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CSV Delimiter Detector

Paste CSV text to detect comma, tab, semicolon, or pipe separators when imports fail. Everything runs locally in your browser.

CSV Delimiter Detector: Guide

Intent
CSV delimiter detector online: figure out the separator (comma, semicolon, tab, or pipe) when a CSV will not import correctly.
What it does
Counts candidate delimiter characters in the first line and reports the most likely separator.
Key features
Supports , ; TAB |, Shows match count, Fast first-line heuristic
Privacy
Everything runs locally in your browser. No uploads.
Best for
  • When Excel/Sheets imports everything into one column (wrong separator)
  • Debugging vendor exports that use semicolons, tabs, or pipes instead of commas
  • Anyone searching 'CSV delimiter detector' or 'CSV separator'
Why this tool
  • Find the separator quickly without trial-and-error imports
  • Works from pasted CSV text (you can test a few lines)
  • Local-only: no uploads

How to use

  1. 1Paste a representative header line (or the first few lines) of your CSV.
  2. 2Click Detect delimiter.
  3. 3Use the reported delimiter when importing into Excel, Sheets, or databases.

Common mistakes

  • Quoted fields can contain delimiter characters, which can mislead simple counting.
  • If the first line is weird (or empty), the guess can be wrong.
  • Mixed-delimiter files will not be reliably detected by a heuristic.

Examples

Comma-separated (standard)
Input first line: name,email,age Detected: ','
Tab-separated (TSV)
Input first line: name email age Detected: TAB (\t)

Related tools

CSV Inspector
After detecting the delimiter, run all checks in one place.
Broken CSV Checker
Then find lines with inconsistent column counts.
CSV Column Count Checker
Quickly count rows and columns after confirming the separator.

Workflows (kits)

CSV Debug Kit
Detect delimiter, find broken rows, and sanity-check CSV structure.