.CSV

Sample CSV Files

Clean, realistic tabular data for import features and data pipelines, plus the awkward files that break naive CSV parsers.

.csvtext/csv8 filesFree · No sign-upUnlimited downloads

Custom size by Technology Channel · Free to use for testing and development, including commercial projects.

100 rowsPopular

sample-100-rows.csv

100 rows of realistic people data with 12 columns. The go-to file for import and table tests.

100 rows
12 columns
12.7 KB

12.7 KB Download

1,000 rows

sample-1000-rows.csv

1,000 rows. Good for pagination, sorting and filtering tests.

1,000 rows
12 columns
127 KB

127 KB Download

10,000 rows

sample-10000-rows.csv

10,000 rows for performance checks on import and rendering.

10,000 rows
12 columns
1.3 MB

1.3 MB Download

100,000 rows

sample-100000-rows.csv

100,000 rows (large). Stress-tests streaming parsers, memory and upload limits.

100,000 rows
12 columns
12.7 MB

12.7 MB Download

Edge cases (RFC 4180)

sample-edge-cases.csv

Quoted commas, escaped quotes, embedded newlines, empty fields, leading zeros, unicode, long text and formula-like values.

11 rows
RFC 4180
Parser test

2.8 KB Download

Semicolon delimited (EU)

sample-semicolon.csv

European style: semicolon delimiter, decimal commas and DD.MM.YYYY dates, as exported by Excel in many locales.

200 rows
; delimiter
Decimal comma

9.6 KB Download

UTF-8 with BOM (Excel)

sample-utf8-bom.csv

Starts with a byte-order mark so Excel shows accented names correctly. Check your parser strips the BOM.

100 rows
UTF-8 BOM
12.6 KB

12.6 KB Download

Tab-separated (TSV)

sample.tsv

500 rows separated by tabs. Common for spreadsheet copy-paste and data science tools.

500 rows
Tab delimiter
63.0 KB

63.0 KB Download

Exact-size generator

Need a CSV of a different size?

Create a valid CSV file of any exact size, byte for byte, right in your browser. Nothing is uploaded, and you can generate as many as you like.

Perfect for upload limits: 9.99 MB, 10 MB and 10.01 MB in seconds.
Up to 20 copies at once, bundled in one ZIP.
Unique copies get different checksums, for duplicate-detection tests.

Use cases

What you can test

CSV import, column mapping and validation.
Parser performance with 10,000 and 100,000 rows.
Quoted fields, embedded commas and line breaks.
Semicolon delimiters used in many European locales.
UTF-8 BOM handling, especially when opening in Excel.
Tab-separated input with the TSV file.

Reference

CSV format facts

Extension	.csv
MIME type	text/csv
File signature	None (plain text). Optional UTF-8 BOM EF BB BF
Origin	1970s · RFC 4180, 2005
Files here	8 · 14.2 MB in total
License	Free for any use, no attribution

About the format

What is a CSV file?

CSV (comma-separated values) has been used since the 1970s but was only loosely described in RFC 4180 in 2005. Each line is a record. Fields are separated by commas, and fields that contain commas, quotes or line breaks are wrapped in double quotes.

Excel uses the system list separator, so many European users produce semicolon-separated files. Excel also needs a UTF-8 byte order mark to show accented characters correctly.

Developers

Read with Python

import csv

with open("files/csv/sample-100-rows.csv", newline="", encoding="utf-8") as f:
    rows = list(csv.DictReader(f))
print(len(rows), rows[0])

Download with cURL

curl -O https://samplefiles.technologychannel.org/files/csv/sample-100-rows.csv

FAQ

CSV files: common questions

What columns do the files have?

The row-count files share the same columns, such as id, name, email, city, country, date and amount, so you can compare performance across sizes with the same import code.

What makes the edge-case file hard to parse?

It has quoted fields with commas, escaped double quotes, line breaks inside fields, empty values and unicode text. Splitting lines on commas will fail on it.

Can I use these CSV files in commercial projects?

Yes. Every CSV file here is free for any use, including commercial testing, demos and tutorials. No attribution is required.

Can I download the same CSV file more than once?

Yes, as many times as you like. There is no sign-up, no daily limit and no waiting timer. Direct links also work in scripts, CI jobs and automated tests.

Keep testing

Related formats

All 20 formats

All CSV sample files