Looking for the best AI tools for Excel? Here are my 5 favorite options

As a marketer, my Mondays typically start with diving into the previous week’s performance reports. Excel sheets with campaign data, social post-mortems, budget allocations, ad spend analytics, and more. Sometimes, there’s enough data to make my head spin.

As you can tell, data analysis is not something I like doing. But it’s the only way to know if our campaigns are actually working. So, I started searching for the best AI tools for Excel to help me save time.

Initially, I tried building out custom Google scripts and macros for small, specific tasks — things like fetching data, basic personalization, and so on. However, maintaining these scripts across projects was a pain and clearly wasn’t scalable.

So, after trying out a lot of AI tools for Excel, I’ve compiled five of the best ones below.

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How I Tested the Best AI Tools and Plugins for Excel

While there are a lot of Excel-based AI tools out there, the challenge is finding ones that can handle messy, real-world data. For instance, I tried using a tool to rate applicant answers for an ambassador program and shortlist them.

Sadly, it rated AI-generated answers and half-hearted responses very highly (8/10!). AI loves AI, I guess.

After that failure, I decided to draw up a set of criteria for testing the remaining tools and plugins. More specifically, I tested them for:

• Accuracy. Often, I’m dealing with really big and messy data sets, as I’m sure many of you are. That means calculations and formulas can get complex. An AI tool needs to handle these tasks accurately.
• Ease of use. There’s nothing worse than a confusing tool. Excel itself can be confusing enough, so an AI tool shouldn’t have a difficult learning curve. I look for a clean dashboard, clear setup instructions, and good UX.
• Speed and reliability. We turn to AI to increase efficiency. A tool needs to be quick and reliable if I’m going to invest time and money in it.
• Range of features. You can do a lot in Excel with AI. I prefer solutions with multiple AI features so I don’t need to switch tools often.

Note: For testing purposes, I downloaded a sample spreadsheet containing YouTube subscriber data to be used in every tool, eliminating potential variables.

1. Ajelix

Pricing: Free plans are available with limits. Pro plans cost $20/user/month. Expert plans cost $50/user/month, and Business plans cost $200/user/month.

If you’re looking for an all-in-one AI solution for Excel, Ajelix is one of my top picks. It’s quite popular for generating and optimizing Excel and Google App Scripts. But, when I saw it had 15+ tools for data analysis, Excel, and AI, I was definitely curious to try it out.

I started with the AI analyst feature to calculate the average engagement rate of my YouTube data. This involved combining metrics like views, watch time, CTR, etc., and measuring the impact of each one.

Here was the output:

The formula worked great. However, what impressed me was everything I got with it. There was an explanation of what the formula does, any potential mistakes I could make (guilty!), frequently asked questions customized to my data, and even an alternative formula.

It also anticipated what I needed next — adjusting the weight of each metric to get an accurate engagement rate. Definite overdelivery on my simple ask.

Then, I wanted to see if this experience extended to the other features of the platform. So, I decided to take the business intelligence tool for a spin. My query was to identify patterns within my datasets and generate a chart for better visualization. The tool took a few minutes, but the end chart was pretty good.

What I like:

• User-friendly and tailored to business owners and founders.
• Advanced business intelligence functionality sets it apart from other tools on this list.
• Explains each step of the generated formulas and scripts, along with additional questions.
• Provides alternate formulas.

What I don’t like:

• Ajelix is only available in specific countries. My country wasn’t supported, so I had to use a VPN to test it. That slowed down my overall speed.
• Free plans are limited at three messages per day. Pro plans (250/messages per day) cost $20/month, at par with ChatGPT.

2. GPTExcel

Pricing: Free plans are available. Paid plans cost $6.99 per month.

GPTExcel is a handy and cost-efficient tool for users to get the most out of AI features for Excel. It looks exactly like ChatGPT, but with custom Excel prompts and features like formulas, scripts, SQL, etc.

