GPTExcel
Guides

Formula Generation

Generate, explain and optimize formulas for Excel, Google Sheets, LibreOffice Calc and Airtable from plain English.

Describe the calculation you need and GPTExcel writes the formula. Paste a formula you don't understand and it explains it step by step. There are two places to do this:

  • The Formulas tool, for a formula on its own. Quickest when you know what you want.
  • Chat, when the formula depends on a file you've uploaded. GPTExcel can see your real column names and sheet names.

The Formulas tool

The GPTExcel Formulas tool generating an XLOOKUP formula from a description of a price lookup

Generate mode: a plain-English description on the left, the formula and how it works on the right.

Pick a mode

  • Generate: describe the result, get the formula.
  • Explain: paste a formula, get a plain-English walkthrough of each part.
  • Optimize: paste a slow or messy formula, get a cleaner, faster version and what changed.

Pick your platform

Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets, LibreOffice Calc or Airtable. Functions and syntax differ between them, so the formula is written for the one you choose.

Describe it, or paste it

Then click the button under the box. Short on ideas? Click one of the examples to fill it in.

The GPTExcel Formulas tool explaining an INDEX and MATCH formula step by step

Explain mode breaks an INDEX/MATCH formula into its parts.

Formula settings

Click the settings icon next to Input to save your defaults to your account:

SettingWhat it changes
PlatformExcel, Google Sheets, LibreOffice Calc or Airtable
Formula languageFunction names in your spreadsheet's language, for example SUMME instead of SUM in German Excel
Argument separatorComma (,) or semicolon (;), matching your regional settings
VersionWhich Excel version to target, so you only get functions you have
Response languageThe language of the explanation

Example prompts

Lookups

Find the price in Sheet2 column C for the product ID in A2
Excel formula
=XLOOKUP(A2, Sheet2!A:A, Sheet2!C:C, "Not found")

Conditional totals

Average of column D for rows where B is "West" and C is above 100
Excel formula
=AVERAGEIFS(D:D, B:B, "West", C:C, ">100")

Text

Extract the domain from the email address in A2
Excel formula
=MID(A2, FIND("@", A2) + 1, LEN(A2))

Dates

Flag rows where the due date in C2 is more than 30 days ago and status in D2 isn't "Paid"
Excel formula
=IF(AND(TODAY() - C2 > 30, D2 <> "Paid"), "Overdue", "")

Formulas in Chat

In Chat, GPTExcel can write formulas into a workbook for you, not just show them. After it creates or edits formulas, the Formula validator recalculates the workbook and checks every formula for errors such as #REF! or #DIV/0! before you download it.

Tip

Name the cells, columns and sheets involved when you know them ("price in Products!C:C"). A formula built on your real layout needs no adjusting.

More generators

The same generate, explain and optimize modes are available for scripts (VBA, Google Apps Script, LibreOffice Basic, Airtable scripts and Python), SQL and regex.