Excel Blog articles

What's New in Excel (March 2026)

msexcel — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 17:52:14 GMT

Welcome to the March 2026 update. This month brings meaningful updates across Excel, including new Edit with Copilot capabilities powered by Work IQ context, expanded language support, and Claude Opus 4.6. You’ll also notice a refreshed Office Scripts UI designed to streamline your experience, along with a faster, more intuitive way to find your Excel files on the web.

Excel for Windows, Mac, and web:
- New Edit with Copilot capabilities
- Office Scripts UI Redesign #FIA

Excel for the web:
- A faster way to find your Excel files online

Excel for Windows, Mac, and web

New Edit with Copilot capabilities
- Work IQ context with Copilot in Excel
Work IQ automatically brings in the most relevant context — from emails, meetings, chats, files — without requiring users to manually reference them. This helps Copilot make more accurate, multi‑step edits that reflect the latest context about users, their work, and their relationships. This feature rolled out in March for users with a Microsoft 365 Copilot license.

- Expanded language support
Edit with Copilot now supports all standard Copilot languages.
- Claude Opus 4.6
Claude Opus 4.6 is now supported in the model selector for users with M365 Premium and/or enterprise M365 Copilot license.

Office Scripts UI Redesign #FIA
Office Scripts helps you automate repetitive work in Excel by recording actions or writing scripts that can run again in seconds. The UI redesign refreshes the Office Scripts experience so it’s easier to find, create, manage, and share scripts—whether you’re just getting started or already building advanced automations. The goal is a cleaner, more consistent, and more accessible interface that helps people get value from automation faster. Learn more here >

Excel for the web

A faster way to find your Excel files online
This feature enables you to easily search for your Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files when you’re working in the web app homepage. You no longer need to waste time scanning the homepage looking for the right file – just start typing your file name in the Search bar, and your file will surface in a drop-down list underneath the Search bar. Read more here >

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Many of these features are the result of your feedback. THANK YOU! Your continued Feedback in Action (#FIA) helps improve Excel for everyone. Please let us know how you like a particular feature and what we can improve upon—"Give a compliment" or "Make a suggestion"..  You can also submit new ideas or vote for other ideas via Microsoft Feedback.

Subscribe to our Excel Blog and the Insiders Blog to get the latest updates. Stay connected with us and other Excel fans around the world – join our Excel Community and follow us on X, formerly Twitter.

Special thanks to our Excel MVPs David Benaim, Bill Jelen, Alan Murray, and John Michaloudis for their contribution to this month's What's New in Excel article. David publishes weekly YouTube videos and regular LinkedIn posts about the latest innovations in Excel and more. Bill is the founder and host of MrExcel.com and the author of several books about Excel. Alan is an Excel trainer, author and speaker, best known for his blog computergaga.com and YouTube channel with the same name. John is the Founder & Chief Inspirational Officer at MyExcelOnline.com where he passionately teaches thousands of professionals how to use Excel to stand out from the crowd.

Use Copilot in Excel to build your brackets

msexcel — Tue, 17 Mar 2026 16:24:11 GMT

The matchups are finally set, and the annual question is back: how do you pick a bracket that’s fun and gives you a real shot at predicting the winner—whether you’re following the men’s tournament, the women’s tournament, or both?

This year, you can use Copilot in Excel as your bracket sidekick—turning past tournament patterns into quick “what-if” scenarios, stress-testing upset paths, and sanity-checking your picks against historic data. Instead of manually building an analysis, copy/pasting data, and building multiple versions, you can ask in natural language and let Copilot build the analysis for you right inside an Excel workbook.

Below are a few fast, practical ways to use Copilot in Excel to build a bracket workbook, explore upside picks (hello, Cinderella runs), and model “if this happens, then what?” outcomes so you can fill your bracket with more confidence than the rest of the group.

1) Set up a bracket workbook

Open a new workbook, then open Copilot in Excel. Make sure “Edit with Copilot” is turned on.

Start by asking Copilot to create a bracket template:

“Create a 2026 [men’s or women’s] college basketball bracket including all the latest teams and seeds. Build dropdowns for each round so I can choose the winner of each matchup all the way to a champion, formatted like a standard bracket. For each dropdown, show only the 2 teams in the matchup based on the winners chose in previous rounds using helper columns."

With that foundation in place, you’ve got a clean structure for picks and scenario assumptions. From here, you can make your picks and Copilot can help you add calculations, create “what-if” views, and summarize the implications of different upset paths.

Bonus: Want to theme your brackets around your favorite team? First have Copilot generate a simple skills sheet and ask it to follow the instructions when creating brackets.
“Create a skills sheet for my favorite team, [Team]. Include the official team colors (with hex codes), mascot/nickname, text colors, and conditional formatting rules for winners/losers.”

2) Stress-test your bracket with real-world scenarios

Now for the part that can actually give you an edge: use Copilot to spin up scenario tabs and see how your bracket performs under outcomes that happen all the time in March—Cinderella runs, unexpected seed collapses, and “hot team” momentum that goes against conventional logic.

Try some follow-up Copilot prompts like:

Cinderella path: “Pick a 10–13 seed to reach the Sweet 16 based on past tournament frequency. Create a version to reflect that upset path, and show which higher-seeded teams I’m fading.”
All the 1-seeds don’t make it: “Create a version of my bracket where at least two 1-seeds lose before the Elite Eight. Identify the earliest-round upsets needed and how my champion pick changes.”
Favorite team: “Assume my favorite team is [Team]. Build two paths: (1) optimistic (reach the Final Four) and (2) realistic (based on projected path). For each path, show who they’d likely face by seed line and which matchup round matters most for them.”
Momentum model: “Calculate a “momentum multiplier” using the conference tournament games and recent performance for each team and use that to fill out a version of my bracket weighted by momentum.”

3) Compare bracket variants and choose your entry

Once you’ve built a few scenario versions, Copilot can help you compare them—so you’re not guessing which bracket is better, you’re choosing the one whose risk/reward matches your needs.

Use a prompt like:
“Create a comparison analysis for all my bracket scenarios in this workbook including charts. Include number of upset picks by round, and my top 5 most ‘contrarian’ picks across all my brackets. Give a recommendation for which to submit if I’m trying to win my bracket challenge or simply play it safe.”

Copilot can generate the comparison table, highlight the key differences, and summarize the tradeoffs in plain language—so you can decide whether you want a safer entry, a balanced upset strategy, or a bold bracket designed to win big.

Your turn: build your bracket with Copilot

Ready to try it? Open Excel, start a new workbook, and use Edit with Copilot to create your brackets. Once you’ve got a bracket you like, share it with your league, your family, or your coworkers.

What's New in Excel (February 2026)

msexcel — Tue, 24 Feb 2026 20:00:00 GMT

Welcome to the February 2026 update. This month we are excited to announce expanded availability for Agent Mode in Excel, as well that you can now query modern Excel workbooks (like .xlsx, .xlsb, .xlsm, .ods) stored locally on your device using Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat, on Windows and Mac.

