SheetAI vs Copilot in Excel
Copilot is Microsoft's assistant inside Excel, and it is priced like an enterprise add-on: a Copilot licence per user on top of a qualifying Microsoft 365 plan. SheetAI is a spreadsheet in your browser with AI functions you can fill down a column, twenty templates that already calculate, and add-ins for Excel and Google Sheets included - $20 a month on any email address, with a free tier to test it first.
Every figure about Copilot in Excel on this page comes from their own pages, last read on 5 September 2026. Sources are listed at the bottom.
The short version
If your organisation runs on Microsoft, has the base licences, and can absorb another per-seat charge, Copilot in Excel is the path of least friction and we are not going to pretend otherwise - it lives in the app your team already has open. Everyone else is looking at a very different bill: a Copilot licence stacks on top of a Microsoft 365 plan, per user, for everyone who needs it. SheetAI is a fraction of that, needs no Microsoft account at all, gives you AI functions you can put in cells, and comes with the spreadsheet included. If you are choosing rather than inheriting, that is a much easier decision than the price lists suggest.
What each one actually is
Most of the decision comes down to this, and a feature table can hide it.
A spreadsheet application with an AI agent in it, plus an Excel add-in that puts the same agent in a task pane, and a Google Sheets add-on carrying twelve functions and a chat sidebar into sheets you already have. It signs in with any email address, and one balance covers the app and both add-ins. Twenty templates ship with it, and .xlsx files import and export with formulas and formatting intact.
Microsoft's assistant inside Excel, sold as a per-user add-on to a qualifying Microsoft 365 subscription. It drafts formulas, explains and analyses ranges, suggests charts and helps clean data, and the same licence carries Copilot across the rest of Office. For consumers, Microsoft has folded a Copilot assistant into a premium consumer subscription instead. Either way it is Excel-only as far as spreadsheets go, and you need Microsoft's stack underneath it.
Head to head
Shaded cell is the one we think wins that row, including the rows where it isn’t us.
| SheetAI | Copilot in Excel | |
|---|---|---|
| What it costs to start | Free tier, then $20 a month for one account | A Copilot licence per user on top of a qualifying Microsoft 365 plan |
| What you need underneath | A browser and any email address | A Microsoft 365 subscription for every person who gets Copilot |
| AI you can put in a cell | Yes - twelve functions, filled down a column like any formula: AI_CLASSIFY, AI_EXTRACT, AI_TRANSLATE, AI_SUMMARIZE and the rest | Assistance through the Copilot pane; not a function you drag down a column |
| Ready-made templates | 20 built-in workbooks with formulas, formats and conditional rules already wired | Office template gallery, without the AI wiring |
| Who has to be licensed | Only the people who want it | Every person who needs Copilot, plus their base plan |
| Try before you buy | 10 credits on signup, no card | Trials exist but generally run through a Microsoft agreement or reseller |
| Works in Google Sheets | Yes, add-on included on every plan | No |
| Works inside Excel | Yes: a chat task pane plus 12 AI formulas for cells (=SHEETAI.AI_ASK and others), added from sheetai.co or deployed by your admin | Yes, built in, in the app your team already has |
| Beyond spreadsheets | Spreadsheets only | Word, Outlook, PowerPoint and Teams under the same licence |
| Enterprise governance | A separate vendor to approve, with per-account billing | Inside your existing Microsoft tenancy, controls and compliance posture |
| Very large workbooks | Comfortable with everyday sheets; a browser grid has its limits | Desktop Excel handles far bigger files than any web spreadsheet |
What they cost
- Free to start$010 credits on signup, no card, any email
- Pro 1k$20 / month1,000 credits a month, $168 yearly
- Pro 3k$50 / month3,000 credits a month, $420 yearly
- Business$150 / month10,000 credits a month, $1,260 yearly
- Microsoft 365 Copilot~$30 / user / monthCommonly cited enterprise figure on an annual commitment
- Copilot Business (up to 300 users)~$21 / user / monthAnnual plan; an introductory rate has been reported through late 2026
- Required base planextraCopilot is an add-on: each user also needs a qualifying Microsoft 365 licence
- Consumer route~$20 / monthMicrosoft's premium consumer subscription bundles a Copilot assistant with the Office apps
Microsoft's pricing depends on tenancy, region, term and reseller, and public figures move with promotions - the numbers above are the widely cited list rates, not a quote, and you should price your own tenancy. The structural point does not move with the promotions: Copilot is a licence stacked on a licence, charged per person, while SheetAI is one subscription per account with the spreadsheet included.
