Business, Finance & Professional Work · verified 4 September 2026

Best AI for Excel

4 tools 3 with a free plan 3 built for this Prices verified 4 September 2026

The 4 that fit

Rows

By RowsBerlin, Germany1 product across 1 category

Strong fit. A spreadsheet that will fetch data and run analysis from a prompt, without leaving the grid. Familiar shape for anyone who already works in one.

Free plan
Yes
5 AI tasks a month, data tables imported by hand, integrations across 10 accounts and up to 3
Month to month
$8/mo
Plus
Billed yearly
$6/mo
Plus plan −25%

Watch out: A spreadsheet is only as right as its inputs, and a generated formula is easier to trust than to check. AI tasks are capped by tier, at 5 a month free, 200 on Plus and 1,000 on Pro, and Pro charges a flat monthly fee on top of its per-seat price.

All plans (4)
PlanPriceWhat you get
Free$0Free plan at $0: 5 AI tasks a month, data tables imported by hand, integrations across 10 accounts and up to 3 guests
Plus$8/mo · $6/mo yearly200 AI tasks a month, data tables that refresh once a day, 10 integration accounts and up to 10 guests
Pro$8/mo · $6/mo yearly1,000 AI tasks a month, data tables that refresh by the minute, 100 integration accounts, up to 200 guests and video support
Enterpriseno price published, sold on enquiryadvanced API endpoints, custom AI models, functions and integrations, high-volume usage, custom themes and designs, SAML SSO and a dedicated customer success manager. Every figure on the page is quoted net, so sales tax or VAT is added on top
Open Rows Pricing and company Prices checked 4 September 2026

ChatGPT

By OpenAISan Francisco, United States3 products across 8 categories

Built for this. Broad professional coverage with strong spreadsheet and chart handling. Good default for analysis you would otherwise do by hand.

Free plan
Yes
Ad supported; unlimited everyday text chats, limited image creation, memory and voice
Month to month
$8/mo
Go
Billed yearly
—
No yearly price published

Watch out: Same caution on liability. Check the numbers rather than trusting the presentation.

All plans (6)
PlanPriceWhat you get
Free$0Free tier, ad supported; unlimited everyday text chats, limited image creation, memory and voice
Go$8/mo
Plus$20/moadvanced models, higher quality image creation, Work agent, Codex, 20GB of storage
Pro$100/mo
Business standard seat$25/mo · $20/mo yearly
Business premium seat$125/mo · $100/mo yearly5x the usage and no five-hour limit
Open ChatGPT Pricing and company Prices checked 4 September 2026

Claude

By AnthropicSan Francisco, United States3 products across 7 categories

Built for this. The general option most used for professional work — strategy memos, contract reading, financial reasoning over documents you upload.

Free plan
Yes
Free tier with daily caps
Month to month
$20/mo
Pro
Billed yearly
$17/mo
$200 a year, Pro plan −15%

Watch out: It is not a lawyer or an accountant and will state wrong things confidently. Verify anything that carries liability.

All plans (6)
PlanPriceWhat you get
Free$0Free tier with daily caps
Pro$20/mo · $17/mo yearly
Max$100/mo
Team standard seat$25/mo · $20/mo yearly
Team premium seat$125/mo · $100/mo yearly
Enterprise$20/mo
Open Claude Pricing and company Prices checked 4 September 2026

Microsoft 365 Copilot

By MicrosoftRedmond, United States1 product across 1 category

Built for this. Sits inside Word, Excel, Outlook and Teams, so it works on the documents and meetings a company already has. The closest thing to AI that needs no change of habit.

Free plan
No
Paid from the start
Month to month
$25.20/mo
Microsoft 365 Copilot Business, sold to teams rather than to one person
Billed yearly
$21/mo
Microsoft 365 Copilot Business plan −17%

Watch out: An add-on rather than a standalone purchase: the enterprise Copilot seat is $30 a user a month on top of a qualifying Microsoft 365 licence you must already hold, and Copilot Chat is only included if you already pay for an eligible subscription. Agents need an Azure subscription on top again.

All plans (5)
PlanPriceWhat you get
Microsoft 365 Copilot Business$25.20/mo · $21/mo yearlyan add-on to an existing Microsoft 365 plan rather than a subscription in its own right
Microsoft 365 Business Standard with Copilot$28.20/mo · $23.50/mo yearlythe Microsoft 365 apps across devices with Copilot built in
Microsoft 365 Business Premium with Copilot$38.40/mo · $32/mo yearlythe same again with the advanced security tier
Microsoft 365 Copilot, the enterprise seat$30/mo yearly
Microsoft 365 Copilot Chatincluded at no additional cost for Microsoft Entra users on an eligible Microsoft 365 subscription, though agents need an Azure subscription and Copilot Studio capacity is bought prepaid
Open Microsoft 365 Copilot Pricing and company Prices checked 4 September 2026

Work and productivity pages

More specific “Best AI” pages for work and productivity-shaped work.

Best AI for PowerPoint

Decks, and which of these produce a real .pptx

Best AI for Work

Meetings, documents, decks and the analysis between

Best AI for Productivity

Notes, scheduling, automation and recurring jobs

Best AI for Office Work

The AI already inside the suite you pay for

Best AI for Meetings

Recording, consent and the record of a call

Best AI for Note Taking

Live capture versus organising what you already wrote

Best AI for Summarizing Documents

Long files, uploaded sources and answers that stay inside them

Best AI for Writing Emails

Drafting inside the inbox rather than another tab

Best AI for Business

Every tool in the category most of these come from.

Every AI tool we track

All 750 products, one page each.

How to read this list

Two things separate these and both are on every card.

Fit

Whether a tool is built for this job, a strong fit for it, or able to do it without that being its focus.

Free plan

Whether there is a tier you can keep using rather than a trial that expires.

The order

Fit first, then a free plan, then alphabetical. There is no score, no weighting we decline to publish, and nothing on this site a company can buy.

Questions

What is the best ai for excel?

There is no single answer, which is why this page lists 4 rather than one: Microsoft 365 Copilot, Rows, ChatGPT, Claude. 3 of them are built for this kind of work rather than able to do it. Start with a free one.

Which of these have a free plan?

3 of the 4: Rows, ChatGPT, Claude. Free means a real free tier you can keep using, not a trial that expires.

How was this list chosen?

By hand, from the 750 products this site tracks, and it is checked against the catalogue on every build — a product renamed or removed breaks the build rather than quietly disappearing from here. Nothing on this site can be paid for: no listing, no position, no wording.