How to Use Claude in Excel for Data Analysis

Anthropic just opened Claude in Excel to all Pro users. If you have a Claude subscription, you can now analyse complex spreadsheets, fix formula errors, and build financial models without leaving Excel. Here's how to get started.

Open Excel and navigate to the Home tab. Click "Get Add-ins" and search for "Claude" in the Office Add-ins store.

Click "Add" to install Claude in Excel. The add-in works across all your Excel files once installed, so you only need to do this once.

After installation, you'll see a Claude icon in your Excel ribbon. Click it to open the Claude sidebar on the right side of your workbook.

Alternatively you can find it in the Microsoft Marketplace here and click “Get it now”.

Proceed to login to your Claude subscription and authorise access.

SWith any Excel workbook open, press Ctrl+Option+C (Mac) or Ctrl+Alt+C (Windows) to quickly open the Claude sidebar.

Alternatively, click the Claude icon in the Excel ribbon.

The sidebar appears on the right side of your screen, showing a chat interface where you can ask Claude questions about your spreadsheet.

Claude can read your entire workbook, including multiple tabs, formulas, and data relationships. Start by asking broad questions about your spreadsheet.

Example tasks:

Claude responds with cell-level citations, showing exactly which cells it's referencing. When it mentions a calculation, it links directly to the source cells.

If your spreadsheet has #REF!, #VALUE!, or other errors, Claude can identify the source and suggest fixes.

Example follow-up requests:

Claude explains what caused the error, shows you the problematic formula, and offers to update it whilst preserving any dependent calculations.

Claude can create new calculations, pivot tables, charts, and financial models based on your data.

Below is an example of charts that were automatically created and inserted by Claude.

Example prompts for building:

Claude writes the formulas, creates the tables or charts, and places them in your workbook. You can then modify or move them as needed.

One of Claude's most powerful features is scenario testing across multi-tab workbooks.

Claude reads your model's structure, identifies the relevant assumptions, runs the calculations, and shows you the results with visual formatting.

Point Claude at your annual budget and ask it to identify variances between actual and planned spending. It reads across all department tabs, calculates differences, and highlights areas needing attention.

Try this:

Feed Claude a spreadsheet of campaign metrics across platforms. It aggregates the data, calculates ROI, and identifies your best-performing channels.

Try this:

Give Claude historical sales data and ask it to project future performance. It identifies trends, accounts for seasonality, and builds forecast models with confidence intervals.

Try this:

Point Claude at messy data with inconsistent formatting, missing values, or duplicate entries. It identifies issues and suggests fixes whilst preserving valid data.

Try this:

Open Claude sidebar:

Start with a spreadsheet you already know well. Ask Claude to explain it back to you, then check its understanding against your knowledge. Once you're confident Claude reads your data correctly, try asking it to fix errors or build new calculations.

The power isn't in replacing Excel skills, it's in compressing the tedious parts. Formula debugging that takes 20 minutes becomes instant. Building a financial model from scratch drops from hours to minutes. Data validation across dozens of sheets happens in seconds.

Start with these tasks:

The more specific your prompts, the better Claude's results. Treat it like working with a skilled analyst who can see your entire workbook but needs clear direction on what to focus on.