In addition, we've heard your feedback that working across multiple Copilot entry points can feel fragmented; and to address this, the editing capabilities that App Skills provided will be integrated into Copilot Chat and Agent Mode in Excel, which became generally available earlier this year. Click here to read more >

Excel for Windows and Mac:
- Agent Mode in Excel expanded availability
- Query your local Excel files with Copilot Chat

Excel for Windows and Mac

Agent Mode in Excel expanded availability
Agent Mode in Excel is now also available for Copilot in Excel users in the EU, including Current Channel and Monthly Enterprise Channel. Read more here >

Query your local Excel files with Copilot Chat
Copilot in Excel now works with locally stored modern workbooks. This gives users faster, more consistent assistance across all their files, improving productivity without requiring changes to how workbooks are stored. Previously, insights and analysis from Copilot Chat were limited to Excel workbooks stored in the cloud. With this new feature, analyzing your locally saved Excel workbooks with Copilot Chat makes it possible to stay productive even when you’re offline. This feature is currently rolling out on Windows and Mac. Read more here >

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App Skills is evolving with Copilot in Excel

msexcel — Tue, 24 Feb 2026 19:26:12 GMT

We are continuing to streamline the ways people engage with Copilot in Excel, and we've heard your feedback that working across multiple Copilot entry points can feel fragmented. To address this, Copilot in Excel is transitioning toward a more unified experience so users can easily choose between conversational assistance and direct editing capabilities.

As part of this effort, the editing capabilities that App Skills provided will be integrated into Copilot Chat and Agent Mode in Excel, which became generally available earlier this year. This update is part of our broader work to simplify the Copilot entry points and make it clearer how to interact with Copilot depending on the task. We know that when you find a workflow that works, change can feel disruptive. That's why we want to give you a clear picture of what's evolving in how you use Copilot in Excel and how these changes provide an even better experience.

Why this change matters

We've heard your feedback about wanting a more capable experience when working with Copilot inside the spreadsheet. The enhanced editing experience that Agent Mode introduced was built specifically to address this. It's designed to handle more complex requests, work across multiple steps, and give you greater control over how Copilot edits your workbooks.

Rather than maintaining separate experiences that can feel fragmented, we're bringing everything together so you have:

More power: Copilot with Agent Mode can now handle complex, multi-step reasoning tasks that go beyond what App Skills could do.

Better clarity: You'll know exactly where to go depending on what you need—direct editing happens with Agent Mode; quick answers and simple actions work best in Copilot Chat.

Continued innovation: By focusing on improvements toward a unified experience, we can deliver new capabilities faster. As part of this, we also plan to better integrate Agent Mode’s editing capabilities into the Copilot Chat experience in the coming months.

What’s changing?

App Skills entry points in Excel are going away. You will no longer find an App Skills button in the ribbon or be able to use App Skills from the context menu.

Existing skills are consolidating into Copilot Chat and Agent Mode. When you want Copilot to make changes directly in your workbook, Agent Mode is designed to support many core editing tasks, such as creating or updating tables, applying formatting, or generating charts and PivotTables. Copilot Chat remains available for tasks that don’t require modifying content, such as interpretation or exploration of your data and using agents like Analyst.
If you can open the App Skills chat pane and submit a prompt, you may receive an error message instead of a response. During this transition, some users may still see App Skills entry points for a short time. In some cases, opening the App Skills pane may result in an error message indicating that App Skills is no longer available. If this happens, you can continue your workflow using Agent Mode or Copilot Chat based on the type of assistance you need.

When is it happening?

This update is rolling out now. Depending on your Excel version, you may see the App Skills entry point up until the end of February.

App Skill scenarios not yet available

Certain scenarios that previously used App Skills—specifically the Advanced Analysis mode that used Python in Excel and advanced text analysis capabilities—are not yet available within Copilot Chat or Agent Mode. We are continuing to expand support for these capabilities in Copilot Chat and Agent Mode—watch for updates as these become available over time.

Note: this was originally communicated to commercial customers via the M365 Message Center (MC1184407) on November 10, 2025.

Excel as a Literate Computation Surface for AI

Sumit_Chauhan — Thu, 29 Jan 2026 19:46:11 GMT

[This article was originally published by Sumit Chauhan on LinkedIn.]

AI systems perform robust computation, but their outputs are typically dissociated from the structure of the computation itself. Answers are delivered as fluent summaries, scripts, or static artifacts. Explanations may accompany results, but the execution path remains opaque and nonexecutable. This separation constrains inspection, audit, and collaborative verification.

Excel bridges this separation through a longstanding but underappreciated design property: computation and explanation coexist in the grid.

Values persist as first class objects, accessed and connected through a network of formulas and calculation objects. The dependency structure is explicit and intermediate results remain live within the model.

Assumptions remain live inputs rather than fixed premises embedded in prose. A spreadsheet is therefore a runnable representation of reasoning.

The Excel Agent extends this property to AI-driven analysis. Instead of returning an answer, it writes computation directly into spreadsheet primitives: cells, formulas, tables, and references. Analytical intent is encoded structurally—not narratively—resulting in computational instantiation that is inspectable, addressable, and mechanically verifiable.

Respecting established analytical practice

This distinction becomes explicit when updating real analytical models.

In one internal evaluation, the Excel Agent was prompted to update an existing public company financial model following newly released quarterly results. The spreadsheet contained a structured income statement, linked calculations, margin rows, and derived percentage outputs sourced exclusively from GAAP financial statements.

We observed that the Excel Agent pulled precise reported figures from the GAAP filings and updated only the newly available quarterly actuals, leaving guidance untouched. The agent preserved the existing model structure, row ordering, and dependency relationships. Calculated fields—totals, margins, growth rates—were not overwritten. Instead, they recalculated mechanically from updated inputs. Number formatting remained intact, preserving distinctions between dollar values and percentages. Changes were immediately auditable by inspection: updated cells represented inputs, while formulas remained unchanged.

The contrast to general purpose AI tools is instructive. In parallel tests, a comparable update performed through a chat based model relied on headline summaries rather than reported figures, conflated guidance with actuals, overwrote calculated fields with inferred values, and introduced silent formatting errors. The resulting spreadsheet appeared plausible but was structurally compromised. The result was incomplete and not auditable.

Inspectability and error localization

Because Excel externalizes reasoning as explicit dependency graphs, errors localize narrowly. A disagreement targets a specific cell, formula, or source assumption rather than an opaque explanation. Review is incremental. Validators can inspect references, confirm lineage, and trace downstream effects mechanically. Excel Agent inherits these affordances. Its output is not sealed; it invites modification. Alternative scenarios become addressable inputs rather than regenerated answers.

This changes the cost structure of verification. Inspection becomes cheaper than regeneration. Corrections are edits, not prompts. Trust derives from structure rather than narrative coherence.

Durability through artifact-centered collaboration

Spreadsheets are durable analytical objects. They are shared, versioned, reviewed, audited, and revisited independent of their origin. The Excel Agent produces artifacts that persist beyond the original interaction. The analysis remains runnable months later without replaying a model, and knowledge accumulates as structured computation rather than transient output.

This reframes AI’s role in analytical work. Excel Agent does not replace analytical judgment. It relocates reasoning into a medium designed for inspection, modification, and reuse. AI output becomes a starting point rather than an endpoint, expressed as runnable structure rather than fluency. The value is not in producing convincing answers, but in creating durable, collaborative, inspectable computation that can be reviewed, extended, and trusted over time.

The shift is from answers to artifacts, and opaque intelligence to shared reasoning.

