automate routine tasks and batch-process edits. All you’ve to do is record the macros, code them, and run them wherever you want.

Google Sheets

Google Sheets is a cloud-based web application that lets you collaborate with your team in real-time. 

It features a modern interface and seamlessly integrates with other Google services such as Google Docs, Google Forms, and Google Slides. Additionally, you can use Google’s App Script to connect with platforms like Salesforce, HubSpot, SEMrush, Zapier, and Shopify.

But at the end of the day, these don’t matter if your spreadsheet file exceeds 10 million cells. 

Google Sheets will cut it off. That’s the upper limit of rows you can add to a sheet.

Like Excel, like Google Sheets. They are similar in many other aspects too, like cell formatting, data filtering and sorting, and data validation.

But it takes the back seat in data visualization and analysis. For instance, you can generate pivot tables on Google Sheets. But can’t manipulate or visualize the data with advanced pivot table features.

Similarly, it lacks advanced statistical tests and functions. But that’s not to diss its vast library of formulas. You can use unique Google functions such as GOOGLEFINANCE to pull real-time financial data.

A striking feature of Google Sheets is real-time collaboration. This allows multiple users to edit simultaneously, comment, and track changes. 

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Another feature that sets it apart is its ability to create reports on third-party apps like Looker Studio and AppSheet. You can build dynamic dashboards that automatically update with the latest data from Google Sheets.

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Organize segments of data into a table that you can sort, filter, and format. Imagine a spreadsheet within a spreadsheet.

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Other than these, you can do the basics: get data clean-up suggestions, set up data validation rules, and extract data.  

Datablist 

Next on the list is Datablist, a software specifically built for CSVs. Keep in mind it’s not as advanced as MS Excel or Google Sheets.

It has features limited to editing a CSV file. If that’s your only use case, go for it. Look at how simple and direct the toolbar is:

If you frequently edit data under a short deadline, you’re likely to make mistakes. This platform is built to minimize human error.

For instance, you can’t open a CSV file without mentioning the data type of each column. While editing, it’ll only accept the data type you listed earlier. If the data type is numbers, you won’t be able to write text. This keeps your data clean from the start.

There aren’t any empty rows. You’ll only find as many rows as in your CSV file. That means you can’t just place your cursor on a row and enter data. Instead, you’ve to go through a 2-step process for every new row: Select “New Item” and fill in the row details. This prevents accidental entry at the wrong place. 

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You can combine several files and integrate data across multiple sources using identifiers.

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You can enrich your data using third-party apps. It allows you to add data on companies, people, and even places! It runs on a credit system. 

Some enrichments like “Email Address Validation” and “Ask ChatGPT” are unlimited. Others like “Google Translate” and “LinkedIn Company Page Scraper” require credits. For example, you can extract information from LinkedIn for 25 credits per profile. Datablist lets you purchase 20,000 credits for $20. 

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But it has a few limitations:

1. It doesn’t support complex formulas like SUMPRODUCT or MMULT. 
2. You can’t search for a feature. You’ll have to navigate your way.

Row Zero 

Row Zero is the new kid on the block. It’s a simple spreadsheet for big data and runs on the cloud.

It’s ideal for techies who use DBMS, data warehouses, data lakes, and APIs. 

You can import and export data from the data warehouse directly into a Row Zero spreadsheet. Later, schedule a refresh to get the updated data in Row Zero.

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What sets it apart from other software is the “Code Window”. It’s used to create custom functions for advanced calculations or fetch data using Python libraries like pandas or yfinance.

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You can collaborate in real time and set permission control. What’s exciting is you can follow the actions of another user live as they move throughout the workbook.

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However, it gets restricting as you can’t:

• Enrich or extract data
• Format conditionally
• Set data validation rules

Rows 

Rows is a modern spreadsheet for marketing teams who avoid an Excel-like interface. Its clean UI isn’t just an endless grid of rows and columns. It’s the most creative and visually aesthetic tool on the list.

It helps you create appealing reports, use basic formulas, integrate with multiple tools, and collaborate in real-time.

Its real draw is the advanced data visualization capabilities. Rows imports data from third-party sources and creates beautiful charts and graphs. It goes a step further. Think interactive dashboards and reports! You can top it off with forms, and add buttons and input fields. 

You can do the basics: data filtering and sorting, pivot tables, and conditional formatting.

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It analyzes your tables and gives you insights so you don’t have to search and calculate.

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Like other marketing tools, Rows gives you the engagement stats so you know how many folks have seen and commented on the sheet. 

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You can import data directly from social media, data warehouses, advertising platforms, your back-office platform, and other tools you use every day, all without writing code. It’s built keeping the creative folks in mind. 

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However, Rows isn’t for data-driven teams. It lacks advanced capabilities, often expected from a spreadsheet. You can’t use it to analyze big data. 

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Modern CSV

Modern CSV stands true to its name: it’s advanced and built for large CSVs. It’s suited for data scientists, engineers, and IT professionals who eat, breathe, and live data.

It has a well-structured interface with premium features such as handling delimiters, encoding, and line endings.

You can opt for two modes: edit and read-only. In the former, it claims to load data 11x faster than MS Excel. That’s a big bet to place against a legacy spreadsheet.

It offers all the fundamental features of a good CSV. But where it stands out is the depth at which the features are. For instance, it uses stable sort to preserve the order of the other columns as much as possible. In fact, you can sort by rows too. No other software offers this functionality.

To enter any command, just press Ctrl + L and type the first few letters. It uses fuzzy search so your typing doesn’t have to be accurate.

With most commands, you can work on multiple rows, columns, or cells at once. Simply select multiple cells and type. You’ll see the same content being added to all the cells at once. It’s as quick and simple to bulk-edit.

It has a big trail of selection feature so you don’t have to keep dragging through cells. As you see, the focus is on efficiency.

