Frequently asked questions about editing with Copilot in Excel

What is editing with Copilot in Excel? 

Editing with Copilot in Excel allows Copilot to make direct changes to your workbook. You can use natural language to interact with your spreadsheets and accomplish a wide range of tasks. For example, generate data, create visual artifacts, manage structure, and apply formatting—all by simply describing what you want to do. Copilot enhances your experience with multi-step reasoning and a deep understanding of your workbook's content. 

What can Copilot in Excel do? 

Editing with Copilot in Excel lets you accomplish complex, multi-step tasks in your workbook using natural language. It works seamlessly with Excel’s core features and supports a growing set of capabilities that continue to evolve over time: 

• Workbook manipulation​​​​​​​

  • Add, rename and delete sheets.

  • Insert and modify cell values, ranges.

  • Apply conditional formatting, borders, font styles, and data validation rules.

  • Create structured tables and manage workbook layout.

  • Interact with workbook metadata and structure, including named ranges and sheet visibility.

• Data creation & transformation

  • Generate synthetic or derived data based on user prompts.

  • Perform calculations and apply formulas across multiple sheets.

  • Summarize data using built-in Excel logic.

  • Create new tables and transform existing ones using inferred logic.

• Artifact generation

  • Create and edit charts, PivotTables, and shapes.

  • Automatically insert visualizations into the workbook with editable and refreshable links to source data.

  • Generate planning tools, dashboards, and templates from scratch.

• Formatting & presentation

  • Apply consistent styling across sheets.

  • Format cells, rows, and columns based on user-defined rules or inferred patterns.

  • Customize chart appearance and layout.

  • Apply conditional formatting and visual cues to highlight trends or anomalies.

• Contextual awareness

  • Understand workbook structure, current selection, and what's visible on your screen.

  • Analyze both structured and unstructured data across multiple sheets.

  • Work with Excel’s recalculation and refresh logic so content created by Agent Mode behaves like native Excel formulas and objects.

  • Use your current selection to provide tailor responses and reduce ambiguity.

  • You can add work content or upload files to increase contextual awareness.

• Web search

  • Fetches information from the web to provide a better, more grounded response.

  • Provides linked citations to sites used to enhance the response.

  • Can be turned on and off through the Web content toggle in sources menu or by an IT admin control.

Why edit with Copilot in Excel? 

Copilot in Excel is built to support a wide range of users and scenarios. Whether you're a business analyst, finance professional, educator, or an everyday spreadsheet user, editing with Copilot can boost your productivity. It lets you interact with your workbook using natural language, making complex tasks simpler and more accessible for individuals and teams alike.

How does editing with Copilot differ from Copilot Chat in Excel and Analyst agent?

• Editing with Copilot in Excel

  This is the default experience when opening Copilot in Excel. This allows Copilot to make changes when you want Copilot to plan, run, and verify results directly in Excel. It's best for tasks that go beyond simple formulas, single PivotTables, or basic charts, especially when you need to complete multiple steps or work through iterative processes.

• Copilot Chat in Excel

  Copilot Chat offers conversational assistance for a broader set of tasks across Microsoft 365 apps. It's ideal for quick answers, drafting, and simple actions. Copilot is great for general productivity and tasks that don’t require deep automation, multi-step reasoning or making changes to your workbook.

• Analyst agent in Microsoft 365 Copilot

  If your organization has access, use Analyst agent for advanced, Python-powered data analysis across multiple files and formats. It's designed for data visualizations and analysis in a chat-first experience.

How do I know if I have an eligible Microsoft 365 license?

Editing with Copilot in Excel requires either a Microsoft 365 Personal or Family subscription (with an AI credits plan), a Microsoft 365 Premium subscription, a commercial Microsoft 365 Copilot subscription, or a Copilot Chat-eligible Microsoft 365 or Office 365 business or enterprise subscription.

To check your license, go to your Microsoft 365 account settings.

How was Copilot in Excel evaluated? What metrics are used to measure performance? 

Editing with Copilot in Excel was evaluated through extensive manual and automatic testing methods, using Microsoft's internal data and public sources. The team also reviews custom datasets to check for offensive or malicious prompts and responses. User feedback is collected continuously to help improve the experience. 

Performance is measured by:

• Response success rates.

• User satisfaction scores.

• Accuracy ratings based on benchmark tasks.

• Feedback from thumbs-up/thumbs-down interactions.

What are the limitations of editing with Copilot in Excel and how can I minimize their impact?

• AI-generated results

  Copilot in Excel uses AI to generate suggestions and results. While powerful, it can sometimes make mistakes, misinterpret information, or produce inaccurate outcomes. Avoid using Copilot for decisions in sensitive areas such as finance, legal, or medical topics.

• Limited external connections

  Editing with Copilot does not currently support work search or integration with external data sources.

• Direct workbook changes

  Editing with Copilot allows Copilot to make changes directly to your workbook as it runs. These changes are saved automatically. Anyone with access to the file—either in a coauthoring session or later—can see and use changes made by Copilot.

• Version control

  While you can roll back changes, it's best to edit with Copilot on a copy of any critical or sensitive workbook to protect your original data.

• Conversational language support

  Editing with Copilot in Excel is currently evaluated for conversations in English (US), Spanish (Spain, Mexico), Japanese, French (France, Canada), German, Portuguese (Brazil), Italian and Chinese (Simplified).
  
  For the latest Open AI models, it is additionally evaluated for Korean, Dutch, Swedish, Polish, Portuguese (Portugal), Norwegian (Bokmål), Turkish, Danish, Finnish, Chinese Traditional, Thai, Czech, Hungarian, Ukrainian, and Russian.
  
  Quality support for other languages and models will be coming soon.

• Other Known Issues​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

  • Editing with Copilot is only supported when Calculation Options are set to "Automatic".

How can I edit with Copilot in Excel effectively and responsibly? 

Copilot in Excel has been reviewed by our Responsible AI (RAI) team. We follow RAI principles to help keep your experience safe and productive.

We use a responsible AI handling pipeline to reduce risks from harmful or inappropriate content. 

You can report offensive content directly in Copilot using built-in feedback tools. Microsoft reviews this feedback to improve the product. 

How do I provide feedback on editing with Copilot in Excel? 

Share your feedback directly in Copilot by clicking the thumbs-up or thumbs-down icons in the chat pane. 

If you’re a system administrator, you can report issues or send feedback through Microsoft support channels or your account team. 

The product team reviews all feedback to help improve Copilot and set priorities for future updates. 

How do IT administrators manage access to editing with Copilot in Excel?

Editing with Copilot is a tool for Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat and cannot be turned off independently. All admin settings for controlling access to M365 Copilot Chat apply.