Copilot in Excel lets you describe what you want in plain English — write a formula, highlight the top performers, create a chart, clean the data — and Excel does it. No formula syntax knowledge required. Included in Copilot Pro ($20/month) and Microsoft 365 Copilot Business ($30/user/month add-on).
Microsoft Copilot in Excel is an AI assistant embedded directly inside Microsoft Excel. You describe what you want in plain English — "highlight the top 10 customers by revenue", "create a formula that calculates year-over-year growth", "show me which rows have missing values" — and Copilot does it. No formula syntax, no VBA, no complex pivot table setup required.
For the vast majority of Excel users who know what they want to do with their data but struggle with how to do it technically, Copilot removes the main friction point. You still provide the business judgment — what question to ask, what analysis matters — Copilot handles the technical implementation.
Copilot in Excel is available as part of Microsoft 365 Copilot. Copilot Chat (a lighter version) is free to Microsoft 365 subscribers. Full Copilot in Excel features require Copilot Pro ($20/month for individuals) or Microsoft 365 Copilot Business ($30/user/month add-on to existing M365 Business subscriptions).
Formula generation — Describe what you want to calculate. Copilot writes the formula. Includes complex formulas using VLOOKUP, INDEX/MATCH, SUMIFS, array formulas and any other Excel function. Explains what the formula does in plain English so you understand it.
Data analysis in plain English — Ask questions about your data: "What are the top 5 products by sales?", "Which regions are below target?", "What is the average order value by customer segment?" Copilot analyses the data and answers.
Conditional formatting — "Highlight cells in column D that are more than 20% below the column average" — Copilot applies the conditional formatting rule.
Chart creation — Describe the chart you want. Copilot selects the appropriate chart type, configures the axes and creates it.
Data cleaning — "Find and flag duplicate rows", "Identify cells that look like they contain errors", "Standardise the date format across column C".
PivotTable generation — Describe what you want to summarise. Copilot creates the PivotTable with the right groupings and calculations.
Business professionals who use Excel regularly but are not power users. Analysts who know what analysis they need but spend time on technical formula research. Managers who need quick insights from spreadsheets without knowing Excel deeply. Anyone who has ever Googled "Excel formula for..." — Copilot makes that unnecessary.
Open Excel (desktop or web). If you have a qualifying Microsoft 365 subscription with Copilot, the Copilot button appears in the Home ribbon. Click it. The Copilot panel opens on the right side. Describe what you want in the text box. Your data must be in an Excel Table format (Insert → Table) for Copilot to reference it correctly — this is the most common setup issue.
Format your data as a Table first. Copilot works with Excel Tables (Insert → Table). If your data is in a plain range, Copilot may not reference it correctly. Converting to Table takes 10 seconds and is the single most important setup step.
Always verify formulas before using in important work. Copilot writes formulas correctly most of the time, but verify any formula used in important financial models, reports or decisions by testing it on known values before deploying it across your full dataset.
Copilot in Excel uses large language models to interpret natural language instructions and translate them into Excel operations — formula writing, formatting rules, chart configurations and data analysis. Per Microsoft's official Copilot documentation, Copilot Chat (free for M365 subscribers) provides access to Word, Excel and PowerPoint agents for document-level tasks. Full Excel AI features including formula suggestion and data analysis require Copilot Pro or M365 Copilot Business.
Microsoft announced M365 price increases effective July 1, 2026 across commercial plans, per the official Microsoft 365 Blog (December 2026). M365 E3 increases from $36 to $39/user/month; E5 from $57 to $60/user/month. These increases are attributed to bundled AI capabilities including Copilot Chat.