Sumit Chauhan

Corporate Vice President, Office Product Group

What's New in Excel (January 2026)

msexcel — Wed, 28 Jan 2026 19:46:21 GMT

Happy New Year, and welcome to the January 2026 update! We’re excited to share that Agent Mode in Excel is now generally available in Excel on Windows and is rolling out to Excel on Mac over the coming days. This month also brings the general availability of the full Power Query experience in Excel for the web. In addition, Windows Insider users can access new import functions and descriptive error cards, and Office Scripts now supports saving and emailing files as a PDF across all platforms

Excel for Windows and Mac:
- Agent Mode in Excel

Excel for web:
- Import and edit data using Power Query

Excel for Windows:
- Bring data into Excel with the new Import Functions (Insiders)
- Descriptive error cards (Insiders)

Excel for Windows, Mac, and web:
- Save and email as a PDF with Office Scripts #FIA

Excel for Windows and Mac

Agent Mode in Excel
Agent Mode in Microsoft 365 Copilot is now generally available in Excel on Windows and rolling out in Excel on Mac. This extends availability beyond Excel for the web which rolled out in December. There is now expanded availability, web search grounding, and introduced a model switcher so you can choose between OpenAI and Anthropic models and also improved task success rates and reduced latency across common Excel workflows. Read the full blog here >

Excel for web

Import and edit data using Power Query
The full Power Query experience is now generally available in Excel for the web, including the import wizard and Power Query Editor. Read more here >

Excel for Windows

Bring data into Excel with the new Import Functions (Insiders)
With Import Functions you now have two faster, more intuitive ways to bring text-based data directly into Excel. These new functions — including IMPORTTEXT and IMPORTCSV — let you load your data into a refreshable dynamic array with a single formula. Read more here >

Descriptive error cards (Insiders)

Excel for Windows now offers descriptive error cards to help you understand and fix errors more easily. Read more here >

Excel for Windows, Mac, and web

Save and email as a PDF with Office Scripts #FIA

Use Office Scripts to save a worksheet as a PDF and email it to yourself or your team. Read more here >

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Agent Mode in Excel is now generally available on desktop

tmobrien — Tue, 27 Jan 2026 15:44:32 GMT

Agent Mode in Excel, part of Microsoft 365 Copilot, is now generally available on Windows, with Mac rolling out over the coming days — extending access beyond Excel for the web, which launched in December. Since our initial public preview, we’ve expanded availability, added web-grounded search, and introduced a new multi-model reasoning system that allows customers to choose between OpenAI and Anthropic models. Under the hood, we’ve significantly improved task success, performance, and reliability across core Excel scenarios, including workbook creation, formula repair, and chart and PivotTable generation.

Evolving Copilot to become an active collaborator

Excel is where people think with data. It’s where budgets, forecasts, and operating plans take shape, and where decisions get made. Agent Mode turns Copilot into a true partner in that work, able to take your goals, plan next steps, act directly in your workbook, iterate, and validate outcomes. With today’s release, that capability is now available in the desktop versions of Excel customers rely on every day.

What’s improved during public preview

We launched Agent Mode in public preview to validate the experience with real Excel customers working on real workloads. Our goal has always been to support the way Excel is actually used inside organizations — messy data, ambiguous goals, and multi-step workflows that need to be refreshable, auditable, and verifiable. Throughout the preview, we continued to invest in this by introducing:

Expanded availability: Agent Mode now works across Excel for the web, Excel for Windows, and Excel for Mac, so you can leverage its power no matter where your access your work. It’s integrated directly into Copilot in Excel, and we’ll continue to improve the experience in the coming weeks and months.
Integrated web search: Instantly get up-to-date information with source citations, perfect for “pull in the latest data” scenarios.
Model choice: A new model switcher lets you choose between our OpenAI-powered experience and the latest Claude models from Anthropic, so you can try different AI approaches.

Model choice

We’ve learned — alongside our colleagues at GitHub — that different reasoning models excel at different kinds of work. Some are better suited for fast, structured problem-solving while others shine when tasks require explanation, iteration, or more open-ended reasoning. Our goal is to build an intelligent system that can make the right model choices on your behalf. At the same time, we believe customers should have visibility and control — so Agent Mode also gives you the ability to explicitly choose the model you’d like to apply to your task.

Picture showing the new model switcher choices supported.

When in the default Auto mode, Copilot will attempt to choose the best model for you. You can also choose one of the specific models before running a prompt. The latest models from OpenAI (GPT 5.2) and Anthropic (Claude Opus 4.5) are available today for Microsoft 365 Copilot and Microsoft 365 Premium licenses. Learn more here about using Claude with Agent Mode in Excel and Anthropic as a subprocessor.

How to try it

Open Excel on Web, Windows or Mac.
Open Copilot and select Agent Mode from the Tools menu.
Start with an outcome-based prompt, like “Build a loan calculator that computes monthly payments based on user inputs for loan amount, annual interest rate, and term in years. Generate a schedule showing month, payment, principal, interest, and remaining balance. Present the results in a clear, formatted table.”

Availability

Agent Mode in Excel is generally available today across Excel for web, Windows, and Mac for commercial Microsoft 365 Copilot licenses and Microsoft 365 Personal, Family, and Premium subscribers. Note that Personal and Family subscriptions use an AI credit model and Agent Mode in Excel is not yet available to customers in the EU or UK. For more on availability and access, check out Agent Mode in Excel.

New in Excel for the web: The full Power Query experience

jokahati — Tue, 27 Jan 2026 16:42:58 GMT

We’ve reached yet another milestone in Excel for the web: The full Power Query user experience is now generally available, including the import wizard and Power Query Editor.

After we released the ability to refresh Power Query data from authenticated data sources, we were able to unlock the ability to complete the full user journey of importing data and editing it using Power Query.

Getting started

Learn all about Power Query in Excel for the web here >

See this support article for more information on Power Query data sources in Excel versions.

Note:

Viewing and refreshing queries is available to all Microsoft 365 Subscribers.The full Power Query experience is available to all Microsoft 365 Subscribers with Business or Enterprise plans.

Importing data

You can import data into Excel using Power Query from a wide variety of data sources, for example: Excel Workbook, Text/CSV, XML, JSON, SQL Server Database, SharePoint Online List, OData, Blank Table, and Blank Query.

Select Data > Get Data:
In the Choose data source dialog box, select one of the available data sources:

Connect to the data source.
After you select the source, the authentication kind will be auto-populated, according to the relevant source (you can still change it, if you like).
Press Next, and choose the table you wish to import:
Press Transform data to open the table in the Power Query editor, where you can perform many powerful transformations.
Note: You can open the editor whenever you need it, by using Data > Get Data > Launch Power Query Editor.
When you are done, load the table – press Close & Load to load to the Excel grid:

Or Close & Load to - to either load to the Excel grid, or create a connection-only query:
See the query was created in the Queries & Connections pane:

If you loaded to a table, you can see it on the Excel grid:
You can refresh the created query from the Queries & Connections pane, or by using Data > Refresh/Refresh All.

You can also perform operations, such as editing the query (with the Power Query Editor), renaming it, and more:

What’s next?

Future plans include adding data sources and advanced features.

Feedback

We hope you like this new addition to Excel and we’d love to hear what you think about it!

Let us know by using the Feedback button in the top right corner in Excel - add #PowerQuery in your feedback so that we can find it easily.

Want to know more about Excel for the web? See What's new in Excel for the web and subscribe to our Excel Blog to get the latest updates. Stay connected with us and other Excel fans around the world – join our Excel Community and follow us on Twitter.

Jonathan Kahati, Gal Horowitz

~ Excel Team

Excel in 2025: A Year of Culture, Craft, and Copilot

msexcel — Tue, 30 Dec 2025 22:25:47 GMT

As 2025 comes to a close, one thing feels clearer than ever: Excel is no longer just something you use. It’s something you belong to.

This year brought major product innovations, many powered by AI, but it also delivered something just as meaningful: cultural moments that reminded us how deeply Excel is woven into work, learning, creativity, and even competition around the world.

