How to import a CSV into Google Sheets

Importing, rather than opening the file, lets you choose where the data lands and how Sheets reads it.

The Import location list decides what happens to the data already in the spreadsheet.

Separator type tells Sheets what splits one value from the next. Detect automatically gets commas and tabs right, and it also split a semicolon file correctly in our test. If the columns still come out wrong, choose Custom and type the character the file uses.

A file from a country that uses a comma as the decimal mark, with amounts like 124,18 and dates like 01.09.2026, imports into an English-language spreadsheet with those values as text, so they don't add up or sort as dates.

The Convert text to numbers, dates, and formulas box is checked by default, and it makes Sheets read each value as a number or date where it can. That's what you want for amounts and dates in a report. It is what breaks contact data: ZIP code 02134 becomes 2134, a phone number written without spaces, like 07700900238, loses its leading 0, and a size or bin code like 5-6 or 12/5 turns into a date. Long order IDs survive: Sheets keeps a 19-digit ID as text.

Uncheck the box and every value comes in as text, exactly as it is in the file. That includes amounts, and =SUM skips text without an error, so =SUM(K2:K87) on a Total column returns 0. Convert one cell with =VALUE(K2), or total the column with =SUMPRODUCT(VALUE(K2:K87)). Going the other way doesn't work: once a leading zero is gone, formatting the column as Plain text doesn't bring it back, so you have to import again.

If the CSV is in Google Drive, you can double-click it and choose Open with > Google Sheets. That creates a new spreadsheet next to the CSV, converted with the default settings: the separator is detected and the conversion box is checked, so leading zeros and codes like 5-6 go the same way as above. If Drive is set to convert uploads, the CSV is converted the same way as it uploads.

It is quick for a report. For a list with IDs, ZIP codes or phone numbers, open a blank spreadsheet and use File > Import, where you can uncheck the box.

When the CSV lives at a public web address, such as an export link from another tool, the IMPORTDATA function pulls it in and keeps it current. Type =IMPORTDATA("https://example.com/export.csv") in an empty cell and the data fills the cells to the right and below.

Sheets fetches the file again on its own from time to time, roughly once an hour, so the sheet follows the file. The address has to work without signing in: a link that needs a password, including a private Google Drive link, returns an error.

The result is a formula, so you can't edit the cells it fills. To work with a fixed copy, select the data, copy it and use Edit > Paste special > Values only.

Most import problems show up in the first few rows, so look at them before you do anything else with the data.

Often the CSV is in Google Sheets to be tidied before it goes into HubSpot, Salesforce or Pipedrive. Then download it with File > Download > Comma-separated values (.csv) and import that into the CRM. It saves only the tab you are on, as a file named after the spreadsheet and the tab, and any formulas are saved as their results.

Operelio's CRM Formatter does the tidying on the CSV itself: it matches your columns to the CRM's fields, lowercases and trims emails, cleans phone numbers, splits names and removes duplicates, then gives you a file ready to import. On a paid plan it can push the rows straight into HubSpot, Salesforce or Pipedrive instead. The import templates show the columns each CRM expects before you start.