How to Scrape Data From a Website Into Excel

Start with method 1. Move to method 2 when the data is not in a table, and to method 3 when you need many pages, pages behind JavaScript, or a site that limits requests.

Power Query's web connector is part of Excel for Microsoft 365 and imports tables from a public URL; you set it up once and refresh it with a click or on a timer.

The import steps are at the top of this page; here is what each one shows:

• The Navigator lists the tables Power Query found on the page, including Suggested Tables it built from the page's structure. Click each to preview it.
• Add Table Using Examples: type the values you want from the first row or two (for example, a product name and its price), and Power Query fills in the rest of each column from the page. Use method 2 or 3 only if this fails too.
• Transform Data opens the Power Query Editor: remove columns, change types, split text. The steps you record there run again on every refresh.

The refresh settings sit on the query's Usage tab, under Refresh control (Data > Queries & Connections > Connections tab > right-click > Properties):

Microsoft documents the connector, Suggested Tables and Add Table Using Examples in Import data from the web, and the refresh settings in Refresh an external data connection in Excel. Microsoft says the new web connector is available as part of a Microsoft 365 (Office 365) subscription; the old Web (Legacy) import wizard is deprecated, and an old web query moves over by copying its URL into a new From Web query. The connector reads the HTML the server sends, so it does not see content a page builds with JavaScript after loading, and Microsoft's Web connector troubleshooting page warns that pages which load their content dynamically can give sporadic refresh errors. On a Mac or in Excel for the web, check which Power Query sources your version supports in Power Query data sources in Excel versions.

Many pages with Power Query. If the site pages its table with a URL parameter, such as ?page=2, turn the query into a function of the page number in the Power Query Editor and invoke it over a list of numbers. It works for tens of pages; for hundreds, method 3 is easier to run and to pace.

Refresh when the file is closed

Interval refresh runs only while the workbook is open in Excel; Excel's own refresh settings never update a closed file. There are three ways to get fresh data anyway:

For the desktop flow, untick Enable background refresh on the same Usage tab, so the query finishes before the flow saves the file, and set the Wait longer than one refresh takes. Microsoft documents the actions in Excel actions reference and the trigger and licenses in Trigger desktop flows from cloud flows.

Point-and-click scraping apps and browser extensions let you click the fields on a page, such as a name, a price and a rating, and repeat the selection across the list and its next pages. They export CSV or XLSX files you open in Excel, and cloud apps can run on a schedule. They suit lists and cards that are not HTML tables, and pages that need a browser. How to pick one is in our guide to no-code web scrapers.

The limits: templates break when the site changes its layout, larger jobs need a paid plan, and whether you can add your own proxies depends on the app.

A few lines of Python fetch the pages, read their tables and write one Excel file. This example collects three pages of a table from scrapethissite.com, a public sandbox for scraping practice, through the ProxyField gateway. Replace <login> and <password> with your credentials; <login>-country-us-city-new_york asks for an exit IP in New York.

# pip install requests pandas lxml openpyxl
import io, time
import requests
import pandas as pd

proxy = "http://<login>-country-us-city-new_york:<password>@gate.proxyfield.io:7000"
frames = []
for page in range(1, 4):
    url = f"https://www.scrapethissite.com/pages/forms/?page_num={page}"
    html = requests.get(url, proxies={"http": proxy, "https": proxy}, timeout=30).text
    frames.append(pd.read_html(io.StringIO(html))[0])   # the first <table> on the page
    time.sleep(2)                                        # be polite between pages

pd.concat(frames, ignore_index=True).to_excel("hockey_teams.xlsx", index=False)

We ran this script without the proxy on October 27, 2026 (pandas 3.1.0, requests 2.34.2): it wrote 75 rows and 9 columns, from "Team Name" to "+ / -". For data that is not in a <table>, parse the page with Beautiful Soup and build the rows yourself; for pages that build their content with JavaScript, load them with Playwright first. Both are covered in how to build a web scraper, and the proxy setup in Python proxy setup.

Run the script on a schedule, with Windows Task Scheduler or cron, and the workbook stays current without opening Excel. Scheduling options are compared in our guide to scheduling web scrapers.

Excel's VBA can request a page and write values into cells, and on Windows the WEBSERVICE function returns a URL's raw response into a cell. Both read the raw HTML only, so they share Power Query's limit on JavaScript pages, and VBA code is harder to maintain than Python. For the code, see VBA and PowerShell web scraping. Google Sheets users have IMPORTHTML and IMPORTXML instead: web scraping in Google Sheets.

• The Navigator shows no tables, or empty ones. Try Add Table Using Examples first. If the examples find nothing, the page loads its data with JavaScript: use method 2 or 3 with a browser, or find the JSON request the page makes in the browser's developer tools and import that URL with From Web instead.
• The workbook did not update overnight. Interval refresh needs the file open in Excel; schedule a flow that opens and saves it, or a script (refresh when the file is closed).
• A refresh fails now and then with an error such as "the column 'Foo' of the table wasn't found", and works on the next try. Microsoft's troubleshooting page puts this down to timing on pages that load content dynamically: the connector sometimes downloads the HTML before the page has finished changing. Import the page's JSON request instead, or move the job to method 3 with a browser.
• The Web View preview says "This browser is no longer supported". The preview tab renders with Internet Explorer, which some sites refuse; Microsoft says the warning affects only the Web View, not the import, so pick the table in the Table View.
• The refresh fails with an access error. The site may block automated requests or limit your IP. Slow down, and for recurring jobs on such sites use method 3 with rotating proxies.
• Columns shift after a refresh. The site changed its layout. Re-select the table and check your transform steps.
• Login pages. Power Query can pass credentials to some sites, but scraping behind a login raises access and terms questions; check the rules first in is web scraping legal.