From celebrating a milestone birthday, to watching spreadsheets light up arenas and streaming platforms, to shipping some of our most ambitious product updates yet, 2025 was a year we’re incredibly proud of. And none of it would have happened without you.

Let’s take a look back.

A Cultural Year for Excel

Excel Turns 40!

In 2025, Excel celebrated its 40th birthday—four decades of helping people think, analyze, build, and decide more effectively.

What began as a simple spreadsheet application in 1985 has evolved into a foundational tool used by hundreds of millions of people across industries, roles, and continents. Over the years, Excel has adapted to new technologies, new ways of working, and entirely new audiences, without losing the core flexibility that made it so powerful in the first place.

We marked this milestone by reflecting on Excel’s past and, more importantly, its future: one where data literacy, accessibility, and creativity continue to expand.

👉 Read more in Excel Turns 40: Join the Celebration!

The Excel World Championship Goes Mainstream

If you needed proof that spreadsheets have officially entered pop culture, look no further than the Excel World Championship (EWC).

In 2025, the competition reached new heights with larger audiences, more global participation, and unprecedented attention. What began as a niche idea has grown into a true esports-style event that proves how dynamic, fast-paced and thrilling Excel can be in expert hands.

Watching competitors solve complex problems live under pressure and at speed was both entertaining and inspiring. It showed that Excel mastery is a real skill built through practice, creativity and deep understanding.

👉 Read more in Congrats to the Winners of the 2025 MECC & MEWC!

Spreadsheet Champions Brings Excel to the Big Screen

This year also saw the release of Spreadsheet Champions, a documentary that follows six students from different countries on their unique journeys to achieve excellence in competitive Excel.

More than just a story about formulas and grids, the film is about community, curiosity, and the joy of solving problems together. It captured something we see every day across forums, classrooms, livestreams, and workplaces: Excel brings people together.

For many of us on the Excel team, seeing these stories told so thoughtfully was deeply moving—and a powerful reminder of who we’re building for.

A Breakthrough Year for the Product

While Excel’s cultural presence grew, 2025 was also one of the most ambitious product years in recent memory.

Agent Mode in Excel

One of the biggest shifts came with Agent Mode in Excel—a new way to approach work that moves beyond asking for help, to delegating outcomes.

Instead of manually building step-by-step solutions, users can now describe goals and let Excel reason through the steps: gathering data, applying transformations, and explaining results along the way. It’s a meaningful step toward making Excel not just reactive, but proactive.

Agent Mode doesn’t replace expertise; it amplifies it.

👉 Read more in Building Agent Mode in Excel

The COPILOT Function Arrives

In 2025, Copilot became more deeply embedded directly into the Excel grid with the introduction of the COPILOT function.

For the first time, users can call Copilot like a formula, bringing AI-powered reasoning directly into cells alongside traditional Excel functions. This bridges the gap between natural language requests and structured spreadsheet logic, unlocking entirely new workflows.

It’s one of the clearest examples yet of how AI and spreadsheets can work together seamlessly.

Formula Completion Gets Smarter

Excel has always been about speed and precision, and in 2025 we made writing formulas easier than ever with improved formula completion.

Smarter suggestions, better context awareness, and faster recommendations mean less time remembering syntax, and more time focusing on insights. Whether you’re learning Excel or pushing it to its limits, formula completion now meets you where you are.

Small improvements like this matter. They add up to a smoother, more confident experience for everyone.

Thank You for an Incredible Year 💚

If there’s one theme that defines Excel in 2025, it’s this: progress powered by community.

Every feature we shipped and every moment we celebrated was shaped by customer feedback, creator experimentation, MVP insight, and everyday use in the real world. You pushed us, inspired us, and reminded us why Excel continues to matter—40 years on.

As we head into 2026, we’re excited to keep building with you.

Thank you for being part of the Excel story.

Write formulas with natural language using Copilot in Excel

Inbar_Privman — Thu, 11 Dec 2025 19:07:16 GMT

Writing formulas can feel intimidating, especially when you’re unsure of the syntax or which function to use.

We’ve already made formula writing easier with formula completion, which proactively suggests and autocompletes formulas as you type. Now, we’re introducing an additional on-grid Copilot tool that takes it a step further: With this new capability, you can simply describe what you need, and Copilot will create the formula for you. This means no more struggling to remember complex syntax, and faster and more natural interactions with your data, especially if you’re new to Excel – plus, a helpful alternative when formula completion doesn’t return the right suggestions or when you prefer typing in your own words. Together, these tools make formula writing faster, easier, and more intuitive, so you can focus on insights, not syntax.

How it works

In Excel for the Web, select the cell in which you want to enter a formula.
Type = in the cell or the formula bar, and then click on the Ask Copilot for a formula option that appears.NOTE: You can also use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + , to move the focus into the input box.
Describe the kind of formula you want in natural language. For example: “Calculate total profit".
Review the formula suggestion, the description, and the preview of the result on the grid. Then, select either Keep it if the suggestion works for you, or Discard, and then type = and run the Ask Copilot for a formula option again.

Tips and tricks

You can ask Copilot to modify existing formulas: In cases where you already have a formula but need to adjust it, simply describe the change you want, and Copilot will update the formula for you. For example, you can modify a return on assets calculation to include average assets for period.
You can ask for formulas that require data from different sheets, such as calculating the asset turnover rate using values from separate Income Statements and Balance Sheets tabs.
In cases where the formula completion doesn’t match your needs – for example, Copilot spells the month out but you want the format to be MMM – describe the exact format you need, and Copilot will generate the correct formula for you.

Scenarios to try

Copilot can generate formulas of varying complexity for different needs:

Return a unique list of salespersons from the transactions table.
Calculate the total units sold for each salesperson in the list.
Calculate the total sales for each quarter - even when the sales table doesn't include the quarter, only the date.
Extract the state out of the customer address.
Compute profit for each transaction with a lookup function that uses data from another table.

Known issues

This feature currently supports one formula or one formula column or range at a time. Multiple formulas support is being considered for future updates.

Availability

This feature is currently rolling out to Excel for Web users with a Microsoft 365 Copilot license.

Feedback

We appreciate your insights regarding formula suggestions using natural language! You can share your feedback with us in the result card using the thumbs up or down buttons, or by selecting the Feedback button in the upper right-hand corner of Excel for Web, and then selecting either Give a compliment, Report a problem, or Make a suggestion.

Agent Mode in Excel is now generally available on Excel for Web

msexcel — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 02:03:29 GMT

We’re excited to announce that Agent Mode in Excel is now generally available on Excel for Web, rolling out to users with a commercial Microsoft 365 Copilot license or a Microsoft 365 Premium subscription. This launch marks a major shift in how you work with Copilot in Excel—moving from basic assistance to an agentic experience with capabilities to build multi-step workflows directly in your workbook.

Agent Mode in Excel

Agent Mode delivers:

Multi-step workflows: Move beyond single-turn commands. Ask, refine, and build iteratively with Copilot.
Direct workbook manipulation: Copilot applies changes directly inside your workbook, no clicks or copy/paste needed.
Transparency and reasoning: See how Copilot interprets your request, the steps it takes along the way, and explanations of each output along with verification.

