Dummy 5 MB Excel File
Generate and download a dummy 5 MB Excel file. The download is exactly 5,242,880 bytes, created in your browser and never uploaded.
Need a different size? Make a dummy Excel file of any size from 4 KB to 50 MB.
Testing with a 5 MB Excel file
A 5 MB workbook is under the 6 MB Lambda payload limit but around 7 MB after base64 encoding, so it can still fail in an API Gateway plus Lambda upload path.
It is above PHP’s default 2 MB upload_max_filesize, which makes it a quick check that the server’s PHP limits were raised.
Sheet1 has three rows at every size, so a row-count assertion in your import test passes for the 5 MB workbook exactly as it does for the 100 KB one. Use that to confirm your code reads the sheet and does not guess content from the file size.
- Exact size (binary)
- 5,242,880 bytes
- Decimal equivalent
- 5,000,000 bytes
- Base64-encoded size
- 6,990,508 bytes
- Sheets and rows
- 1 sheet, 3 rows (header + 2 records)
Exact size and boundary files for 5 MB
Set the unit to B and enter these byte counts to test either reading of 5 MB.
| Limit defined as | One under (should pass) | At the limit | One over (should fail) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Binary 5 MB | One under (should pass) 5,242,879 B | At the limit 5,242,880 B | One over (should fail) 5,242,881 B |
| Decimal 5 MB | One under (should pass) 4,999,999 B | At the limit 5,000,000 B | One over (should fail) 5,000,001 B |
Limits closest to 5 MB
A 5 MB file is over nginx (1 MB) and PHP (2 MB); under AWS Lambda (6 MB), API Gateway (10 MB), Outlook with Exchange (10 MB), Outlook with internet accounts (20 MB), Gmail (25 MB) and Cloudflare Free and Pro (100 MB). Sent as base64 text it grows past AWS Lambda.
| Limit | Size | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| nginx client_max_body_size (default) | 1 MB 1,048,576 B | Requests with a larger body get HTTP 413. |
| PHP upload_max_filesize (default) | 2 MB 2,097,152 B | Also capped by post_max_size, so raise both. |
| AWS Lambda synchronous invocation payload | 6 MB 6,291,456 B | Applies to request and response. |
Other dummy Excel file sizes
Smaller: 1 MB Excel. Larger: 10 MB Excel. Or see the full dummy Excel file generator.
Other 5 MB dummy files
The same size in another file type.
5 MB Excel file FAQ
Is the 5 MB Excel file exactly 5 MB?
Yes: 5,242,880 bytes in binary units. For a decimal 5 MB, set the unit to B and enter 5,000,000.
How many sheets and rows does a 5 MB dummy Excel file have?
One sheet (Sheet1) with a header row and two records, 3 rows in total, at every size. Only the filler grows: all but about 3 KB of the 5,242,880 bytes is padding.dat, a stored part made of zero bytes.
Can a 5 MB dummy Excel file test Excel's row limit?
No. Excel allows 1,048,576 rows per worksheet, but this workbook has 3 rows whatever its size. For a row-volume test, the dummy CSV generator can make up to 1,000,000 rows with its Number of rows option.
Will a 5 MB Excel file pass the AWS Lambda synchronous invocation payload?
Yes, as a raw binary upload: it is 1,048,576 bytes under the 6 MB limit (6,291,456 bytes), which leaves room for the few hundred bytes of multipart headers. As base64 it is 6,990,508 characters, over the limit, and that is the size that counts in a JSON body or an email.
Is the file uploaded anywhere?
No. It is generated in your browser and never leaves your device.