Comparison · Office and email
XRechnung and ZUGFeRD viewers compared (2026): free, in English, PDF and Excel
By Blink Brief · Updated · How pages are made
To read an XRechnung or a ZUGFeRD invoice from a German supplier, you don't need to buy anything. Norman, billance and E-Rechnung-Check read both in English in your browser, free and without uploading the file, and save the invoice as a PDF or print it. Quba does the same as a free desktop app. Autum8 also exports one invoice at a time to Excel for free. All nine tools below were checked on their own pages on 4 November 2026.
Short answer
- One invoice, free, in English: Norman, billance or E-Rechnung-Check in the browser; Quba on your computer.
- Several at once: billance (view), TaxLayer (PDFs, German page), or the Blink Brief viewer (up to 5, with a table).
- Excel: Autum8, free one invoice at a time; batches from €24 a month.
- Official: ELSTER's free viewer from the tax administration; KoSIT's validator checks the rules.
On this page
Quick picks
-
Several files, free
billance viewer
Opens several XML or ZUGFeRD invoices at once in English, processed in your browser, up to 20 MB a file.
Free
billance.de -
Desktop, offline
Quba
Open-source viewer for Windows, Mac and Linux; version 2.0 adds offline validation and PDF export.
Free
quba-viewer.org -
Excel
Autum8
Exports an invoice to an Excel workbook with Invoice, Lines and VAT sheets, in your browser.
Free per invoice
autum8.co
Price, English page and several files at once
| Tool | Price | In English | Several files at once |
|---|---|---|---|
| ELSTER | Free: "a non-binding service provided by the tax administration" | Yes, translated by DeepL, which ELSTER says "may not be accurate or reliable" | Not stated: "You can view your e-bill here" |
| Quba | Free and open source; "Quba will remain Free" | Yes | Not stated |
| Norman | Free: "Open German e-invoices for free in your browser" | Yes | No, one file per pick |
| billance | Free, "without an account" | Yes | Yes: "open several invoices at once"; 20 MB per file and 10 MB of XML |
| E-Rechnung-Check | Free, "no account, no sign-up" | Yes | No, one file per pick |
| Autum8 | Free for viewing, single-file validation and exports. Standard €24, Professional €49, Accounting Firm €99 a month; 24-Hour Pass €14.90; excl. VAT. "Checkout remains disabled in this preview" | Yes, and in German and French | Paid only: 50 documents a batch on Standard, 500 on Professional and Accounting Firm |
| TaxLayer | The XRechnung to PDF tool is free. Paid plans (from €109 a year) are for creating e-invoices from PDFs | No, German pages only | Yes: "Mehrere Dateien gleichzeitig möglich" (several files at once) |
| KoSIT | Free, open source (Apache-2.0) | Documentation in English | The validator's command line takes several files |
Checked on 4 November 2026 on each vendor's own page, linked in the first column; TaxLayer has no English page, so its German page is quoted. "One file per pick" means the page's file picker takes a single file.
ZUGFeRD PDFs, PDF and Excel export, and where the file goes
| Tool | Reads a ZUGFeRD PDF | Save as PDF | Excel or CSV | Upload or local |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ELSTER | Not stated on the English page | Not stated on the page | No | Not stated on the page |
| Quba | Yes | Yes, from version 2.0 | Not stated | Local: a program on your computer, "offline" |
| Norman | Yes | Yes | No | Local: "read in your browser only and never uploaded" |
| billance | Yes, the XML part; "it does not reproduce the original PDF layout" | Not stated; you can download the XML | No | Local: "processed locally in your browser" |
| E-Rechnung-Check | Yes, and it can save the embedded XML | Yes, "Print the invoice or save as PDF" | No | Local: "read in this browser window and never uploaded" |
| Autum8 | Yes, "a supported PDF with invoice XML" | Yes, with its XRechnung → PDF tool | Yes, free: an .xlsx with Invoice, Lines and VAT sheets | Local: "0 bytes uploaded to any server" |
| TaxLayer | No, the ZUGFeRD XML only | Yes, a PDF per invoice | No | Local: "Es wird nichts hochgeladen" (nothing is uploaded) |
| KoSIT | No, UBL or CII XML | Yes, in two steps: the XML is first transformed to an intermediate XML, then the xr-pdf.xsl stylesheet renders a PDF | No | Local: software you run yourself |
Read on each vendor's own page on 4 November 2026. Every tool here reads XRechnung in both UBL and CII syntax.
