# Microsoft Excel

> Spreadsheet app sold with Microsoft 365, free in the browser

Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet application for organizing, calculating and charting data. A free version runs in the browser, while the Windows and Mac desktop apps come with a Microsoft 365 subscription or the one-time Office Home 2024 purchase. Paid subscriptions add Copilot, which edits formulas, tables and formatting on request.

- **Category:** Spreadsheets & Databases
- **Made by:** Microsoft
- **Website:** https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/excel
- **Runs on:** Web, Windows, macOS, iOS, Android
- **Facts last checked:** Oct 5, 2026

## Pricing

Microsoft Excel has a free plan. Paid plans start at $9.99 / month, or $99.99 / year (Microsoft 365 Personal).

- **Pricing model:** Free plan
- **Free plan:** Excel for the web is free for 1 person, with sharing, real-time collaboration and 5 GB of cloud storage. Microsoft lists the free plan as working on web, iOS and Android.
- **Free trial:** 1-month free trial of the Microsoft 365 home and business plans; business trials need a credit card.

| Plan | Price | What you get |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Free | $0 | Excel for the web for 1 person, with sharing and real-time collaboration and 5 GB of cloud storage. Works on web, iOS and Android. |
| Microsoft 365 Personal | $9.99 per month, or $99.99 per year | 1 person signed in on up to 5 devices, 1 TB of cloud storage, and the Excel, Word, PowerPoint and Outlook desktop apps with Copilot. |
| Microsoft 365 Apps for business | $10.00 per user / month, paid yearly | Desktop versions of Excel, Word, PowerPoint and Outlook for up to 300 employees, with 1 TB of cloud storage per user. |
| Microsoft 365 Family | $12.99 per month, or $129.99 per year | Everything in Personal for 1 to 6 people, with 1 TB of storage per person. AI features are for the subscription owner only. |
| Microsoft 365 Premium | $19.99 per month, or $199.99 per year | Everything in Family, plus extensive Copilot usage and agentic AI features such as advanced research and analytics. |
| Office Home 2024 | $179.99 one-time purchase for 1 PC or Mac | Classic 2024 desktop versions of Excel, Word, PowerPoint and OneNote, with no upgrade path to the next major release. |

Read from https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/excel on Oct 5, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with Microsoft Excel before buying.

## Ways to pay less

- **Save up to 17% by paying yearly** (Annual discount): Microsoft 365 Personal is $99.99 a year against $9.99 a month, Family $129.99 against $12.99 and Premium $199.99 against $19.99. Source: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/buy/compare-all-microsoft-365-products
- **Students save 50% on Microsoft 365 Personal** (Education): Verified college and university students get Microsoft 365 Personal at half price. Student status has to be re-verified each year to keep the discount. Source: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/college-student-pricing
- **Office 365 A1 free for eligible schools** (Education): Educators and students with an eligible education email address get Office 365 A1 at no cost, which includes the web versions of Excel and the other core apps. Source: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/education/products/office
- **Nonprofit staff pricing on Microsoft 365 E3** (Nonprofit): Eligible nonprofits can buy Microsoft 365 E3, with desktop, web and mobile versions of Excel, for $9.75 per user / month paid yearly. Source: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/enterprise/nonprofit-plans-and-pricing
- **Office Home 2024 one-time purchase** (Lifetime license): $179.99 buys the classic 2024 desktop versions of Excel, Word, PowerPoint and OneNote for 1 PC or Mac, with no subscription. Source: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/p/office-home-2024/cfq7ttc0pqvj

## Key features

- **Copilot in Excel:** Edits formulas, tables and formatting from a written request and suggests formulas for the data. It needs a Microsoft 365 subscription and a workbook saved to OneDrive with AutoSave on.
- **PivotTables and charts:** PivotTables calculate, summarize and analyze data to show comparisons, patterns and trends, and work with PivotCharts, slicers and timeline controls.
- **Power Query:** Imports or connects to external data from files, databases, the web and Azure, then reshapes it before loading. It is available in Excel for Windows, Mac and the web; support on Mac and the web is newer than on Windows.
- **Python in Excel:** Python formulas run in the grid using Anaconda libraries such as pandas and Matplotlib. It comes with eligible Microsoft 365 plans; a $24 per user / month add-on gives faster premium compute.
- **Co-authoring:** Several people can work in one workbook stored in OneDrive or SharePoint Online and see each other's changes within seconds. In the Windows and Mac apps this requires a Microsoft 365 subscription.
- **Templates:** Microsoft offers free Excel templates in more than 40 categories as ready-made starting points for common spreadsheets.

