Claude for Excel: What the Add-In Does and Doesn't
Claude for Excel is an add-in that runs inside the Excel window, not a chatbot you paste cells into. It reads the open workbook, answers with cell-level citations you can click, and edits in a way that respects the formula dependencies already in the sheet. Anthropic built it for people who live in financial models, and that shows in what it prioritizes.
One disambiguation first, because these get conflated constantly. The add-in is a different product from the Microsoft 365 connector, which lets claude.ai read files stored in OneDrive and SharePoint from a normal chat. The add-in works on the workbook in front of you. The connector works on files at rest. Claude for Microsoft 365 maps all three things people mean by that phrase.
What it does inside the sheet
- Answers with citations. Ask why a number is what it is and Claude points at the specific cells, so you can verify rather than trust.
- Changes assumptions without breaking the model. Adjust an input and it works through the dependency chain instead of overwriting formulas with pasted values.
- Debugs errors to root cause. Not “there’s a
#REF!in D14” but which upstream change produced it. - Builds from scratch or fills a template. New models, or populating a structure you already have.
- Navigates multi-tab workbooks. It follows references across sheets rather than treating the active tab as the whole file.
- Runs native Excel operations. Sorting, filtering, conditional formatting, applied as real Excel actions.
- Pulls context from connected tools. Whatever connectors your Claude account has configured are available to the analysis.
What it can’t touch
This list matters more than the feature list, because each item is a hard stop rather than a rough edge.
| Not supported | Consequence |
|---|---|
| Data tables | Excel’s what-if data tables are outside what it handles |
| Macros and VBA | An automated workbook is largely opaque to it |
| Excel 2016 and 2019 | Desktop installs on those versions can’t run the add-in |
| Android | No mobile Excel support on Android |
Formats other than .xlsx and .xlsm | Legacy .xls and .csv are out |
The macro and VBA gap is the one that catches teams by surprise. If your model’s real logic lives in a module rather than in cells, Claude can read the outputs and has no view of the mechanism producing them.
Where Anthropic says not to use it
Anthropic’s own guidance rules out three situations, and it’s worth taking at face value rather than treating as boilerplate:
- Final client deliverables without human review. Generated analysis is a draft.
- Audit-critical calculations. Anything where being wrong has a compliance consequence needs a person verifying the arithmetic.
- Highly sensitive regulated data without the appropriate controls in place.
There is also a prompt-injection consideration. A workbook from an untrusted source can carry text engineered to redirect what Claude does with it, so treat an unfamiliar file the way you’d treat an unfamiliar macro.
Plans and setup
Claude for Excel is available on Pro, Max, Team, and Enterprise. There is no free tier.
Installation runs through the Microsoft Marketplace listing for Claude for Microsoft 365, which covers Excel, PowerPoint, and Word in one add-in. Install it, open Excel, and sign in with your Claude account. Anthropic’s setup guide has the current steps.
Instructions you set in Excel are scoped to Excel. They do not carry into PowerPoint, which has its own.
Working across Excel and PowerPoint
Since March 2026 Claude can carry one conversation across Office apps rather than starting fresh each time you switch. Analyze in the workbook, then build the deck from that analysis without re-explaining anything or copying values between windows.
Anthropic calls the setting Office agents. On Pro and Max it is on by default. On Team and Enterprise an owner enables it at Organization settings, then each member toggles “Let Claude work across files” in the add-in. The constraint worth knowing up front: Claude only reaches files that are currently open, and it cannot open, close, or switch files itself. Claude Office Agents covers the full behavior.
Nothing in the workbook starts on its own
Every capability above runs because you opened Excel and asked. That is the correct design for analysis, where a person should be in the loop. It is the wrong shape for the recurring spreadsheet work that fills a week.
Both ChatGPT and Claude will now do work on a schedule, unattended. Neither reacts to events. A task that runs hourly still finds out an hour late, and one that runs each morning finds out tomorrow — the trigger is the clock, never the thing you actually care about.
The reporting pack that has to go out Monday, the threshold that should page someone the hour it’s crossed, the row that should create a task the moment it lands. None of that is a question Claude can answer, because nobody is there to ask it.
Carly covers that half. It connects to Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets natively, along with roughly 260 other apps, plus anything with a public API through your own key on the integrations dashboard:
- When a new row lands in a tracking sheet, validate it, create the task, and notify the owner
- Every Monday at 8am, pull last week’s figures from Stripe and your CRM into the workbook and send the summary
- When a value crosses a threshold, alert the right person in Slack with the context attached
Carly is free for Zapier-style workflows, with AI agents from $35/month.
FAQ
Is Claude for Excel free? No. It requires a paid Claude plan: Pro, Max, Team, or Enterprise. The Free tier does not include the Office add-ins.
Does Claude for Excel work with macros or VBA? No. Macros and VBA are explicitly unsupported, as are Excel’s data tables. Claude can read cell values a macro produced without having any visibility into the macro itself.
Which Excel versions are supported?
Not Excel 2016 or 2019, and not Android. Files must be .xlsx or .xlsm.
What’s the difference between Claude for Excel and the Microsoft 365 connector? The add-in works on the workbook open in front of you, inside the Excel window. The connector lets claude.ai search and read files stored in OneDrive and SharePoint from a chat, with admin-enabled write tools operating at the file level rather than the cell level.
Can Claude build a PowerPoint deck from my Excel analysis? Yes, with Office agents enabled, which carries one conversation across both add-ins. Both files need to be open, since Claude cannot open them itself.
Can Claude for Excel run a report on a schedule? No. The add-in runs inside a session you start in Excel. Recurring or event-driven spreadsheet work needs an automation layer outside the add-in.
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