Click the "Select File" button above, and choose your CLC file.
You’ll see a preview, if available.
Click the "Convert file to..." button to extract text information.
Convert CLC to another file type
To convert CLC Bioinformatics files to another format, you need CLC Genomics Workbench or other Data software.
Convert a file to CLC
To convert other file formats to the "Proprietary Scientific Data File" file type, you need software like CLC Genomics Workbench or a similar tool.
About CLC files
The .CLC file extension primarily stores complex bioinformatics and genomic sequencing data used by the proprietary QIAGEN CLC bio software suite. Researchers rely on these files to save DNA, RNA, or protein alignments, alongside sequencing workflows and metadata. The major disadvantage of the .CLC format is severe vendor lock-in. It is a highly proprietary, closed-source format that typically requires an active, expensive software license to open. These files can easily exceed hundreds of megabytes and are completely unsupported by standard web browsers, text editors, or generic data tools. Because of this closed ecosystem, standard online converters will fail to process genomic .CLC files into formats like .CSV or .XLSX. You generally need to use the original software's export function to get usable tabular data. However, the .CLC extension is heavily fragmented across multiple industries. It is also used as an SQLite database for collection management software, a Microsoft Compound file for legal document software, an Ansys HFSS calculator expression file, and even a DJI Zenmuse LiDAR calibration file. Our analyzer tool will inspect the internal file signature. If it detects a supported underlying format like .SQLITE or embedded Microsoft Compound text, viewing or extracting the data may still be possible without the original software.
Convert.Guru analyzes your CLC file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
If you want to convert CLC file to , you can use CLC Genomics Workbench or similar software from the "Bioinformatics Data Storage" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert files to CLC, try CLC Genomics Workbench or another comparable tool in the "Bioinformatics Data Storage" category.
The CLC Converter Story
The history of Convert.Guru began over 25 years ago in California with Tom Simondi’s file-format database. A former contributor to Space Shuttle development and a software pioneer of the 1980s, Simondi established a trusted resource for file type analysis that was even referenced by Microsoft Windows XP. Today, we use modern technology to process and convert thousands of file formats while continually improving our CLC converter.