Best AI for spreadsheets & Excel / head-to-head
Claude Opus 4.8 vs Grok 4.5for spreadsheets & Excel
Dead heat: 94 each
Same 12 spreadsheets & Excel tasks, marked blind by three rival labs. Tested 13 Aug 2026.
Where they differed most
In Excel, column A holds order dates and column B holds order values. Write a single formula for cell D1 that totals only the orders placed in the last full calendar month, relative to today's date. Give the formula and one sentence explaining it. Do not use a pivot table or a helper column.
**Formula:** ```excel =SUMIFS(B:B, A:A, ">="&EOMONTH(TODAY(),-2)+1, A:A, "<="&EOMONTH(TODAY(),-1)) ``` **Explanation:** This sums column B where the dates in column A fall between the first day of last month (`EOMONTH(TODAY(),-2)+1`) and the last day of last month (`EOMONTH(TODAY(),-1)`), inclusive.
**Formula:** `=SUMIFS(B:B,A:A,">="&EOMONTH(TODAY(),-2)+1,A:A,"<="&EOMONTH(TODAY(),-1))` This sums order values in column B only for dates in column A that fall on or after the first day of the prior calendar month and on or before the last day of that same month (relative to today).
Task by task
| Task | Claude Opus 4.8 | Grok 4.5 |
|---|---|---|
| Excel formula from a description | 10 | 9 |
| Fix a broken formula | 9 | 9 |
| Clean messy data | 10 | 10 |
| Choose the right chart | 10 | 10 |
| Google Sheets QUERY | 5 | 5 |
| Spot the error in the numbers | 10 | 10 |
| Pivot logic in words | 10 | 10 |
| Percentage change trap | 10 | 10 |
| Conditional formatting rule | 10 | 10 |
| Reconcile two lists | 9 | 10 |
| Explain a formula back | 10 | 10 |
| Refuse the impossible | 10 | 10 |
Full receipts: Claude Opus 4.8, Grok 4.5 · judges gemini-3.1-pro-preview, gpt-5.6-terra, grok-4.5
Questions people ask
Which is better for spreadsheets & Excel: Claude Opus 4.8 or Grok 4.5?
They tied at 94/100 on our spreadsheets & Excel suite — for this job, pick on price or the product you already use.
How was this tested?
Both models answered the identical published spreadsheets & Excel tasks. Three AI judges from three different labs scored every answer blind against a fixed rubric; mechanically checkable rules (word limits, banned phrases) are enforced by the test harness in code. The raw outputs and judge verdicts are downloadable.
More spreadsheets & Excel head-to-heads: Claude Opus 4.8 vs GPT-5.3-Codex · GPT-5.3-Codex vs Grok 4.5 · Claude Opus 4.8 vs GPT-5.6 Luna · GPT-5.6 Luna vs Grok 4.5 · Claude Opus 4.8 vs GPT-5.6 Terra · GPT-5.6 Terra vs Grok 4.5
Full ranking: Best AI for spreadsheets & Excel · model pages: Claude Opus 4.8, Grok 4.5