Fix CSV Encoding & Split Large Files - Excel-Friendly Output

CSV Encoding Fixer & Splitter - Fix Broken Characters

Fix broken characters in CSV files (é instead of é, ’ instead of '). Save as clean UTF-8 that opens right in Excel. Split big files into parts that keep the header. $0.01 per file.

Website and local versions

• Website — Tidy Byte Tools product page

What it does

• Finds and fixes garbled letters like é, ’ and ü.
• Reads UTF-8, UTF-16 and old Windows files.
• Saves clean UTF-8 that opens right in Excel.
• Can split big files into parts. Every part keeps the header.
• Shows examples of what it fixed.

Price

You pay $0.01 per file fixed (One CSV file fixed and saved. Split parts are free. Failed files are free.) There is no start fee from us. Apify adds its normal small platform cost. Set a max cost for the run and we stop there. We never charge for work we did not save.

How to use

1. Add links or paste your data.
2. Click Start.
3. Get results in the Output tab, or download them as CSV, Excel or JSON.

Input

• CSV file links: Links to CSV files.
• Or paste CSV: Paste CSV text.
• Split every N rows: 0 = do not split. Each part keeps the header row.
• Excel friendly (add UTF-8 marker): Helps Excel show accents right.

Example input

This is also the default sample, so a first run works if you just click Start.

{
  "csvText": "name,city\nJosé,München\nAnn,Paris",
  "splitRows": 0,
  "excelFriendly": true
}

FAQ

Why does é look like é? That usually happens when a UTF-8 file was opened as Windows Latin-1 (or the other way around). The letters are still there, just read with the wrong encoding. This Actor tries to put them back.

Does it fix every encoding problem? No. It is best at common "mojibake" like é for é and ’ for '. Odd or mixed encodings may still need a look by hand. The output shows examples of what it changed.

Excel still shows the wrong letters. Turn on "Excel friendly (add UTF-8 marker)". That helps Excel treat the file as UTF-8.

What does split do? If you set "Split every N rows" to a number greater than 0, you get more than one file. Every part keeps the header row. Split parts are free.

Do I pay for a file that fails? No. Failed files are free. You pay $0.01 once per CSV file that we fix and save.

Is there a free version of this Actor? Not for this exact fixer. You can still try it by pasting the sample rows in the input form (José, München).

Good to know

• Files up to 50 MB each.
• Your data is only used for your run.
• Made by Tidy Byte Tools. Questions? Open an issue on this Actor's page.

More tools from Tidy Byte Tools

These Actors work well together:

• PDF Table Extractor — PDF tables to CSV, Excel and JSON. $0.003 per page with a table.
• PDF, Word and Web Page to Markdown — Clean Markdown and RAG chunks. $0.003 per file.
• HTML Table Extractor — Web tables to CSV and JSON. $0.0005 per data row.
• Broken Link Checker — Check site and sitemap links. $0.001 per link.
• Markdown Chunker for RAG — Split Markdown by headings. $0.0001 per chunk.
• CSV and Excel Data Cleaner — Dedupe and fix dates, emails and phones. $0.0005 per clean row.
• JSON to CSV Converter — Flatten nested JSON for spreadsheets. $0.0001 per row.
• CSV Encoding Fixer and Splitter — Fix garbled letters like é and split big files. $0.01 per file.
• Phone Number Validator — Check and format numbers offline. $0.001 per number.
• LLM Token Counter — Offline token and cost estimates for GPT, Claude and Gemini. $0.0005 per unique text.

Free local tools (no Apify account needed): pdf-table-pull-lite, doc2md-lite, link-check-lite, md-chunk-lite, json-shaper-lite.

Website: https://tidybytetools.github.io. All Actors: apify.com/tidybytetools.

Agent tip

Fix broken CSV characters (encoding) and optionally split large files. $0.01 per file fixed. Failed files free. Works from Apify MCP and the API.