Overview of GPT for Excel

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GPT for Excel is a Microsoft Excel add-in that integrates an AI agent into the Excel user interface. Use plain-language instructions to automate everyday spreadsheet tasks — such as writing formulas, fixing errors, formatting cells, or creating charts and pivot tables — or process large datasets row by row with operations such as translation, categorization, enrichment, and scoring.

Use cases

Here are common use cases that you can easily handle with GPT for Excel.

Everyday spreadsheet tasks

• Write spreadsheet formulas like a pro.

• Format cells, ranges, or entire sheets to match your preferred style or conventions.

• Standardize inconsistent date formats, trailing whitespace, or mixed capitalization across your sheet.

• Create charts and pivot tables from your existing data to visualize trends and summarize results.

• Find and fix errors in formulas, references, or inconsistent data.

Row-by-row bulk processing

• Generate SEO-optimized product descriptions from product specifications.

• Translate product descriptions to multiple target languages while observing appropriate localization conventions.

• Enrich company or contact records with data from AI-powered web lookups.

• Categorize support tickets, survey responses, or product feedback into groups that match your taxonomy.

• Clean up customer relationship management (CRM) data by reformatting fields, recategorizing records, and removing duplicates.

• Score and qualify sales leads in a consolidated prospecting spreadsheet.

• Analyze customer sentiment by rating reviews and support requests based on criteria relevant to you.

Features

GPT for Excel provides the following main features for using AI in spreadsheets:

• Agent

• Bulk tools

• GPT functions

Agent

The Agent is the chat interface for spreadsheet work in GPT for Excel. Describe what you need in plain language — from everyday spreadsheet tasks to row-by-row bulk processing across large datasets — and the Agent reads your data, determines the required steps, and executes them directly in your spreadsheet.

The following video shows you how to use the Agent to fill in missing company information in a market research spreadsheet. Based on a simple prompt, the Agent fetches the missing information from the web and fills the empty columns.

Bulk tools

Bulk tools allow you to run prompts on specific spreadsheet columns at once without writing any formulas. You configure and run bulk tools from the add-in sidebar. You can also easily reuse past prompts and configurations with the History feature.

GPT for Excel provides dedicated bulk tools for selected use cases, such as translation, classification/categorization, and extraction, as well as a generic bulk tool for fully custom prompts.

The following video shows you how to generate some text with the Custom prompt bulk tool. You simply tell the tool what you want to generate and select the column where you want to place the generated text. You do not need to define any other settings if the default setup meets your needs.

GPT functions

GPT functions are custom spreadsheet functions that allow you to prompt AI from inside spreadsheet cells. GPT functions work exactly like native functions in that you can use them on their own or combine them with other functions when creating formulas.

GPT for Excel provides dedicated GPT functions for selected use cases, such as translation, classification, and web search, as well as a generic GPT function for all other use cases. You can define function-specific parameters to further refine how the AI generates responses. You can find a list of all available functions with usage examples in the add-in sidebar.

The following video shows you how to generate some text in bulk with the GPT function.

Which feature to use when

The following table shows how easy it is to use the different features and describes the overall experience of using each. As a rule, start with the Agent.

Agent	Bulk tools	GPT functions
Easy	Moderate	Advanced
Tell the AI what you want in plain language. Automate spreadsheet tasks or workflows across multiple columns. Let the AI automatically figure out the steps.	Process a column row by row. Precisely control the prompt, model, and settings. Easily reuse prompts and configurations.	Use AI directly inside spreadsheet formulas. Drag formulas across rows or columns. Get results that update automatically when inputs change.

Benefits

• Prompt AIs from inside your spreadsheets. No more copy-pasting between Excel and AI chatbots like ChatGPT.

• Chat with your spreadsheets in plain language. Simply tell the Agent in your own words what you want to do, and it will automatically plan and execute the task. No prompt engineering required.

• Run prompts at scale and at lightning speed. Execute up to 1,000 prompts per minute, reliably process up to 1,000,000 rows in one go, and generate up to 10,000 results per hour.

• Use the best AI model for your bulk tasks. Choose from a large selection of models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, xAI, and Perplexity.

• Bring an API key or set up your own API endpoint to get more features. You do not need your own API keys or endpoints to use Excel, but they give you access to more models and afford you more control and privacy.

What's next

• Install GPT for Excel if you have not already.

• Select an AI model that best meets your needs.

• Get going with the Agent.

• Get going with bulk tools.

• Get going with GPT functions.