AI Beginner Path

AI for Spreadsheets: 5 Beginner Prompts

You no longer need to memorize formulas. You need to describe your data clearly and check the result. These five prompts cover most of what beginners get stuck on in Excel and Google Sheets, and every one works in a free chatbot.

By Harry10 minutesPublished September 2026

Pastel 3D illustration of a floating spreadsheet grid with a few highlighted cells
AI-generated illustration

Three things the model needs first

A spreadsheet is a grid of cells. Each cell has an address made of its column letter and row number, such as B2, and a formula is an instruction that starts with an equals sign and calculates something from other cells. A chatbot (a program you talk to in plain language, such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude or Copilot) can write formulas well, but only if you tell it three things: which app you use (Excel and Google Sheets share most functions but not all), what your columns are called and what kind of data is in them, and what result you want. Paste the header row and three sample rows, with any private values swapped for made-up ones. Never paste the whole file.

The five prompts

1Write a formula from a plain description

Describe the columns and the question. Ask for a one-line explanation of each part so you learn something, and ask what breaks if your data is not quite what you said.

I use Google Sheets. Column A is the order date, column B is the customer name, column C is the amount in dollars. Rows 2 to 200 have data. Write a formula for cell E2 that adds up the amounts for orders in September 2026 only. Explain each part of the formula in one line, and tell me what to change if my dates are stored as text.

You should get a SUMIFS formula. Check it by adding up four or five September rows by hand. If the numbers disagree, paste the mismatch back and say so.

2Explain a formula you inherited

Old workbooks are full of formulas nobody remembers writing. Microsoft's Copilot in Excel has a built-in explain feature for exactly this; a free chatbot does the same job when you paste the formula.

Explain this Excel formula to a beginner, one piece at a time, from the inside out. Then tell me what it returns if A2 is empty, and what "not found" means here: =IFERROR(INDEX(Sheet2!C:C, MATCH(A2, Sheet2!A:A, 0)), "not found")

3Fix an error message

Excel and Sheets show pound-sign errors when a formula cannot work out an answer. The common ones, per Microsoft's help pages: #N/A means a lookup could not find the value, #VALUE! means the wrong kind of data is involved (often text where a number should be), #REF! means the formula points at a cell that was deleted, and #DIV/0! means dividing by zero or by an empty cell.

I get #VALUE! in cell D2 in Excel. The formula is =B2-C2. B2 shows 14/09/2026 and C2 shows 01/09/2026, but both were pasted in from an email. List the three most likely causes in order, and give me one thing to try for each, simplest first.

Dates stored as text are a classic cause of #VALUE!, and the fix is usually a DATEVALUE conversion or retyping the cells. The model will suggest both; you pick the one you understand.

4Clean messy data

Extra spaces, mixed capitals, "last, first" names, dates in three formats. Ask for the cleanup in new columns so the original stays untouched and you can compare.

I have a column of names in Google Sheets like " smith, JOHN " and "Ana Lopez", with extra spaces and mixed capitals. Give me formulas for new columns that: 1) remove extra spaces, 2) put first name before last name, 3) capitalize properly. Use TRIM, PROPER and SPLIT or whatever fits, and show the expected output for both of my examples.

5Ask what the data says

Once the sheet is clean, the chatbot can summarize it. OpenAI's help center says ChatGPT can analyze uploaded spreadsheets and CSV files (a plain-text table format), and that file uploads are available on the Free plan within usage limits. Gemini in Sheets and Copilot in Excel do similar analysis inside the app on eligible paid plans. For a beginner, pasting twenty rows as text is enough.

Here are the column headers and 20 rows from my expense sheet, pasted as text: [paste]. Tell me the total per category, the biggest single expense, and anything that looks like a duplicate or a typo. Show your working as a table, and list every assumption you made.

Check one total by hand the first time. If that matches, trust the rest for that session, not forever.

Four power moves

  • Name the app every time: "Excel for Microsoft 365" or "Google Sheets". Some functions exist in one and not the other, and the model will not ask.
  • Ask for the check: "Also give me a second formula that verifies the first one a different way." Two formulas that agree are worth more than one that looks right.
  • Say "step by step": for anything with more than one function nested inside another, ask for the build-up in stages. You will learn the pieces and spot where it goes wrong.
  • Keep a scratch copy: make a copy of the file and run every AI experiment there. Nothing the chatbot suggests touches the real sheet until you have seen it work.

Try it now: open a spreadsheet you actually use, copy the header row and five rows into a free chatbot, and run Prompt 1 or Prompt 4. Put the result in a new column beside the original and compare three rows by eye. That comparing habit is the entire skill; the formulas are the easy part.

Quick answers

Can free ChatGPT or Gemini write Excel formulas?

Yes. The free web versions of ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Copilot all write and explain formulas for Excel and Google Sheets when you describe your columns. Copilot inside Excel and Gemini inside Sheets need a qualifying paid plan, but they are conveniences, not requirements.

Is it safe to paste my spreadsheet into a chatbot?

Paste the headers and a few rows with sensitive values changed, not the whole file. Customer names, salaries and account numbers should not go into a consumer chatbot. A few made-up rows in the same shape work just as well for building a formula.

What if the formula the AI gives me is wrong?

It often is, slightly: a wrong column letter, an Excel-only function in Sheets, or a bad assumption about your data. Test it on rows where you already know the right answer, paste any error message back, and ask it to fix the formula. Two rounds usually does it.

Sources

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