How to Save Time in Excel with AI: Let ChatGPT and Copilot Handle Formulas, Summaries, and Charts
Can't remember Excel formulas? You can now ask ChatGPT or Copilot in plain language to write formulas, clean data, build summaries, and create charts. Here's how the free ChatGPT copy-paste method compares with Copilot inside Excel, plus what to watch out for with confidential data.
Ever lost half an hour googling "how to use VLOOKUP" — again? Today you can simply describe the table you want, and AI will write the formula for you. This guide covers both the free, start-today method and the option of using AI right inside Excel.
What Is This?
In short, it's a way to hand off tedious Excel work to AI using everyday language.
There are two tools to know. The first is ChatGPT: you paste part of your table into the chat and ask a question. The second is Copilot, the AI assistant built directly into Excel.
With either one, you don't need to memorize function names or syntax. If you can describe what you want, the AI can turn it into a working result.
What Changed
Not long ago, getting stuck in Excel meant digging through books or forum posts. Now you can ask an AI and get a ready-to-paste formula. Copilot inside Excel in particular has grown much more capable over the past year.
- January 2025: Copilot was added to the consumer Microsoft 365 Personal and Family plans. In the US, Personal now costs $9.99/month ($99.99/year).
- Around February 2026: The
=COPILOTfunction, which lets you write an AI prompt directly in a cell, reportedly began rolling out. - Around April 2026: Copilot's Agent Mode — where Copilot carries out multi-step tasks on its own — reportedly became generally available.
The upshot: if you already subscribe to Microsoft 365, you can use AI inside Excel without a separate add-on. Being able to say "build the table, summarize it, and chart it" in one request is the big shift.
Copilot in Excel only works on files saved to OneDrive (or SharePoint) with AutoSave turned on. Files stored only on your PC's local drive won't work.
How Can You Actually Use It?
Scenario 1: Pull values from another table (formulas)
It's Monday morning, and Alex wants to show product names on a sales sheet. The names live in a product master list on another sheet.
Alex asks ChatGPT: "Column A has product codes. On Sheet2, column A is the code and column B is the product name. Give me a formula to show the product name in column B."
ChatGPT returns something like =XLOOKUP(A2,Sheet2!A:A,Sheet2!B:B,"Not found").
XLOOKUP is the modern successor to VLOOKUP for looking up and returning values.
If you're on an older version of Excel, just say "write it with VLOOKUP" and it will.
Search "VLOOKUP tutorial" and compare three different guides. Miscount the column number, get an error, and realize 30 minutes have gone by.
Describe your table to ChatGPT and ask for the formula. Copy, paste, done — in about a minute.
Scenario 2: Clean up a messy contact list (data cleanup)
Your client list mixes "Inc." and "Incorporated," with stray spaces and inconsistent capitalization. Ask: "How do I standardize these to 'Inc.' and remove extra spaces?"
ChatGPT will explain Find & Replace steps or give you formulas using SUBSTITUTE and TRIM. Copilot can do it directly: select the table, ask, and it adds a new column with cleaned values. Hours of fixing rows one by one shrink to almost nothing.
Scenario 3: Monthly totals and a chart (summaries and charts)
You have a year of sales rows and need totals by salesperson and month. Ask Copilot: "Summarize total sales by salesperson and month, then make a bar chart." It builds a PivotTable and a chart for you in one go.
With ChatGPT, try "Walk me through creating a PivotTable step by step." It will tell you exactly what to click and in what order. That meeting deck can be finished before lunch.
The key to good results: tell the AI both "what's in each column" and "what you want at the end." For example, "Column A is the date, column B is the amount — I want monthly totals." That makes it far more likely you'll get a correct formula on the first try.
Free ChatGPT vs. Copilot in Excel
| Free ChatGPT (copy-paste) | Copilot in Excel | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | Free | Requires a Microsoft 365 subscription |
| How you use it | Paste a sample of the table or your question | Ask directly inside Excel |
| Best at | Writing formulas and explaining steps | Applying summaries, charts, and cleanup to the sheet |
| Setup | Just create an account | Save to OneDrive + turn on AutoSave |
The easiest starting point is having free ChatGPT write formulas for you. For what the free version of Copilot can do, see our Copilot free version guide.
Never paste confidential information — customer names, phone numbers, real sales figures — into ChatGPT. Replace it with dummy data (e.g., "John Smith" → "Customer A") and share only the table structure; that's enough to get the right formula. For personal accounts, turn off "Improve the model for everyone" under Settings → Data Controls so your chats aren't used for training. At work, check your company's AI policy first.
What Does It Cost?
- ✓Writes formulas and explains steps
- ✓Paste tables and ask questions
- ✓Limited file uploads
- ✓Ads shown below answers
- ✓More room to upload Excel files
- ✓Stronger models for complex analysis
- ✓No ads
- ✓Excel, Word, and PowerPoint
- ✓Copilot built into Excel
- ✓Applies summaries and charts directly to your sheet
- ✓AI usage has limits
If all you need is help writing formulas, free ChatGPT is plenty. Saving just 10 minutes a day on formula headaches adds up to over 3 hours a month. If you already have Microsoft 365 at home, you can try Copilot at no extra cost.
Summary
Excel formulas, data cleanup, summaries, and charts are now tasks you can hand to AI in plain language. Free ChatGPT can start writing formulas for you today. Microsoft 365 subscribers can go further and let Copilot build summaries and charts inside Excel.
Especially recommended for:
- People who search for formula syntax every single time
- Anyone who spends too long on month-end totals and charts
- Those tired of fixing inconsistent entries in contact or sales lists
Just remember: swap confidential data for dummy values before pasting. For details, see Microsoft's Copilot in Excel FAQ and the ChatGPT website.
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