Hear from Carlos Otero, a member of the Excel team, who recently chatted with Excel MVP Kevin Stratvert on why Agent Mode is a game-changer for Copilot users:

What’s possible with Agent Mode

Agent Mode unlocks scenarios that go far beyond traditional chatbots. Some examples now possible include:

Create workbooks: Generate new content directly in Excel, grounded in both existing workbook data and web search results to bring in relevant context.
Scenario modeling: Run what-if analyses for revenue, budgets, or forecasts and model advanced scenarios with adjustable assumptions.
Data analysis: Generate analyses of large datasets, highlight anomalies, and surface trends with formula-driven analysis.
Formula generation: Fix broken formulas or and generate dynamic formulas that connect across your workbook data, including explanations for complex calculations.
Data visualization: Create pivot tables, charts, and dashboards—all through natural conversation. Generate native Excel artifacts that recalculate and update based on changes to the underlying data.

What’s generally available in Agent Mode today

Platform: Excel for Web. Coming in January to Excel for Windows and Mac.
Language support: English (US), Spanish (Spain, Mexico, Japanese, French (France, Canada), German, Portuguese (Brazil), Italian and Chinese (Simplified).; additional languages to follow.
Web search: Outputs are grounded in web data when needed. File grounding and Work IQ support are planned for early 2026 to enable richer work context.
Licenses: Available for commercial Microsoft 365 Copilot licensed users and Microsoft 365 Premium subscribers. Coming in January to Microsoft 365 Personal and Family subscribers.

Ready to experience the future of Excel? Open Excel on the web with an eligible license and start using Agent Mode from the Tools menu. Learn more here.

Congrats to the Winners of the 2025 MECC & MEWC!

Brian Jones (OFFICE) — Thu, 04 Dec 2025 21:21:40 GMT

The 2025 Microsoft Excel World Championship and Collegiate Challenge wrapped up their season in spectacular fashion at Las Vegas’ HyperX Arena, drawing competitors from nearly every continent and crowning new champions in the fast-growing world of Excel esports.

What is Excel esports? It’s a phenomenon redefining competitive gaming. For a deeper dive, see “What is the fast-growing e-sport of competitive Microsoft Excel?” by Jasmine Ketibuah-Foley at the BBC.

Watching these finalists was nothing short of riveting. From the Collegiate Challenge’s team and individual showdowns to the World Championship’s high-stakes semifinals and finals, their speed, precision, and sheer passion were unmatched.

On behalf of the Excel product team, we extend our warmest congratulations to this year’s winners:

Microsoft Excel Collegiate Challenge – Teams
INSCAE
University of Arizona
University of Technology Sydney

Microsoft Excel Collegiate Challenge – Individuals
Pieter Pienaar, University of Pretoria, South Africa
Matthew Beard, University of Technology Sydney, Australia
Christian Mbolanatenaina, INSCAE, Madagascar

Microsoft Excel World Championship
Diarmuid Early
Andrew Ngai
Jean Wolleh

Financial Modeling World Cup
Michael Jarman
Andrew Ngai
Anup Agarwal

This championship is more than a contest—it’s a celebration of a global community that welcomes anyone who has ever opened a spreadsheet. Here, talent meets collaboration, and knowledge flows freely across borders. Whether you’re a student, a seasoned professional, or an Excel enthusiast, there’s a place for you.

Special thanks to the students, professionals, MVPs, and creators who made this season unforgettable—and to the Financial Modeling World Cup for orchestrating an event that continues to unite and inspire.

Ready to join the next chapter? The new season awaits. Be part of this extraordinary community.

play.excel-esports.com

—Brian, VP, Excel

What's New in Excel (November 2025)

msexcel — Tue, 25 Nov 2025 14:00:00 GMT

Welcome to the November 2025 update. This month, we’re excited to share several enhancements across Excel. Announced at Ignite, Agent Mode in Excel now includes web search and Anthropic model support, and is available in Excel for Windows—via the Frontier program. Excel for Windows introduces a modernized Get Data dialog, providing a clean, simple starting point for connecting to data. Additionally, users on Windows, web, and iOS can preview comments on protected files directly in email notifications. For Insider users, Excel for iOS adds Liquid Glass styling and template filters, introducing a new, modern home experience.

Excel for Windows:
- Agent Mode in Excel enhancements (Frontier)
- Get Data dialog

Excel for Windows, web, and iOS:
- Comment previews on protected files #FIA

Excel for iOS:
- Liquid Glass and template filters (Insiders)

Excel for Windows

Agent Mode in Excel enhancements (Frontier)

1. Web search. At Ignite last week, we introduced web search in Agent mode. Imagine pulling real-time information from the web straight into your spreadsheet workflows—market trends, historical stats, scientific figures—without juggling browser tabs or copy/pasting from a chat window.

For example, you can ask Agent Mode to compile the latest GDP growth and CO₂ emissions data for G20 countries or create a table of this year's Nobel Prize winners with detailed attributes. Copilot can now pull this data from trusted sources into Agent mode's multi-step workflow and build directly in your spreadsheet, saving time and reducing manual effort. Plus, it supports citation links for transparency so you can have confidence in the output. This integration is perfect for analysts, researchers, and anyone who needs up-to-date external data to make informed decisions.

2. Anthropic model support. Choice matters, and we are committed to providing multi-model options in Microsoft 365. Building on Researcher agent and Copilot Studio, Agent mode now offers an option to choose Anthropic’s Claude models to power your experience. Just choose the "Try Claude" option to get started. For enterprise users: your admin must allow access to Anthropic AI models. Learn more about using Claude in Agent mode in Excel.

Claude brings a different approach to spreadsheet generation offering a distinct experience from the default OpenAI models powering Agent Mode. While Claude streams its chain-of-thought and explanations differently, ongoing improvements aim to deliver a smooth experience in this early preview. This flexibility ensures you can pick the model that best fits your needs—whether it’s speed, accuracy, or style.

3. Now available in Excel for Windows. Last month, we introduced Agent mode in Copilot in Excel for Web through the Frontier program. At Ignite, we announced that Agent mode is now available in Excel for Windows too, making AI assistance available for users and professionals who rely on Excel in the desktop app for their work. While Mac support is planned for later, Windows users will benefit immediately from this rollout. Users must be in the Insiders Beta Channel on Windows.

Get Data Dialog

The modern Get Data dialog gives you a clean, simple starting point for connecting to data. With built-in search and quick access to popular data sources, you can easily find the right source and start working on your data. This feature is currently rolling out to Windows Current Channel users. Read more here >

Excel for Windows, web, and iOS

Comment previews on protected files #FIA

Excel now lets you preview comments on protected files directly from your email notifications. When someone adds a comment, the email includes the comment text and its context within the file, so you can quickly review feedback without unlocking or opening the document.

Excel for iOS

Liquid Glass and template filters (Insiders)

Your favorite Microsoft 365 apps on iPhone, iPad, and Apple Vision Pro now feature Liquid Glass styling. We’ve also made the search experience available from the bottom of the screen, to align with iOS 26’s search patterns and make it easier to use with one hand.

When searching for templates, you’ll now also see quick filter buttons at the top that let you browse by category – like Flyers, Resumes, or Invoices – instead of scrolling through a single long list, so finding the perfect template is faster and more intuitive. Read more here >

Check if a specific feature is in your version of Excel

Click here to open in a new browser tab

Introducing the new Get Data dialog in Excel for Windows

Gal_Zivoni — Mon, 24 Nov 2025 20:01:30 GMT

We are excited to announce a first step towards modernizing Power Query in Excel for Windows - a new way to connect to data that will make finding and using external data sources faster and more intuitive!

The modern Get Data dialog gives you a clean, simple starting point for connecting to data. With built-in search and quick access to popular data sources, you can easily find the right source and start working on your data.

