python

office-oxide for Python — The Fastest Office Document Library for Python

The fastest Python library for text extraction and Markdown conversion across all six Microsoft Office formats (DOCX, XLSX, PPTX, DOC, XLS, PPT), plus writing and editing for DOCX, XLSX, and PPTX (the legacy binary formats are read-only, and convertible to OOXML via save_as). Powered by a Rust core via PyO3. Up to 100× faster than python-docx, openpyxl, and python-pptx. 100% pass rate on valid Office files — zero failures on legitimate Word/Excel/PowerPoint documents. MIT / Apache-2.0 licensed.

Part of the office_oxide toolkit. Same Rust core, same pass rate as the Rust, Go, JavaScript (native), C# / .NET, and WASM bindings.

Quick Start

pip install office-oxide

from office_oxide import Document, EditableDocument, extract_text, to_markdown

# One-shot helpers
text = extract_text("report.docx")
md = to_markdown("spreadsheet.xlsx")

# Context-managed document
with Document.open("slides.pptx") as doc:
    print(doc.format)          # "pptx"
    print(doc.plain_text())
    print(doc.to_markdown())
    ir = doc.to_ir()           # format-agnostic IR as nested dicts

Why office-oxide?

• Fast — 0.8ms mean DOCX, 5.0ms mean XLSX, 0.7ms mean PPTX; up to 100× faster than python-docx / openpyxl / python-pptx
• Reliable — 100% pass rate on valid Office files (6,062-file corpus); zero failures on legitimate documents
• Complete — 6 formats: DOCX, XLSX, PPTX + legacy DOC, XLS, PPT — one library
• Permissive — MIT / Apache-2.0, unlike many alternatives that require GPL or AGPL
• Drop-in — extract_text() and to_markdown() replace python-docx / openpyxl in one line

Performance

Benchmarked on 6,062 files from 11 independent public test suites. Single-thread, release build, warm disk cache.

Library	Format	Mean	Pass Rate	License
office_oxide	DOCX	0.8ms	98.9%	MIT
python-docx	DOCX	11.8ms	95.1%	MIT
office_oxide	XLSX	5.0ms	97.8%	MIT
python-calamine	XLSX	13.9ms	96.6%	MIT
openpyxl	XLSX	94.5ms	96.2%	MIT
office_oxide	PPTX	0.7ms	98.4%	MIT
python-pptx	PPTX	32.5ms	86.7%	MIT

Full methodology and corpus breakdown in BENCHMARKS.md.

Installation

pip install office-oxide

Pre-built wheels for Linux (x86_64, aarch64, musl), macOS (x86_64, arm64), and Windows (x86_64). Python 3.10–3.14. No system dependencies, no Rust toolchain required.

API

Extraction

from office_oxide import Document, extract_text, to_markdown, to_html

# One-shot helpers
text = extract_text("report.docx")
md   = to_markdown("spreadsheet.xlsx")
html = to_html("slides.pptx")

# Document object
doc = Document.open("presentation.pptx")
text = doc.plain_text()
md   = doc.to_markdown()
html = doc.to_html()
ir   = doc.to_ir()           # structured dict (format-agnostic IR)
fmt  = doc.format            # "pptx"

Document.open accepts both str and pathlib.Path. Can also be used as a context manager.

From bytes

with open("file.docx", "rb") as f:
    doc = Document.from_bytes(f.read(), "docx")

Editing

Only DOCX, XLSX, and PPTX are editable; DOC, XLS, and PPT are read-only.

with EditableDocument.open("template.docx") as ed:
    ed.replace_text("{{NAME}}", "Alice")
    ed.save("out.docx")

Spreadsheet cells

with EditableDocument.open("data.xlsx") as ed:
    ed.set_cell(0, "A1", "Revenue")
    ed.set_cell(0, "B1", 12345.67)
    ed.set_cell(0, "C1", True)
    ed.save("data.edited.xlsx")

Other languages

office_oxide ships the same Rust core through six bindings:

• Rust — cargo add office_oxide — see docs.rs/office_oxide
• Go — go get github.com/yfedoseev/office_oxide/go — see go/README.md
• JavaScript (native) — npm install office-oxide — see js/README.md
• C# / .NET — dotnet add package OfficeOxide — see csharp/OfficeOxide/README.md
• WASM — npm install office-oxide-wasm — see wasm-pkg/README.md

Why I built this

I needed a library that could read all six Office formats at once — not six separate packages — and I needed it without pulling in a JVM or a GPL-licensed dependency. Nothing existed that combined speed, correctness, and a permissive license across the full DOCX / XLSX / PPTX / DOC / XLS / PPT surface, so I wrote it in Rust and wrapped it for every language I use day-to-day.

If it saves you a dependency or a license audit, a star on GitHub genuinely helps. If something's broken or missing, open an issue.

— Yury

License

Dual-licensed under MIT or Apache-2.0 at your option.

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Python + Rust core | MIT / Apache-2.0 | 100% pass rate on valid Office files (6,062-file corpus) | Up to 100× faster than alternatives | 6 formats