Customization is key in editing and Modern CSV follows through. You can:

1. Set your keyboard shortcuts
2. Choose from 5 UI themes
3. Change cell sizes
4. Shade every other row or column.

But it has its share of limitations. The biggest is that you’ve to download the software on your computer. This means, despite the ability to handle big data, it gets restricted to the memory and compute of your system.

LibreOffice Calc

LibreOffice Calc seems like a traditional version of Excel with “extra large icons”. That being said, the interface isn’t user-friendly. But before you diss it altogether, look at what makes it to the list.

First and foremost, it’s completely free and open-source.

It has most of the capabilities of MS Excel. You can add filters, sort, define ranges, and insert pivot tables to organize your data.

You can find the best solution without running complex calculations yourself. Just set your rules and goals, and Solver will figure out how to achieve them. For example, add your goal and current sales, and Solver will find the best way to maximize profits or minimize costs.

If you've made an error and can't find it, the Detective will help you. It will trace how the data flows and show you which cells are connected, making it easier to spot the mistakes.

Let’s say you want to compare different solutions and see their potential outcomes. Normally, you'd run calculations and test each option one by one, which takes a lot of time. With Scenario, you can easily do a what-if analysis to find out the best-case and worst-case scenarios.

In case you dig up a file that’s been created on outdated software and isn’t supported by any other platform, you’ll appreciate LibreOffice. It supports old and uncommon formats. For example, you can save your file as an Excel 97-2003 template as shown below:

Being a traditional software, LibreOffice Calc has its limitations:

1. Doesn’t have advanced functionalities like Power Query or macros
2. Lacks direct integrations with popular third-party apps
3. The interface is clunky

Numbers

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Numbers is a spreadsheet designed by Apple that runs on macOS, iOS, and iPadOS. No wonder it has a sleek, clean, and user-friendly interface.

You start with a blank canvas instead of endless grids. You can move around and organize data as you want.

It focuses more on presentation and less on data manipulation.

It lacks the advanced data analytics capabilities of MS Excel. Since it’s pre-downloaded on Apple devices, it acts as a convenient starting point for basic CSV editing. However, as you scale up, you might have to look for a more robust spreadsheet application. 

It supports over 250 functions including XLOOKUP and RegEx. Needless to mention the basics such as filtering, sorting, formatting, and categorizing.

Numbers places its bet on data visualization. From radar and doughnut charts to interactive graphs, you get a library of over 700 customizable shapes to present your data the way you like. In fact, it goes a step ahead and lets you record an audio explaining your chart. 

Another striking feature is the ability to add YouTube videos right inside the spreadsheet. 

Apple users like to stay in their Apple vicinity. So, you have the option to import data from an iPhone. You can take a photo, scan documents, or add a sketch from your iPhone. 

However, not everyone can use Numbers. It’s only available on Apple devices. That too, on the MacOS 13 version and beyond. Neither can you integrate it with third-party platforms. This is a major drawback when compared with other spreadsheets. 

Zoho Sheet

Zoho Sheet is a sophisticated version of Google Sheets. Some argue it’s better than the latter.

It’s well-connected to the entire Zoho ecosystem like CRM, Projects, and Books. It has 260 built-in integrations with 35 Zoho services.

Zoho Sheet has over 350 functions which is less than what Google Sheet offers. It has advanced functions such as data validation, pivot tables, and conditional formatting.

Of course, it covers the basics: filter, sort, merge, group. But it goes to the depth of each feature. For example, you can filter according to the cell color and text color.

The most striking feature of Zoho is its AI-powered data analyst, Zia. It recommends charts that you can add to your spreadsheet with a simple drag-and-drop action. When data seems too vast for a chart, Zia scans, groups, and then puts it into pivot tables.

You can ask any questions about your data in simple English and Zia gives you the answers right away.

But there are a few downsides of Zoho Sheet too:

1. It has a row limit of 131072 which isn’t ideal for big data.
2. You can’t upload CSV files larger than 20MB unless you have Premium

Grist 

Grist is a modern, open-source spreadsheet that goes beyond the grid. It has a clean UI that makes data playful to work with.

Grist allows you to define relationships between tables, much like a relational database. This makes it easier to organize and manage interconnected data.

You can set up access rules to monitor who can see and edit which part of the table, down to each row and column.

You can create different views of the data, such as tables, cards, or dashboards, and customize these as well. In case you can’t find a view that fits your needs, build your own!

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For example, if you can’t store all data in one table, use Cards. Add additional data for each row and link it to the table. Simply hover over it and see both the data side-by-side.

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Grist’s AI formula assistant can extract data, find patterns, and write complex formulas. All you’ve to do is enter your requirements in simple language. 

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For the techies, Grist creates a code view of all the formulas used in the spreadsheet. You can use also Python scripts to create custom functions that go beyond the built-in capabilities of Grist.

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While Grist offers many powerful features, it also has some limitations:

1. Doesn’t offer as many third-party integrations as Google Sheets or Zoho Sheet.
2. With a 100,000-row limit (on Pro plans), it can’t handle big data.
3. The support document isn’t as extensive.

Which is the best large CSV file editor?

It depends on your needs.

Here are a few questions to help you find a large CSV file editor:

1. Can it handle big data? 
2. How easy is it to sort, filter, and format data?
3. Can it be used by all, techies and non-techies alike? 
4. Does it use AI to analyze data or do you have to manually write functions?
5. How easy is it to manipulate data?

Most software check all boxes except one. They can’t manage big data. Every software has its limitations. But a small row limit is a deal-breaker. 

Gigasheet is an exception. It can load a billion rows of data! It’s not just a spreadsheet. It’s a database disguised as a spreadsheet. 

Sign up today! Gigasheet is free to get started with.