Frequently asked questions about Copilot in Excel

The "Preview" label on Copilot in Excel indicates that the features are still being developed and improved. This is normal and there is nothing for you to change or fix. This is a production-ready preview and is built on Microsoft's comprehensive approach to security, compliance, and privacy.

• Make sure that you have data in your spreadsheet that is formatted as a table.

• Make sure your selection is in the table that you want Copilot for Microsoft 365 to use.

• Leverage the prompt guide button for tips and to select what type of question you want to ask.

• Be specific with your questions - the more detail you provide, the better Copilot for Microsoft 365 can help. This includes clearly specifying the column headers you want to reference for formatting or analysis queries. 

Copilot in Excel understands prompts in a number of languages. For Copilot Pro customers, Excel is currently only available in English. See Microsoft Copilot supported languages for more details.

Copilot in Excel can only be used with Excel files (.xlsx or .xslm) saved to OneDrive or Microsoft 365 SharePoint locations with AutoSave turned on. The Copilot button is not active while editing files saved in locations on your computer or saved as unsupported file types.

Copilot for Microsoft 365 has specific requirements for app version, license, network, and privacy settings. If you don't have Copilot available in the ribbon and you think you should have it, verify that you meet the Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 Requirements.

Copilot in Excel works for Excel tables of up to two million cells. Some skills like formula column suggestions, highlight, sort, and filter do not have a limit on the amount of data you can interact with. However, it can take a long time, even 30 seconds or more, to get a response from Copilot when interacting with large tables.

• Copilot for Microsoft 365 generates insights and formulas and explains them in a fluent, grammatically correct way, but the content it generates can be inaccurate or inappropriate. It can’t understand meaning or evaluate accuracy, so be sure to read over what it writes, and use your judgment. Please report any objectionable content so that we can continue to improve the feature.

• As with any AI-generated content, it's a great start, but we know that the decisions you make in Excel have a big impact. This makes it critical for you to review, edit, and verify anything Copilot for Microsoft 365 creates for you.

Copilot for Microsoft 365 generates content based on language patterns it has found throughout the internet. Sometimes its results will be very similar to existing internet content. Or, Copilot for Microsoft 365 might generate the same or very similar content for multiple people who are prompting Copilot for Microsoft 365 in the same way.

Copilot and Microsoft 365 are built on Microsoft's comprehensive approach to security, compliance, and privacy.

For more information about privacy, see the following information:

• If you’re using Copilot for Microsoft 365 in your organization (with your work or school account), see Data, Privacy, and Security for Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365.

• If you're using Copilot in Microsoft 365 apps at home as part of Copilot Pro (with your personal Microsoft account), see Copilot Pro: Microsoft 365 apps and your privacy.

Copilot in Excel was evaluated through extensive manual and automatic testing on top of Microsoft internal usage and public data. More evaluation was performed over custom datasets for offensive and malicious prompts (user questions) and responses. In addition, Copilot in Excel is constantly evaluated with user online feedback.

Copilot in Excel currently cannot be customized through the Microsoft 365 admin center. You can choose what questions to ask Copilot based on your needs.

Microsoft has been on a responsible AI journey since 2017, when we defined our principles and approach to ensuring this technology is used in a way that is driven by ethical principles that put people first. Read more about our responsible AI journey, the ethical principles that guide us, and the tooling and capabilities we’ve created to assure that we develop AI technology responsibly.