I first tested out the general chat with a simple task. I provided the YouTube data and asked it to give me the top 10 performing videos. It performed fairly well, and I liked how it tried to explain its reasoning through the backend Python code.

Then, I moved to the Formula generator. I wanted an Excel formula to find the titles of my top-performing videos based on click-through rates. My goal was to use this data to understand the types of videos I should prioritize in the future.

Not bad. While this was helpful, I realized I couldn’t visualize the patterns I was looking for with just formulas. That’s when I decided to test the Script feature.

With the Script tool, you can explain what you want your script to do, or you can reverse the process by providing GPTExcel with a script and having the tool explain it to you.

I provided my spreadsheet and asked the tool to generate a script that creates a bar graph. I plugged that script into my Google Sheets (Extensions > App Scripts) and clicked Run. The output was a neat graph that ranked each video in the context of subscribers gained from it.

Next time, I would also add a secondary metric that helps contextualize these subscribers. Are shorter, punchier videos helping me gain more subscribers, or are the longer ones with higher retention rates more effective? That would also help me understand the quality of my followers and the loyalty I’ve built.

Unlike other tools on this list, GPTExcel is more basic. You have to tell it exactly what you’re looking for, including column names, data ranges, etc., or it might pick the wrong ones. For an AI tool, I expected more “intelligence,” but for what it costs monthly, I can’t complain.

Overall, I was fairly satisfied with the tool’s ability to follow my instructions and provide scripts and formulas that, for the most part, worked.

What I like:

• Ease of use, guided walkthroughs, and Excel native features.
• Generated charts and graphs help you visualize complex data quickly.

What I don’t like:

• The free tier is limited to only four requests per day, which you’ll quickly exhaust if you’re new to prompting AI for Excel. While the paid tier is affordable, you are limited to 100 queries per day. So, I’d recommend this tool for light usage.
• Fairly basic, no guided data analysis or auto-correction.

3. ChatGPT

Pricing: Free plan available. $20/month for ChatGPT Plus. $200/month for ChatGPT Pro.

ChatGPT 4-o is one of the best models for data analysis and reasoning, according to LiveBench.

Although I had never had much luck with ChatGPT and Excel prompts, I was curious to see what had changed. I already use ChatGPT for content and research work, so it wasn’t a heavy lift.

For this test, I particularly wanted to see how well ChatGPT could perform data analysis, strategic thinking, and content creation in a single chat. So, I uploaded my YouTube data to ChatGPT and asked it to identify the types of videos that perform the best.

The answer was vague. It highlighted the top videos based solely on views. I did like the expandable table-view format ChatGPT used to present the views, though.

While I could have accepted this answer from more basic tools like GPTExcel, I was looking for more than that. I wanted to know specifics: Why did those videos work? What’s the common pattern between them?

So, I tweaked the prompt and asked it to analyze inferences we can make from the given view data and clickthrough rate.

And that’s where ChatGPT’s reasoning capabilities start to show. While some patterns were obvious, others, like “male versions of traditionally female problems,” highlighted major content opportunities. Phrasing it in that way helped me unlock new lines of thinking.

Then, I asked ChatGPT to use this analysis to suggest high-potential, low-effort topics. Within minutes, I had numerous content ideas to plug into the next week’s content plan.

Apart from the traditional ChatGPT models, I also discovered a whole range of custom GPTs built by community members. Each custom GPT is trained on a specific data segment or industry, making the analysis targeted and useful. There’s even one for Excel macros and formulas.

What I like:

• ChatGPT is the most beginner-friendly tool on this list with the least learning curve.
• You can perform data analysis, create a strategy based on that data, and then execute it, all within a single interface.
• GPT-4 (Plus plan) can handle large datasets easily due to its increased token limits and great comprehension capabilities.
• Custom GPTs are a great add-on for specialized industries like science, marketing, etc.