How it works

Select the Data tab on the ribbon, then select Get Data > Get Data (Preview) to open the new dialog.
Browse through popular data sources on the Home tab or use the search bar to find a specific source.
Select the New tab under the categories list on the left to browse through all available data sources.

What it does

When you open the modern Get Data dialog, you’ll be able to search for the connector you need or pick from recommended options—all in one clean view.

When you select a source, Excel takes you straight into the familiar, current Power Query import flow and you’ll be able to see the same steps you know today. For more information, check out modern Get Data Dialog in Excel for Windows.

Note: You can still import external data from the Get Data dropdown categories as well as from the new Get Data dialog.

More to come

The new dialog is the first step toward a modernized Power Query experience in Excel, paving the way for upcoming innovations like modern import flows and a modern Power Query editor.

In addition, you’ll see more modules integrated into this dialog soon, making it easier than ever to discover, connect, and prepare your data.

Availability

This feature is gradually rolling out to M365 subscribers in Excel for Windows, with Version 2509 Build 16.0.19328.20000 or later.

Feedback

We’d love to hear about your experience with the modern Get Data dialog.

Let us know:

✔️ Did the overall experience feel intuitive and helpful?
✔️ Which new additions would you like to see?

Just click on the 🙂button in the upper right-hand side of the dialog to share your feedback.

Your feedback helps us refine the experience and prioritize what’s next.

What's New in Excel (October 2025)

msexcel — Tue, 28 Oct 2025 20:13:58 GMT

Welcome to the October 2025 update. This month, look for Agent Mode in Excel (Frontier) in the Tools menu of Copilot for Excel. Additionally, PivotTable #SPILL and accessibility assistant updates are now available to Insider users on Windows and Mac. Formula by Example has also rolled out to the Current Channel for Excel on Windows with a Copilot subscription.

Excel for web:
- Agent Mode in Excel (Frontier)

Excel for Windows and Mac:
- PivotTable #SPILL (Insiders)
- Accessibility Assistant updates (Insiders) #FIA

Excel for Windows:
- Formula by Example

Excel for web

Agent Mode in Excel (Frontier)
Agent Mode in Excel lets you describe a task in natural language and then works with you to plan, reason, iterate, and validate the outcome.

An early preview of Agent mode is available via the Frontier program for Microsoft 365 Copilot licensed customers and Microsoft 365 Personal, Family, or Premium subscribers (under the Microsoft Services Agreement). Agent Mode works in Excel on the web and is coming soon to desktop. Learn more about it in our announcement blog.

To try it, look for Agent Mode in the Tools menu of Copilot in Excel.

Excel for Windows and Mac

PivotTable #SPILL (Insiders)
PivotTable #SPILL! brings the familiar #SPILL! experience from dynamic arrays to PivotTables. If something is blocking your PivotTable from expanding – such as text, merged cells, tables, or the edge of your spreadsheet – you’ll see a #SPILL! error. This lets you address the issue at your own pace, so you can keep working without disruption and stay focused on your analysis. Read more here >

Accessibility Assistant updates (Insiders) #FIA
Recent changes reduce false positives, better reflect real accessibility needs, and help content authors prioritize addressing truly impactful issues. Read more here >

Excel for Windows

Formula by Example
Formula by example looks for patterns as the user enters data in the worksheet. When it recognizes a pattern, formula by example offers a formula to fill the rest of the column with the recognized pattern. Read more here >

Formula by Example, previously available in Excel for the web, is now also available to Excel for Windows users on the Current Channel with a Copilot subscription.

Check if a specific feature is in your version of Excel

Click here to open in a new browser tab

Spreadsheet Day - Celebrate the grid that changed everything

msexcel — Fri, 17 Oct 2025 13:00:00 GMT

October 17 marks a quiet revolution. On this day in 1979, VisiCalc shipped—the first electronic spreadsheet—and suddenly, anyone with a computer could model ideas, track budgets, and make decisions faster than ever before. That simple grid of rows and columns became the backbone of modern business, education, and creativity.

How Did Spreadsheet Day Begin?

Spreadsheet Day was created in 2010 by Excel MVP Debra Dalgleish, known worldwide for her work at Contextures. Her goal was simple: celebrate the spreadsheet’s impact and the vibrant community around it. She chose October 17 to honor VisiCalc’s release—the moment spreadsheets went digital and changed everything.

A Quick Look Back

Before spreadsheets, recalculating a budget meant erasing and rewriting by hand. VisiCalc changed that overnight, and Excel carried the torch—bringing charts, formulas, and collaboration to millions. Over four decades, spreadsheets have evolved from static tables to dynamic engines for analysis and storytelling. They’ve powered breakthroughs in science, finance, and even art.

Beyond the features, spreadsheets represent something bigger: empowerment. They give anyone the ability to turn raw data into insight. That’s why Spreadsheet Day isn’t just about software—it’s about the people who use it to solve problems every day.

Debra’s vision sparked a tradition that now spans the globe. Educators, analysts, and enthusiasts join in each year to share tips, stories, and appreciation for a tool that empowers millions—a reminder that community matters as much as technology.

Meet the Spreadsheet Champions

Celebrate Spreadsheet Day with a sneak peek at Spreadsheet Champions, a documentary that goes beyond formulas to tell a human story.

This film follows six students from around the world as they compete in Microsoft’s Excel challenge. Each brings unique hopes and struggles—whether it’s De La Paix in Cameroon aiming to make his family proud, Carmina in Guatemala finding refuge in math, or Mason in the U.S. balancing his love for spreadsheets with quirky hobbies. Alongside Alkmini from Greece, Nam from Vietnam, and Braydon from Australia, these young competitors reveal how mastering a spreadsheet can unlock confidence, opportunity, and even friendship.

It’s a celebration of resilience, creativity, and the influence of spreadsheets in shaping lives today.

Watch the trailer below:

Why We Celebrate

Spreadsheet Day isn’t about nostalgia—it’s about recognizing the creativity and problem‑solving that spreadsheets unlock. Every chart that clarifies a decision, every formula that saves a late night, every model that helps a team plan better—that’s the legacy we’re celebrating.

Today, spreadsheets are everywhere: in classrooms, boardrooms, and even living rooms. They’ve helped launch companies, plan weddings, analyze sports stats, and map out personal goals. Spreadsheet Day is our chance to pause and appreciate the tool that makes all of that possible.

Share Your Story

We want to hear from you!

What’s your favorite spreadsheet memory?

What tip or trick changed the game for you?

Post your story on social with #SpreadsheetDay, or drop it in the comments below. We’ll be reading and sharing some of our favorites. Your experience might inspire someone else to try something new.

Happy Spreadsheet Day!
Join the conversation with #SpreadsheetDay, and let’s keep building the future—one cell at a time.

What's New in Excel (September 2025)

msexcel — Thu, 02 Oct 2025 16:21:31 GMT

🎉 Happy 40th Birthday, Excel! 🎉

Today, Excel turns 40—and we’re so excited to celebrate this milestone with you, our amazing community. For four decades, you’ve helped shape Excel into what it is today, and we couldn’t have done it without you.

Take a stroll down memory lane with our anniversary blog, explore 40 Days of Excel packed with tips and stories, and join the Excel team for a special Reddit AMA today at 10 AM PT.

This month, we’re thrilled to share some exciting updates! Agent Mode in Excel brings expert-level automation, refining results with AI so you can focus on guiding the outcome. The COPILOT function is rolling out to Excel for the web users soon through the Frontier program. We’re also bringing you formula completion with Copilot in Excel, making it easier than ever to work with formulas. And last but not least, the new Python Initialization Editor is now available to Insider users on Windows.

