Live Data Feeds: How to Import a Web Table Directly Into Excel
Copy-pasting data from a website into Excel is inefficient and breaks formatting. The modern solution uses Excel's powerful **From Web** feature (part of Power Query) to create a clean, refreshable connection to an online table.
This method works best for static tables (like a list of cities or a historical stock table) that are cleanly structured on a webpage.
Step 1: Start the Web Query
You will need the exact URL of the webpage containing the data table you want to import.
- Go to the **Data** tab on the Ribbon.
- In the **Get & Transform Data** group, click **From Web**.
- In the dialog box, paste the URL of the website and click **OK**.
Step 2: Use the Navigator
Excel will analyze the webpage and open the **Navigator** window, which shows all the structured data it found on that page.
- On the left panel, the Navigator will list two views: **Table View** and **Web View**.
- Click on the various **Table** names listed until you find the data table you want in the preview pane.
Step 3: Load or Transform the Data
Once you've selected the correct table, you have two options:
- **Load:** Click **Load** to place the data directly into a new table in your Excel sheet. This is the fastest way.
- **Transform Data:** Click **Transform Data** to open the **Power Query Editor**. Here, you can clean the data, remove unnecessary columns, filter rows, or change data types *before* it lands in Excel.
Step 4: Auto-Refresh the Connection
The best feature is that your data is linked to the web source. To update it:
- Right-click the imported table in Excel.
- Select **Refresh**. The new data from the website will automatically load, updating your formulas and charts.
You can also set the connection to automatically refresh every time you open the workbook, or even every few minutes, by adjusting the **Connection Properties** in the **Data** tab.
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