What I don’t like:

• ChatGPT is prone to hallucination, so I recommend verifying the accuracy of the output.
• Free plans cannot handle huge data sets before hitting the usage limit.
• ChatGPT Plus at $20/month is one of the pricier options on this list. However, given that you can use it for more than data analysis, I’d argue it’s worth it.

4. Formularizer

Pricing: 50 free credits every month, $7/month for the Pro plan (unlimited credits)

I’m fairly decent at piecing together basic Excel formulas. But when you’re dealing with complex datasets, your formulas can get equally complex. And that’s where I struggle. I might get the formula 95% right, but then have to go on a wild goose chase to figure out why it’s not working as expected. Usually, it’s an incorrect reference or misplaced closing brackets.

These small mistakes are hard to spot in long formulas. And Excel’s error messages aren’t all that helpful for debugging either.

So, I turned to AI to help solve my formula woes. Specifically, a tool called Formularizer. Formularizer could help me in two ways:

• Generate ready-to-use formulas for my data.
• Explain pre-written formula logic.

Let’s look at how it did with my YouTube data.

As a test, I asked it to create a formula to filter part of my video data. I wanted to see which videos had a high watch time and good retention. This is what it sent me:

I pasted this into my sheet, and it worked well. While I got the data correctly, the formatting was a bit off. However, that was a quick fix.

What I like:

• Fast and easy to use, thanks to the intuitive chat interface.
• Generates complex formulas fast.
• Budget-friendly unlimited plan option.

What I don’t like:

• The tool worked, but the user interface didn’t show a preview of how the formula affects your sheet. I had to check manually if everything was working and fix formatting.
• I couldn’t see the cost of the tool before signing up, which is a red flag for me. I get they are optimizing for signups, but this is not the best user experience.

5. Formula Bot

Pricing: Free plans are available with limits. Unlimited plans come in $15/month, $25/month, and $35/month variants.

Formula Bot looked promising when I first opened it. The tool claims to handle Excel data using smart AI and Python, so I thought it would be great for sorting and cleaning large sheets.

I started with a simple query: “Sort the column ‘Views’ in descending order and move the rest of the data with it.”

Then, I uploaded my Excel file to the chat, but Formula Bot couldn’t process it directly. I had to go to the Sources section, click my file again, and only then would it recognize it as a valid source.

When I finally got the data loaded, I typed my question again. But it didn’t understand that “views” (lowercase) was the same as “Views” (uppercase). Once I explicitly mentioned that, it flipped my columns into rows (fail).

Ultimately, I had to go and clean my data.

After the fix, it finally gave me a sorted list based on Views. So, while this tool did work, the whole experience was quite glitchy.

Formula Bot definitely requires some hand-holding. It works best if your data is super clean and you know exactly what to ask. If you’re okay going back and forth a little you can use this tool, but it’s not the most beginner-friendly tool on the list.

What I like:

• Clean prompting interface.
• Provides downloadable, usable outputs after some back and forth.

What I don’t like:

• The layout is not user-friendly. The source has to be added manually to the chat even after uploading it.
• Cannot adapt to simple variations, such as case-sensitive formatting.

Making the Most of Excel

Of all the AI tools for Excel I tested, I’d rate ChatGPT and Ajelix as my favorites.

ChatGPT felt like having a strategic data analyst on my team — one that could spot patterns in my data and give me bigger-picture ideas, even when I didn’t know the right formula. It also helped that I didn’t have to learn a new tool. If you’re an Excel beginner or just experimenting with AI tools for Excel, ChatGPT is your best bet.

However, if you are part of a data-heavy business, you’d want to go for a more robust option like Ajelix. I found that Ajelix’s tools cover almost every possible Excel automation use case. It’s built for teams that need advanced reporting and automation for complex data analysis.

If you deal with Excel regularly, these AI tools will save you hours and run complex analyses on your data. Less time doing grunt work means more time figuring out what the data actually means for your business.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in August 2024 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.