For most people in 2026, the best AI for Excel is Microsoft Copilot, which lives directly inside Excel and can build formulas, analyse your data and generate charts from a plain-English request. If you'd rather not pay for Copilot, a general assistant like ChatGPT or Claude is superb at writing and explaining formulas you then paste in yourself — and for Google Sheets users, Gemini is built right into the app.
The honest headline is that AI has quietly removed the single biggest source of spreadsheet frustration: staring at a cell wondering which function to use. You can now describe what you want in words and get the formula back, correctly written, with an explanation. As with all AI, features and availability change fast, so treat the details below as a current snapshot and check the official sites before relying on them. Here's a practical, job-by-job guide to which tool fits which spreadsheet task.
Two ways AI helps with spreadsheets
There are two distinct approaches, and knowing which you need saves money. The first is AI built into the spreadsheet — Copilot in Excel or Gemini in Google Sheets — where the assistant sees your actual data and can act on it directly, writing formulas into cells, creating pivot tables and generating charts without you copying anything out. It's seamless, but it usually requires a paid subscription.
The second is AI alongside the spreadsheet — a general assistant like ChatGPT or Claude in a separate window. You describe your problem or paste a sample of your data, it gives you the formula or steps, and you apply them yourself. It's a little more manual, but it's often free and, for formula-writing and troubleshooting, frequently just as good. Most people don't need both; pick the approach that matches how much you'll use it and what you're willing to pay.
Microsoft Copilot, AI inside Excel
Microsoft Copilot is the most powerful option for Excel because it's woven directly into the app. Ask it in plain English to "sum sales by region" or "highlight the top ten customers" and it builds the formula or does the analysis on your real spreadsheet. It can suggest formulas, explain what a complex existing formula does, generate charts and pivot tables, and surface trends and outliers in a dataset you'd otherwise have to eyeball manually.
For anyone who works in Excel regularly, this is a genuine time-saver, because the AI has full context of your data and can act on it rather than just advising from a distance. The catch is cost and access: Copilot's deeper in-app features generally require a Microsoft 365 subscription plus a Copilot Pro add-on at around $20/month, though there's a free Copilot available on the web and in Windows for more general help. Many workplaces and universities already provide Microsoft 365, so it's worth checking whether you have access before paying — you may already own the most powerful spreadsheet AI there is.
ChatGPT and Claude, for formulas and analysis
If you don't have Copilot, a general assistant is a brilliant and often free alternative for the thing people struggle with most: formulas. Tell ChatGPT or Claude what you're trying to do — "I need to look up a value in another sheet and return the matching price" — and it'll write the exact formula, whether that's a VLOOKUP, an INDEX/MATCH, an XLOOKUP or a nested IF, and explain how it works so you learn along the way. Paste in a formula that's throwing an error and it'll diagnose the problem.
Both are excellent here. Claude's clear, step-by-step explanations make it especially good for understanding *why* a formula works and for tackling complex, multi-step logic, while ChatGPT's versatility covers everything from formulas to writing macros. You can paste a small sample of your data (with sensitive details removed) and ask for analysis, cleanup steps, or a suggested approach. Both are free to start with $20/month plans if you need more, and for pure formula help the free tiers go a long way. See our ChatGPT vs Claude vs Gemini comparison for how they differ on technical tasks.
Gemini, for Google Sheets
If your spreadsheets live in Google Sheets rather than Excel, Gemini is the natural choice because Google has built it directly into Workspace. It can help generate formulas, organise and categorise data, create tables, and answer questions about a sheet you're already working in — the same in-app convenience Copilot offers Excel users, but for the Google side of the fence. Its multimodal ability also means it can make sense of charts and screenshots you feed it.
Access comes through Google's paid Workspace and AI plans, typically around $20/month for the full features, with lighter free access depending on your account. For anyone whose work already runs on Google Sheets, Docs and Drive, Gemini is the option with the least friction, since it's right there in the toolbar rather than in a separate window.
Writing macros and automating tasks
AI is genuinely transformative for the more technical corners of spreadsheets that most people avoid: macros and scripts. If you've ever wanted to automate a repetitive task in Excel but were put off by VBA, a general assistant can write the macro for you from a plain description — "loop through this sheet and email me any row where stock is below ten." The same goes for Google Sheets and its Apps Script. You describe the automation, the AI writes the code, and you paste it in.
This opens up genuine automation to people who never learned to program, which is a real leap in what a non-technical user can do with a spreadsheet. The usual caution applies, though: read and test any macro before running it on important data, since a script that modifies or deletes cells can do damage fast. Test on a copy first. Used carefully, it's one of the highest-value things AI can do with spreadsheets — turning hours of manual clicking into a button.
A word on accuracy and safety
Two honest warnings before you lean on any of these tools. First, AI makes mistakes with data and formulas just as it does with text. It can write a formula that looks right but references the wrong range, or misread what a column means. Always sanity-check the results — spot-check a few rows by hand and make sure the totals make sense before you trust an AI-built analysis for anything that matters.
Second, be careful what data you paste into external tools. Company financials, customer records and anything personal or confidential shouldn't go into a third-party chatbot without checking your organisation's policy first. In-app tools like Copilot and Gemini that operate within your own Microsoft or Google account are generally safer for sensitive data than pasting into a public chat window, but the responsibility to protect the data is still yours. When in doubt, strip out or anonymise the sensitive parts and share only a representative sample.
The bottom line
For Excel users who want AI acting directly on their data, Microsoft Copilot is the most powerful option — and you may already have access through Microsoft 365. For free formula-writing, troubleshooting and analysis in a separate window, ChatGPT and Claude are excellent. For Google Sheets, Gemini is the built-in choice. Whichever you pick, use AI to write the formulas and macros you'd struggle with, then verify the output and guard your sensitive data. Lean on the free tiers first — our free AI money assistant and best free AI tools roundup can help you get capable results without paying, and the full AI tools directory lets you compare options side by side.
This article is general information to help you choose spreadsheet tools, not professional or data-security advice — features, free tiers and prices change constantly, so confirm the current details on each provider's site, and try the free tiers yourself to see which fits how you work.