Excel for web:
- Agent Mode in Excel (Frontier)
- COPILOT function (Frontier)

Excel for web and Windows:
- Formula completion with Copilot in Excel

Excel for Windows:
- Python in Excel: editable initialization pane (Insiders)

Excel for iOS:
- Copilot-powered file previews (Insiders)

Excel for web

Agent Mode in Excel
Agent Mode delivers AI that can “speak Excel” natively. It’s built on the richness of Excel artifacts and OpenAI’s latest reasoning models—democratizing access to expert-level capabilities and making advanced modeling approachable for most everyone. These breakthroughs allow Agent Mode to not only generate outputs, but also evaluate results, fix issues, and repeat the process until the outcome is verified. It’s like you’re handing off work to an Excel expert—while you steer and guide.  

An early preview of Agent Mode in Excel is available starting today via the Frontier program for Microsoft 365 Copilot licensed customers and Microsoft 365 Personal or Family subscribers (under the Microsoft Services Agreement). Agent Mode works in Excel on the web and is coming soon to desktop. To try it, install the Excel Labs add-in and choose Agent Mode (Frontier). Learn more about it in our announcement blog.

COPILOT function
The COPILOT function is here to help save you time and supercharge your workflows! Just enter a natural language prompt in your spreadsheet, reference cell values as needed, and watch Copilot instantly generate AI-powered results. This function is available to Insider users on Windows and Mac as well as Frontier web users. Read more here >

GIF showing how the COPILOT function is built into Excel's calculation engine, updating your results automatically when the data changes.

Excel for web and Windows

Formula completion with Copilot in Excel
When you type “=” in a cell, Excel analyzes the context of your workbook and suggests a formula completion suggestion, using the context of your worksheet - headers, nearby cells, formulas and tables. Alongside the suggestion you will see a preview of the result, as well as a short description in natural language of the formula’s intent. This is currently rolling out to production for Web users and also to Insider users on Windows. Read more here >

Excel for Windows

Python in Excel: editable initialization pane (Insiders)
Take control of your Python environment—right inside your workbook. With the new Python Initialization Editor, you can customize how Python starts up to better suit your workflow. Easily view and modify the default initialization script, add your own imports, functions, or logic, and undo or reset changes as needed. Read more here >

Excel for iOS

Copilot-powered file previews (Insiders)
Unlock instant insights with Copilot-powered file previews in the Microsoft 365 Copilot app for iOS—just share a file and get summaries, answers, and intelligent suggestions in seconds. Read more here >

Check if a specific feature is in your version of Excel

Click here to open in a new browser tab

Building Agent Mode in Excel

tmobrien — Thu, 23 Oct 2025 16:00:37 GMT

Excel is the world’s most trusted canvas for working with data, powering everything from household budgets to Fortune 500 companies, scientific research, operational planning, and classroom learning. It’s where millions turn to think, plan, and build. Agent Mode takes that impact even further, unlocking expert-level capabilities and making advanced analysis, modeling, and automation approachable for everyone, across every domain.

Agent Mode lets you describe a task in natural language and then works with you to plan, reason, iterate, and validate the outcome. After introducing Copilot in Excel, it quickly became clear that our users wanted more — richer insights and more direct action on the sheet. Agent Mode aims to deliver on these expectations with a resilient experience that works across domains and data shapes, taking meaningful action directly in your workbook.

We’ve developed Agent Mode to take advantage of the full richness of Excel artifacts, including table structures, formula syntax, dynamic arrays, PivotTables, charts, and more. It can create workbooks that are refreshable, auditable, and verifiable. This leap is powered by advances in our reasoning engine and the deeper expression of Excel as a rich modeling language. These breakthroughs allow Agent Mode to not only generate and execute solutions but also evaluate results, fix issues, and repeat the process until the outcome is verified.

We evaluated Agent Mode on the complete set of 912 SpreadsheetBench instructions and obtained an accuracy rate of 57.2%. In our testing environment, Agent Mode makes direct workbook modifications via Excel APIs in a JavaScript runtime. We measure accuracy using the script provided by the SpreadsheetBench authors that grades output using the open-source openpyxl library. For evaluation on Claude and Shortcut.aI, we manually ran the SpreadsheetBench tasks (including answer location information needed for reliable evaluation) and downloaded the Excel files that were produced. These downloaded files were then graded using the same evaluation script provided by the SpreadsheetBench authors. Note that our evaluation with Claude completed on 895 of 912 instructions. Accuracy numbers were calculated using only completed tasks. All OpenAI benchmark results were originally published by OpenAI here.

We measure Agent Mode on both our internal evaluation sets and the public SpreadsheetBench benchmark. Our results on SpreadsheetBench place Agent Mode at the leading edge of current systems, accurately completing 57.2% of the benchmark’s tasks.

But we want to be clear: we don’t optimize for benchmarks, we optimize for real user jobs in Excel. That means solving messy, ambiguous, and complex tasks that reflect how people actually work. And while SpreadsheetBench is a strong signal, it doesn’t capture everything that makes Excel powerful — like dynamic arrays, PivotTables, charts, and formatting — or the customer need for refreshable, auditable, and verifiable solutions. That’s why we have also developed internal evaluation sets, AI grading, and user feedback loops to guide improvements.

We also acknowledge that we have plenty of room for improvement, particularly around things like formatting and presentation-worthy layouts. But we believe our foundation is strong, and the direction is clear: Agent Mode is here to make Excel more powerful, more intuitive, and more helpful than ever before.

Designing an Intelligent Spreadsheet Agent

At the center of Agent Mode is a reasoning and reflection loop — powered by the latest generation of advanced reasoning models — that can interact directly with Excel workbooks. Rather than jumping straight into action, our system generates model-ready context from a given workbook and leverages an advanced reasoning model to begin planning for a given task. The system then interacts with the workbook by writing and executing code to carry out that plan, reflecting on the results, and evaluating whether the outcome matches the intent. If gaps remain, the loop continues: revising the strategy, pulling in additional context, and exploring alternative approaches. This cycle of planning, execution, and reflection continues until the system determines the task is complete. By combining planning with reactivity, the agent can chart a path, adjust when needed, and ultimately deliver solutions that feel intentional and well thought out.

The reasoning engine of our system architecture is model-agnostic by design, allowing for rapid integration of new models as they become available. Loose coupling between our reasoning and workbook interaction layers allow us to quickly swap in and evaluate new models.

An overview of our Agent Mode system architecture.

Managing spreadsheet context

Excel workbooks are living systems. They're often large, constantly changing, and filled with rich objects like PivotTables, slicers, and charts. For an agent, trying to absorb every detail all at once is simply impractical. Passing the entire dataset into context, along with the metadata for every object, would overwhelm any current model. Even exposing the thousands of read APIs Excel provides is far too heavy-handed. Instead, the agent approaches the workbook strategically: it pulls in just the pieces of context it needs, when it needs them, navigating the complexity step by step. This makes the agent not just a passive processor of data, but an active explorer of your workbook’s inner workings.

To enable this selective exploration, we’ve developed a document context producer that operates within a coordinated push-and-pull system. On the push side, the document context producer proactively sends a compact “blueprint” of the workbook along with the user’s prompt — a summary of spatial layout, values, objects, and the formula dependency graph — encoded as JSON for complex objects and Markdown for tabular data. When deeper inspection is required, the reasoning engine can then request and pull additional information on demand, ensuring it can always operate with the context it needs.

This hybrid design balances completeness with efficiency and lays the foundation for future improvements around caching, indexing, and search that will make context retrieval faster and more robust.

