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5h ago

Microsoft Adds Native =COPILOT Function to Excel

In beta, paid users can run natural‑language prompts as formulas that recalculate with sheet edits.

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Excel spreadsheet with checkboxes
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Overview

  • The function is rolling out to Microsoft 365 Insider Beta Channel users on Windows Version 2509+ and Mac 16.101+, with Excel for the web to follow via the Frontier program.
  • Access requires a Microsoft 365 Copilot license, which outlets report costs $30 per user per month.
  • As a standard formula, =COPILOT takes prompts and optional cell ranges to generate summaries, classifications, and multi‑cell lists that update automatically and can be combined with IF, SWITCH, LAMBDA, or WRAPROWS.
  • Current limits cap usage at 100 calls per 10 minutes (300 per hour), and the feature cannot yet reach live web sources or enterprise document stores.
  • Microsoft notes known issues including omitted rows in large array outputs and dates returned as text, advises reviewing results for critical use, says inputs are not used to train models, and reporting indicates it is powered by OpenAI’s gpt‑4.1‑mini.