Finance Use Cases , Google Sheets , Integrated AI Usage , Intelligent Document Processing , Legal Use Cases
If you’re regularly receiving PDFs with important data—like invoices, purchase orders, form submissions, or reports—this article is for you. Explore best tools to use in 2025 to seamlessly extract data from PDF to Excel or Sheets
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When Do You Need to Extract Data from PDFs Automatically?
If you’re regularly receiving PDFs with important data—like invoices, purchase orders, form submissions, or reports—you’ve probably spent more time than you’d like copying and pasting information into Google Sheets or Excel. Manual data entry isn’t just tedious; it’s error-prone, time-consuming, and unsustainable at scale.
That’s where automated PDF data extraction comes in. Whether you’re processing hundreds of documents a month or just want to free your team from repetitive tasks, automation tools can pull key information (like tables, totals, names, dates, or itemized entries) straight from a PDF and send it directly to your spreadsheet—no manual work required.
In this article, we’ll walk you through 5 of the best tools to extract data from PDFs into Google Sheets or Excel in 2025, covering options for everyone from business users to developers.
How We Chose These Tools For Automated Data Extraction From PDF
To make this list genuinely helpful, we focused on tools that would allow you to extract data from PDF and meet at least three of the following criteria:
- Supports table or field-level data extraction from PDFs
- Can export directly to Google Sheets or Excel (or via integration)
- Handles both text-based and scanned PDFs (OCR capability)
- Offers automation features to eliminate manual steps
- Doesn't require coding skills to get started
Whether you’re looking for a no-code solution, a developer-friendly API, or a native Microsoft or Google integration, the tools below cover a range of needs and budgets.
The #1 PDF Data Extraction Solutions For Teams Using Google Workspace
Zenphi is the best tool for teams using Google Workspace and looking for automation of their PDF data extraction workflows. From inbox automation and email monitoring to assigning tasks to the team members, Zenphi allows to embed PDF data extraction into end-to-end business process automations.
5 Best Ways to Extract Data from PDF To Excel or Sheets In 2025
Zenphi – Automate PDF Data Extraction with No Code
- Best For Teams using Google Workspace looking for full automation.
Zenphi allows you to automatically extract data from PDFs—whether attached to incoming emails, stored in Drive, or submitted via forms—and send that data directly to Google Sheets or other systems like BigQuery or Airtable.
It supports table extraction, OCR for scanned documents, and includes built-in AI models to interpret unstructured data.
With Zenphi, you can also trigger follow-up actions like approval workflows, database updates, or email notifications, making it ideal for intelligent invoice processing, onboarding documents, or building the full-scale document management system.
- Use Cases
Zenphi is widely used by the teams that heavily utilize Google Workspace environment and looking for automating the following use cases:
- Invoice data extraction and approval workflows
- Capturing form submissions (e.g. patient intake, onboarding forms)
- Routing contracts and signed PDFs for multi-step approvals
- Exporting structured tables from supplier PDFs into Sheets
For example, watch this simple video guide on how to build an automation that would extract data from important very specific PDFs (like orders or invoices) attached to your incoming emails.
Tabula – Free PDF Table Extraction Tool
- Best for analysts and developers handling clean, text-based PDFs.
Tabula is an open-source simple desktop app that allows users to select and extract tables from PDFs into CSV format. It works well for machine-readable PDFs but doesn’t support automation, OCR, or scanned files.
- Use Cases
Tabula is open source, so mostly used by the teams that are not very concerned about compliance and audit trials. Also, it’s great when extracting data from PDF is a stand-alone tasks, the beginning and the end of your automation process. Meaning, the team would start working with the output file manually. Not surprisingly, use cases for Tabula include:
- Academic researchers pulling tabular data from reports or publications
- Analysts converting quarterly earnings reports into CSV for modeling
- Manually extracting financial tables from PDFs into Excel for manual analysis
Adobe Acrobat Pro – Built-in Export Features
- Best for users with an Adobe subscription who need occasional exports
With Adobe Acrobat Pro, users can export entire PDFs or selected content into Excel, Word, or CSV format. It includes basic OCR and handles simple form fields and tables well but doesn’t automate the process.
- Use Cases
- One-off exports of tables from reports or whitepapers
- Converting filled PDF forms into structured spreadsheet data
- Preparing audit data from scanned documents for analysis
Ready to embed PDF data extraction in a company-wide workflow?
Weather you’re looking for an invoice processing solution or need a HIPAA-compliant healthcare automation tool that would extract medical records, Zenphi will be a game changer for you. Book a call with Zenphi automation expert to get access to special prices.
Power Automate + AI Builder (Microsoft)
- Best for Microsoft 365 enterprise teams with internal automation resources
Power Automate and AI Builder work together to extract fields and tables from PDFs, especially invoices or forms. You can then connect these workflows to Excel, SharePoint, or Dynamics 365. It’s powerful, but setup can be complex.
- Use Cases
- Automating invoice and purchase order processing at scale
- Extracting data from PDF forms submitted by vendors or clients
- Pushing extracted tables to Excel for financial or operational analysis
PDF.co + Zapier or Make (Integromat)
- Best for teams that have extra resoirces to spend on in-house development
PDF.co offers powerful capabilities through APIs or integrations with Zapier/Make. It supports OCR, form field parsing, barcode reading, table extraction, and content redaction—ideal for agencies building custom workflows for their customers.
- Use Cases
- Building custom invoice or report parsing systems they can charge end-user for
To be honest, there aren’t many strong use cases for this combo anymore. Most in-house teams now prefer low-code or no-code options that don’t require stitching tools together.
Also, keep in mind that API-based integrations can now be achieved more easily—and securely—with platforms like Zenphi. For example, if you need to extract tables from PDFs and send them to a custom, home-grown database, Zenphi’s built-in HTTP module lets you create API integrations without writing backend logic.
Watch this 5 min tutorial on how to integrate Zenphi with pretty much anything.
Choose the Tool That Matches Your Workflow—Not Just Your PDF
Extracting data from PDFs into Google Sheets or Excel doesn’t have to be manual, messy, or expensive. Whether you’re processing invoices, forms, or reports, there’s a solution out there that fits your needs—and your team’s technical comfort level.
If you’re looking for a fully automated, secure, and no-code solution that integrates seamlessly with Google Workspace, and allows to automate whole processes like 3 way invoice matching, two way invoice matching, invoice capture and processing, Zenphi is hard to beat. It’s not just about extracting data—it’s about automating what happens next.
Read More On Extracting Data From PDF Automations
Three Way Invoice Matching Automation
Process PDF With AI Faster
Automated Accounts Payable Video Guide
Two-Ways Invoice Matching Guide
Success Story: 2 Weeks Saved
