You don't have to pick just one. Our verdict: use the AI already in your spreadsheet, Copilot in Excel or Gemini in Sheets, and add Numerous or Bricks only for the jobs they're built for.
AI reached spreadsheets in four different ways. Excel got Copilot built in, Google Sheets got Gemini in the sidebar, Bricks rebuilt the spreadsheet around AI, and Numerous put AI inside the cells of the sheet you already use.
Copilot in Excel
Gemini in Sheets
Bricks
Numerous
Claude for Excel and Sheets
Two of these come with a plan you may already pay for. The others start free or bill per user.
The 5 tools at a glance
Copilot in Excel- Formulas and charts from plain English
- Works with Power Query and pivot tables
- Business add-on from $21/user/mo
The catch: business seats cost extra unless your plan includes it.
Gemini in Sheets- Built into the Sheets sidebar
- Quick plain-English questions about your data
- Workspace from $14/user/mo
The catch: not built for bulk row-by-row work.
- Dashboards and reports from a description
- Formulas, charts and controls wired up
- 20 AI messages/mo free, 200 on Premium
The catch: awkward for cleaning a sheet you already have.
- =AI and =INFER functions inside cells
- Drag one formula down thousands of rows
- Works in Google Sheets and Excel
The catch: no chat sidebar, just functions.
Claude add-ons- Claude for Excel is generally available
- Google Sheets add-on in public beta
- Plans multi-step analysis from a brief
The catch: the Sheets version is still a beta.
Prices and where they work
Prices checked October 15, 2026, on each company's own pricing page.
| Tool | Price | Best for | Works in |
|---|---|---|---|
| Microsoft Copilot in Excel | Included in Microsoft 365 Personal ($9.99/mo or $99.99/yr); business add-on from $21/user/mo billed yearly | Excel-native work: financial models, Power Query, pivots | Excel |
| Gemini in Sheets | Google AI Pro ($19.99/mo); Workspace Business Standard ($14/user/mo) and up | Quick natural-language questions about your data | Google Sheets |
| Bricks | Free (20 AI messages/mo); Premium $25/user/mo ($17.50 billed yearly); Pro $100/user/mo | Dashboards and reports built from a description | Its own web app |
| Numerous | Paid per-user plans sized by characters of AI input and output | Bulk per-cell work: classify, clean, extract | Google Sheets and Excel |
| Claude for Excel and Google Workspace | All paid Claude plans; Pro is $20/mo | Multi-step analysis and models from a brief | Excel (generally available); Google Sheets (beta) |
What each one can do
| Feature | Copilot | Gemini | Bricks | Numerous | Claude |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free plan | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | – | ✗ |
| Works in Excel | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Works in Google Sheets | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | Beta |
| Chat with your data | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Builds dashboards from a description | – | – | ✓ | ✗ | – |
| Built for bulk row-by-row work | – | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ |
– means the company hasn't said.
Copilot in Excel: best for Microsoft shops
Copilot writes formulas, suggests charts and answers plain-English questions like "what's the trend in column C." It also works with Power Query and pivot tables, which makes it a natural fit for financial and operational data.
Microsoft 365 Personal ($9.99 a month) and Family now include it. Businesses can add Microsoft 365 Copilot Business from $21 per user per month billed yearly, or buy Business Standard or Premium with Copilot built in.
Gemini in Sheets: the quick answer
Gemini lives in the Sheets sidebar, so there's nothing to install. It's at its best on questions like "what's the average order value by region."
You get it with Google AI Pro at $19.99 a month, or with Workspace Business Standard ($14 per user per month) and up.
Bricks: when a spreadsheet is the wrong shape
Bricks doesn't add AI to Excel or Sheets. It replaces them. Describe "a project budget with a category breakdown, a chart and a headcount slider," and it builds the formulas, charts and controls for you.
That suits dashboards, calculators and reports. If you already have the sheet and just need to clean it, importing a CSV into Bricks is awkward. The free plan gives you 20 AI messages a month, Premium is $25 per user ($17.50 billed yearly) and Pro is $100.
Numerous: AI inside every cell
Numerous installs as an Excel or Sheets add-on and gives you AI functions you type like any formula:
=AI("classify as positive, neutral, or negative", A2)=AI("extract the company name from this email", B2)=INFER(...): give it a few worked examples and it fills in the rest of the column
Drag one down 5,000 rows and Numerous runs the work in bulk. It's made for cleaning, sorting survey answers and pulling details out of messy text. If you don't do row-by-row AI work, you don't need it.
Claude for Excel and Sheets: for longer briefs
Claude for Excel is generally available on all paid Claude plans. Claude for Google Workspace is in public beta on those plans, opens beside your sheet and asks before it edits.
It's the pick when you'd rather explain a goal in a paragraph and let the AI plan the steps. Like Gemini, it's for analysis on data you have, not bulk per-cell work.
What about pasting into ChatGPT or Claude?
Copying data into a chatbot and pasting the answer back works for a one-off question on a small table. It's slower than an add-on, trips over commas and formatting, and you'll fix made-up column names by hand. ChatGPT Plus includes Excel and Google Sheets extensions, so install those if you use it often.
Which one should you use?
The verdict
Most people should use the AI already in their spreadsheet: Copilot in Excel or Gemini in Sheets. Add Numerous if you do row-by-row AI work every week, and try Bricks if you build dashboards from scratch.
FAQ
What's the best AI for Excel in 2026?
Microsoft Copilot if you're on Microsoft 365. It's now included in Microsoft 365 Personal and Family, and businesses can add it from $21 per user per month. Bricks if you want dashboards built from a description. Numerous for bulk per-cell work in Excel or Sheets.
Is Bricks worth paying for?
If you build dashboards or reports from spreadsheet data, yes. The free plan gives you 20 AI messages a month, Premium is $25 per user per month ($17.50 billed yearly) with 200 messages, and Pro is $100 with unlimited messages. For one-off sheets, it's overkill.
What does Numerous actually do?
Numerous adds AI functions you use inside cells, like =AI("summarize this", A2) or =INFER, which learns from a few examples and fills in the rest. Drag it down thousands of rows and it processes them in bulk. It's a function, not a chat sidebar, and it works in both Google Sheets and Excel.
Can Claude or ChatGPT work in Google Sheets?
Yes. Claude for Google Workspace is in public beta on all paid Claude plans and works beside your sheet, and Claude for Excel is generally available. ChatGPT Plus includes Excel and Google Sheets extensions. Both are good for ad-hoc analysis, not for bulk per-cell processing.
Is Excel Copilot or Google Gemini in Sheets better?
Pick by which spreadsheet your team uses. Excel Copilot is stronger on formulas and Excel-native tools like Power Query. Gemini in Sheets is quick for natural-language questions. Both are competent in 2026.