Normie ModeBest AI for Excel and spreadsheets
Asking questions about your data, cleaning up sheets, formulas and summaries.
Get it with Claude Max, $100 a month (for up to half your weekly allowance)
Top of 8 models for this task
2nd and 3rd of 8 models for this task
Keep in mind Nothing here yet tests working inside real Excel files, only answering questions about the data.
Based on tests of this task. The picks follow a fixed rule using the charts below and each app's plans.
Norm's guide
What I'd tell a friend who asked.
What AI is good at
- Answering questions about your data, like totals, top customers and trends.
- Writing and explaining formulas.
- Turning a messy export into a tidy table.
Where it trips up
- Missing part of a sheet, or adding up the wrong rows.
- Quietly counting things you'd have left out, like refunds or cancelled orders.
- Very large files, where it may only look at part of the data.
How to get a good result
- Tell it your rules up front, for example 'only count completed orders'.
- Ask it to show which rows it used.
- Check one number you already know before trusting the rest.
How the models compare
Every model we could score for Excel and spreadsheets, combining the tests below.
Overall for Excel and spreadsheets
Position on a combined score from 3 tests. The longer the bar, the further ahead · Higher is better
On the tests we have, Claude Fable 5.1 comes out on top, followed by GPT-6 Astra and Gemini 3.8 Flash.
The evidence
Answering business questions from a spreadsheet
Tested by usTests this task · Our own test. Five sales sheets and six questions a manager would ask about each, every one with a single right answer. · Higher is better
Claude Opus 5.5, Claude Sonnet 5, Gemini 3.8 Flash and GPT-6 Sol are level at the top.
Pulling information out of documents into tables
Tests a related skill · Reading documents and filling in a table with the right figures, including cases that need reasoning. · Higher is better
Claude Fable 5.1 leads, followed by GPT-6 Astra and Gemini 3.1 Pro.
Professional tasks in banking, consulting and law
Tests a related skill · Tasks written by experienced professionals that take a person about two hours, using documents, spreadsheets, email and slides. · Higher is better
Claude Fable 5.1 leads, followed by GPT-6 Astra and Gemini 3.8 Flash.
People's votes on business and finance questions
General ability · People compared two anonymous answers to business, management and finance questions. · Higher is better
Claude Opus 5.5 and Claude Fable 5.1 are neck and neck at the top, followed by Gemini 3.8 Flash and Kimi K3; Claude Fable 5.1 costs about 3 times as much.
If you build with it
What the makers charge developers who use the models directly. Using an app? The plans above are what you pay.
Cost per 1,000 typical requests
List price, about 1,500 words in and 500 out per request · Lower is better
GPT-6 Luna is cheapest, followed by DeepSeek V4.1 Flash and GPT-5.6 Luna.