## Good for

- People who need a full desktop spreadsheet on Windows or Mac
- Analysts working with PivotTables, Power Query and Python
- Households: Microsoft 365 Family covers 1 to 6 people
- Occasional users who only need the free browser version

## Worth knowing

- The Windows and Mac apps need a Microsoft 365 subscription or a one-time Office purchase; only the web and mobile versions are free.
- Excel for the web and the mobile apps have many, but not all, desktop features; macro-enabled workbooks open in a browser but the macros do not run.
- Copilot needs a paid subscription, has usage limits, and on shared plans works for the subscription owner only.
- Microsoft 365 Business Basic ($7.00 per user / month paid yearly, or $5.40 without Teams) includes only the web and mobile versions of Excel.

## What people say

- **App Store rating of the iPhone and iPad app:** 4.7 out of 5 from 1,468,663 ratings in the United States, read Oct 7, 2026. This is the store's rating of the app, not a score from ToolGPA. Source: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/id586683407

Often praised:

- Commenters describe it as deeply rooted in business work and hard to replace, and two repeat the saying that everyone uses a small share of its features but never the same one. (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49458088, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47445802, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47649230)

Often criticised:

- Reviewers of the iPad and iPhone app report losing work when it opened an older copy of a file and then saved over the newer one. (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/id586683407)
- Reviewers say the iPad and iPhone versions lack features of the desktop one, with data validation and the statistics add-in among those they miss. (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/id586683407)
- Commenters and a reviewer complain about how it handles dates, such as turning imported values into dates or changing dates that had already been typed. (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48588267, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47394599, https://apps.apple.com/us/app/id586683407)

Based on 10 App Store reviews of the iPad and iPhone app, four of them more than three years old, and about 15 Hacker News comments from March to September 2026. These are themes summarised from public reviews and discussions, not ToolGPA's own verdict.

## Works with

OneDrive, SharePoint, Power BI, Microsoft Copilot, SQL Server, Anaconda

**Tags:** Spreadsheets, AI features, Real-time collaboration, Templates, Works offline

## Alternatives

- [Google Sheets](https://toolgpa.com/tools/google-sheets): Browser-based spreadsheet, free with a Google Account. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/google-sheets-vs-microsoft-excel)
- [LibreOffice Calc](https://toolgpa.com/tools/libreoffice-calc): Free, open-source spreadsheet for Windows, macOS and Linux. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/libreoffice-calc-vs-microsoft-excel)
- [Numbers](https://toolgpa.com/tools/apple-numbers): Apple's free spreadsheet app for Mac, iPad and iPhone. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/apple-numbers-vs-microsoft-excel)
- [Zoho Sheet](https://toolgpa.com/tools/zoho-sheet): Collaborative online spreadsheet with a free version. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/microsoft-excel-vs-zoho-sheet)
- [WPS Spreadsheet](https://toolgpa.com/tools/wps-spreadsheet): Excel-compatible spreadsheet app in the WPS Office suite. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/microsoft-excel-vs-wps-spreadsheet)

## Sources

The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Oct 5, 2026:

- https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/excel
- https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/buy/compare-all-microsoft-365-products
- https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/free-office-online-for-the-web
- https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/python-in-excel
- https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/p/office-home-2024/cfq7ttc0pqvj
- https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/college-student-pricing
- https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/education/products/office
- https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/enterprise/nonprofit-plans-and-pricing
- https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/excel/compare-the-different-versions-of-excel
- https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/excel/differences-between-using-a-workbook-in-the-browser-and-in-excel
- https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/excel/about-power-query-in-excel
- https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/excel/get-started/create-a-pivottable-to-analyze-worksheet-data
- https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/excel/get-started/collaborate-on-excel-workbooks-at-the-same-time-with-co-authoring

Page: https://toolgpa.com/tools/microsoft-excel
Listed by ToolGPA (toolgpa.com).