Our Document Context Producer translates complex workbooks into model-ready context.

Engineering domain knowledge of Excel

Managing context gives the agent a clear view of the workbook. The next challenge is action: knowing which of Excel’s thousands of functions and APIs to call to get the job done.

Excel spans thousands of API controls, including formulas, objects, and advanced features — a surface far too large for any current model to memorize or control directly. Instead of brute-forcing that complexity, we built distilled documentation into our reasoning engine — a compact, structured reference of Excel functions, objects, and specialized tool calls. Agent Mode can draw on this distilled knowledge to execute sophisticated tasks like building PivotTables, charts, slicers, and financial models.

By embedding only the essential information, the model gains expert-level fluency in Excel’s internal workings without overwhelming its context window, enabling accurate reasoning across the full feature set of the application.

Validation-driven generation

In developing and evaluating our core coding and reflection loop, we observed that many spreadsheet errors are silent — formulas return values, but subtle mistakes remain hidden until they cascade into bad analysis. Relying on a single execution step is risky when the goal is trustworthy automation.

To counter this, Agent mode in Excel reframes each tool call as an auditable, verifiable workflow. Before executing an action, our reasoning engine first generates lightweight tests to establish expected outcomes. These checks act as verifiable guardrails, ensuring that each step can be inspected and reproduced. Crucially, rather than hardcoding values, Agent Mode carries out all computations directly on the grid. This preserves the full dependency structure of the spreadsheet, allowing users to audit intermediate results, trace formulas, and verify correctness at every stage.

Across our quantitative evaluations, we have been able to drive double-digit accuracy improvements with this validation-infused approach.

An illustrative example of our validation-infused approach, with several interleaved “testing” steps in Agent Mode’s chain of thought.

Scaling quality with AI graders

As we evolve Agent Mode into a deeply integrated, context-aware companion for data workflows, AI graders have emerged as one of the most critical technical enablers driving quality, trust, and usability. They serve not only as evaluators of accuracy but also as definers of excellence—ensuring that results are not just correct, but also useful, complete, relevant, and delightful.

Graders are the mechanism through which we translate abstract quality goals into measurable, actionable standards. In Agent mode, they underpin both offline evaluation pipelines and live user experience metrics, helping us answer key questions like:

Did Agent Mode fulfill the user’s intent?
Was the output accurate and verifiable?
Did the result feel native to Excel?
Was the experience satisfying and accessible?

Without graders, we would risk optimizing for superficial metrics — like response time or token count—while missing the deeper signals of user success.

Looking ahead

An early preview of Agent Mode in Excel is available starting today via the Frontier program for Microsoft 365 Copilot licensed customers and Microsoft 365 Personal, Family, or Premium subscribers (under the Microsoft Services Agreement). Agent Mode works in Excel on the web and is coming soon to desktop. To try it, look for Agent Mode in the Tools menu of Copilot in Excel. Learn more about it in our announcement blog.

This preview is just the beginning of our journey. We’re continuing to build a complete, M365 integrated experience that is trustworthy, reliable, and transparent — one that you can depend on for critical work. And from a developer perspective, we’re exploring extensibility solutions that would allow customers and partners to build custom solutions on top of our Agent Mode capabilities.

Over the coming weeks and months, we plan to fully integrate and iterate on this experience across all Excel clients. We’ll continue to improve core output quality, refine the Agent Mode interfaces in chat and on the grid, and incorporate user feedback to ensure the experience feels at home in Excel, while unlocking entirely new ways to model, analyze, and automate.

🎉 Excel Turns 40! Join Our Reddit AMA 🎉

msexcel — Tue, 09 Sep 2025 22:07:52 GMT

We’re celebrating a huge milestone this year— Excel is turning 40! 🥳

From the humble beginnings of spreadsheets to today’s powerhouse features like PivotTables, Power Query, XLOOKUP, LET & LAMBDA, Python, and Copilot, Excel has evolved in ways we couldn’t have imagined—thanks to YOU, our amazing community.

To celebrate, we’re hosting a Reddit AMA on September 30, 2025, at 10 AM PT. Bring your questions about Excel’s past, present, and future. Whether you’re a spreadsheet wizard or just starting out, this is your chance to ask us anything!

👉 Mark your calendars and join the conversation!

We’re the Microsoft Excel Team – Celebrating 40 Years of Excel! Ask Us Anything : r/excel

Introducing formula completion - A new way to write formulas in Excel using Copilot

Lev_Solodkin — Thu, 09 Oct 2025 06:15:54 GMT

October 8, 2025: Updates to feature availability and option to opt out

Writing formulas in Excel could be time-consuming and difficult - even for experienced users. Selecting the right function, referencing the correct cells, and ensuring the syntax is accurate can slow down your workflow and lead to mistakes. Many users spend extra time searching for explanations and examples, troubleshooting errors, or trying to remember the exact formula structure.

Formula completion in Excel is a new Copilot feature that is designed to solve these challenges. Powered by state-of-the-art AI models, formula completion proactively suggests and autocompletes formulas as soon as you type “=”. With formula completion you can create accurate formulas faster and with greater confidence, letting you focus on your data and insights instead of formula syntax.

How it works

When you type “=” in a cell, Excel analyzes the context of your workbook and suggests a formula completion suggestion, using the context of your worksheet - headers, nearby cells, formulas and tables. Alongside the suggestion you will see a preview of the result, as well as a short description in natural language of the formula’s intent:

In addition to providing suggestions for “=”, formula completion updates its suggestions in real time as more characters are entered (for example, “=M...”) until an appropriate match is found:

What can formula completion do?

Formula completion can suggest formulas of varying complexity for different data structures.

Need to calculate the Year over Year change in % for the latest financial statements? No problem:

Need help calculating the profit for each transaction, even if some of the required information is in a different range or table? Formula completion can do it for you:

Note: Currently, formula completion does not provide suggestions for formulas that reference other worksheets. Support for this feature may be included in future updates.

Struggling with remembering the right syntax for a REGEX that can help you extract ZIP codes? Easy as cake:

You can even get formula completion to help you with tasks that require dynamic array formulas:

Tips for getting the best formula completion suggestion

Here are some guidelines and tips for getting the best formula completion suggestion:

If you type “=” and nothing appears right away, just wait a few seconds - Copilot’s suggestions may take a moment to load. It’s worth the wait! As Copilot generates the formula, a progress indicator will be displayed along the lower border of the cell:

Formula completion works best when there are clear labels/headers that help clarify the required context. Adding descriptive labels in the header or nearby cell greatly assists the process:

Struggling to find the correct formula? Try refining the context and include additional details in adjacent cells or headers for better results:

Feeling that "=" doesn’t give you the expected formula? Begin typing additional characters, and formula completion will offer suggestions that correspond to your input:

Availability

Formula completion is rolling out for Copilot users on Excel for the web (US-English only) as well as Insider Beta on Excel for Windows — additional language support will be available in a future release.

Note: Formula completion is still in its early days, so what’s available may change as we continue to improve the experience.

Opting out of formula completion suggestions

If you’d rather not see formula completion suggestions in Excel for Windows, select File > Options > Copilot, then check the box to Hide formula completion suggestions and select a timeframe.

An option to opt out in Excel for the web will be available soon.

Feedback

We appreciate your insights regarding formula completion:

- Do you consider it beneficial for your work?

- Does it integrate effectively into your workflow?

- Are there any capabilities you feel are lacking that you would like to see implemented?

You can share your feedback with us via “Give Feedback”: