Copilot in Excel tips

Applies To
Excel for Microsoft 365 Excel for Microsoft 365 for Mac Excel for iPad Excel Web App

Here are few habits help you get better results from Copilot in Excel.

Write effective prompts

  • Be specific. The more detail you provide, the more useful Copilot's response.
  • Name the columns or ranges you want Copilot to work with, especially for formatting and analysis requests.
  • Start broad, then refine. If a result isn't quite right, add more detail and ask Copilot to try again.
  • Ask follow-up questions to build on a previous result.

Switch between editing and chatting

When you open Copilot, editing is on by default. You know Copilot is ready to edit when the Excel selector appears in the chat box. Editing lets Copilot make changes directly in your workbook, while chatting answers questions without changing your data. Switch modes from the chat box to match what you want to do.

Selector for switching between edit mode and chat mode.

Choose your AI model

Copilot in Excel supports Claude models from Anthropic and GPT models from OpenAI for editing your workbooks.

  1. Open Copilot and make sure editing is on.

  2. Select the AI model switcher and choose a model from the list. To let Copilot pick the right model for you, choose Auto. The model switcher might be collapsed into the settings menu.

    Use the model picker to choose between AI models.

  3. Describe what you want to create or edit.

Your model choice applies only to the active session. When you close Excel or end your session, Copilot reverts to the default generative AI model for Microsoft 365.

Note

For enterprise customers, your admin must enable Anthropic as a Microsoft sub-processor in the Microsoft 365 admin center before you can use Claude. For more information, see Anthropic as a sub-processor for Microsoft Online Services.

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