Choose Copilot in Excel if…
Desktop Excel, big workbooks, macros, add-ins, finance models with twenty years of history in them. Our Excel add-in is a chat task pane with AI formulas that you add yourself - it is not in Microsoft's store. If the assistant has to be built into Excel and managed alongside the rest of Office, Copilot is the one that is.
The same licence covers Word, Outlook, PowerPoint and Teams. If the purchase is really about assistance everywhere your company writes, that is a Microsoft decision and we are not competing for it.
Copilot sits inside contracts, controls and a compliance posture your organisation has already signed off. In plenty of large companies that settles the question before features are discussed.
A browser spreadsheet is not the place for a hundred-megabyte model. Desktop Excel is, and Copilot goes where Excel goes.
Choose SheetAI if…
Copilot in Excel is a licence on top of a Microsoft 365 licence, per user. SheetAI is $20 a month for an account, needs no Microsoft or Google subscription underneath it, and includes the spreadsheet.
Twelve functions that behave like formulas - classify a column, extract a field, translate, summarise, score sentiment - written once and filled down a thousand rows. Copilot helps from a pane; it does not give you a function to drag.
Licensing Copilot means licensing people. Here, three analysts can have SheetAI without anyone touching the company's Microsoft agreement.
Twenty templates - budget, invoice, CRM pipeline, timesheet, KPI dashboard, attendance register - arrive with formulas, number formats and conditional rules already set. Open, type over the sample rows, done.
The Excel and Sheets add-ins are included on every plan, on one balance, and .xlsx files come in and out with formulas and formatting intact. Copilot in Excel does not reach Google Sheets at all.
Ten credits on signup, no card, no procurement. Compare that with getting a Copilot trial approved.
Moving across from Copilot in Excel
Nobody moves off Excel in an afternoon, and this is not an argument that you should. The realistic path is to let SheetAI take the work that suits it and leave Excel where it is strong.
- 1Sign in with any email address and use the ten free credits on a real task rather than a demo file.
- 2Import a working .xlsx - formulas and formatting come across - and ask the agent for the thing you would normally have built by hand: a summary block, a variance column, a chart.
- 3For repetitive column work, replace what you were doing manually with a function: AI_CLASSIFY, AI_EXTRACT, AI_TRANSLATE, AI_SUMMARIZE.
- 4Export back to .xlsx when a file needs to go to someone who lives in Excel.
- 5Install the Google Sheets add-on if part of your team works there; the same balance covers it.
Be honest with yourself about the Excel-only pieces: macros, deeply nested legacy models and very large files belong where they are. SheetAI is for the sheets you build, share and rework, not for replacing a twenty-year-old workbook that already works.
Questions people actually ask
Sources
- Microsoft 365 Copilot - plans and pricing · read 5 September 2026
- Microsoft 365 - consumer plans · read 5 September 2026
- SheetAI pricing · read 5 September 2026
Copilot in Excel is a product of its respective owner and is not affiliated with SheetAI. Names and trademarks are used here only to identify the product being compared. If something on this page is out of date or wrong, tell us at contact@sheetai.co and we will correct it.
More comparisons
The same honest format, against the other tools people weigh up.
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Run one real task in both
Ten credits on signup, no card. Use them on your own data - that settles the question faster than any comparison page can.
Works in your browser and Google Sheets · Setup in 30 seconds