How to Use ChatGPT for Excel (5 Practical Examples)

You don't need to memorize Excel formulas. ChatGPT can write them for you — IF you know how to ask. Most people type vague requests and get vague results. This tutorial shows you how to use ChatGPT for Excel the right way, with five examples you can copy and use today.

The Process (3 Steps)

Using ChatGPT for Excel follows the same pattern every time:

1. Describe your data. Tell ChatGPT what your spreadsheet looks like — column names, data types, what's where.
2. State what you want. Be specific about the outcome, not just the action.
3. Copy, paste, test. Drop the formula into Excel and verify it works on your data.

The key is step one. The more context you give ChatGPT about your spreadsheet, the better the formula.

5 Examples You Can Use Right Now

1. Generate a VLOOKUP Formula

Prompt:

I have two sheets. Sheet1 has employee names in column A and department in column B. Sheet2 has employee names in column A and salary in column B. Write an Excel formula that adds the salary from Sheet2 into column C of Sheet1 by matching employee names.

ChatGPT gives you:

=VLOOKUP(A2, Sheet2!A:B, 2, FALSE)

Paste this into cell C2 on Sheet1 and drag down. Done.

2. Build a Conditional Formula

Prompt:

Column A has sales amounts. I want column B to show "Above Target" if the value in column A is greater than 10000, "On Target" if it's between 5000 and 10000, and "Below Target" if it's under 5000.

ChatGPT gives you:

=IF(A2>10000, "Above Target", IF(A2>=5000, "On Target", "Below Target"))

3. Clean Messy Data

Prompt:

Column A has names in inconsistent formats — some uppercase, some lowercase, some with extra spaces. Write a formula to clean and standardize them to proper case with no extra spaces.

ChatGPT gives you:

=PROPER(TRIM(A2))

This strips leading/trailing spaces and converts "JOHN SMITH" or "john smith" to "John Smith."

4. Create a Simple Macro

Prompt:

Write an Excel VBA macro that formats all cells in the selected range as currency with two decimal places, adds a light blue background, and bolds the header row.

ChatGPT gives you a complete VBA script that you paste into the Visual Basic Editor (Alt + F11 → Insert → Module → Paste). Run it, and your range is formatted instantly.

This is where ChatGPT saves the most time — writing macros that would take 20 minutes to code from scratch.

5. Analyze Data Patterns

Prompt:

Here's my monthly sales data: [paste your data]. What trends do you see? Which months are strongest? Suggest a formula to calculate the month-over-month growth rate.

ChatGPT gives you:

• A plain-English analysis of your data
• The formula: =(B3-B2)/B2*100 for percentage growth
• Suggestions for visualizing the trend

Tips for Better Results

Be specific about columns. "Column A has dates, Column B has revenue, Column C has product names" beats "I have a sales spreadsheet."

Paste sample data. Copy 5-10 rows of your actual data and paste it into ChatGPT. It'll tailor the formula to your exact structure.

Ask ChatGPT to explain. Add "and explain how this formula works" to any prompt. Understanding the formula helps you modify it later without going back to ChatGPT.

Always test first. ChatGPT sometimes gets column references wrong. Test every formula on a small sample before applying it to your full dataset.

Limitations to Know

ChatGPT doesn't see your spreadsheet. It works from your description, so if you describe your data wrong, the formula will be wrong too. It also can't execute formulas — it writes them, and you paste them in.

For tasks that need direct spreadsheet access (real-time data analysis, automated dashboards), look into Excel add-ins like Numerous.ai or Microsoft's built-in Copilot.

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