Viewing is not validating
Every viewer above shows what the file says; none of them confirms the invoice is correct. Norman and E-Rechnung-Check run a quick check of required details and totals, Autum8 and Quba 2.0 validate locally, and the binding check is KoSIT's validator, which tests the XML against the XRechnung schema and Schematron rules. KoSIT also notes that a PDF made from an XRechnung is not an XRechnung: keep the XML file you received.
Our product
The free Blink Brief XRechnung viewer opens up to 5 XRechnung or ZUGFeRD XML files at once in your browser, with nothing uploaded. It shows a summary table and each invoice with English labels, recalculates every total, prints or saves the invoices as PDF, and exports the table as a CSV for Excel. It doesn't open PDFs or validate the invoice against the rules.
Open the XRechnung viewerQuestions
Is there a free XRechnung viewer in English?
Yes. Norman, billance, E-Rechnung-Check and Autum8 have English web pages and read an XRechnung free in the browser without uploading it; Quba is a free English desktop app for Windows, Mac and Linux. ELSTER's official viewer has an English page, translated by DeepL.
How do I open a ZUGFeRD invoice?
Any PDF reader shows its visible page. To read the invoice data itself, use a viewer that takes the PDF and reads the XML inside it: Norman, billance, E-Rechnung-Check, Autum8 and Quba do. Others, such as TaxLayer and the Blink Brief viewer, need the XML file saved out of the PDF first.
Which tool opens several XRechnungs at once?
billance and TaxLayer accept several files in one go, and the Blink Brief viewer up to 5 with a summary table. Norman, E-Rechnung-Check and Autum8's free viewer take one file per pick; Autum8's batches of 50 or 500 are in paid plans.
Can I export an XRechnung to Excel?
Autum8 exports one invoice at a time to an Excel workbook for free. The Blink Brief viewer exports a CSV table of up to 5 invoices for Excel. The others in this table don't export to Excel or CSV.
Sources
- ELSTER: View e-bill: English page (DeepL translation): "a non-binding service provided by the tax administration"; XRechnung 3.0.1; the page doesn't mention saving as PDF. Read on 4 November 2026.
- Quba E-Invoice Viewer: "Open-source / Free / Cross-Platform"; Windows, Linux, Mac. Read on 4 November 2026.
- Quba 2.0: released 15 October 2026; offline validation. Read on 4 November 2026.
- Quba: Preview of Quba 2.0: "will not only display, but also export PDF". Read on 4 November 2026.
- Norman: E-invoice viewer: XML or ZUGFeRD PDF, one file per pick, save as PDF, read in the browser. Read on 4 November 2026.
- Billance: Free e-invoice viewer: several invoices at once; 20 MB per file, 10 MB XML; processed locally. Read on 4 November 2026.
- E-Rechnung-Check: Open an e-invoice: one file per pick; print or save as PDF; read in the browser. Read on 4 November 2026.
- Autum8: XRechnung Viewer: 5 MB XML, 20 MB PDF; "checkout remains disabled in this preview". Read on 4 November 2026.
- Autum8: XRechnung to Excel: Excel workbook with Invoice, Lines and VAT sheets. Read on 4 November 2026.
- Autum8: Visualiseur XRechnung (French): the viewer in French; its alternate links name English and German pages. Read on 4 November 2026.
- Autum8: Pricing: Free €0; Standard €24, Professional €49, Accounting Firm €99 a month; 24-Hour Pass €14.90; excl. VAT. Read on 4 November 2026.
- TaxLayer: XRechnung in PDF umwandeln: German only; several XML files at once, in the browser. Read on 4 November 2026.
- TaxLayer: Preise: German only; plans are for creating e-invoices from PDFs. Read on 4 November 2026.
- KoSIT: Validator: Apache-2.0; command line, library or daemon. Read on 4 November 2026.
- KoSIT: XRechnung visualization: two steps: UBL or CII to an intermediate XML, then xrechnung-html.xsl to HTML or xr-pdf.xsl to PDF. Read on 4 November 2026.