DeepSeek V4 Flash vs Grok 4.5 for spreadsheets & Excel
Effectively a dead heat: 94–93
Same 12 spreadsheets & Excel tasks, marked blind by three rival labs. Grok 4.5 took 3 tasks, DeepSeek V4 Flash took 1, 8 tied. Tested 13 Aug 2026.
Where they differed most
In Google Sheets, tab 'Sales' has headers in row 1: Date, Rep, Region, Amount. Write one QUERY() formula returning total Amount per Rep for the North region only, sorted highest first. Return only the formula.
=QUERY('Sales'!A:D, "select B, sum(D) where C = 'North' group by B order by sum(D) desc", 1)``` =QUERY(Sales!A:D,"select B,sum(D) where C='North' group by B order by sum(D) desc",1) ```
Task by task
| Task | DeepSeek V4 Flash | Grok 4.5 |
|---|---|---|
| Excel formula from a description | 9 | 9 |
| Fix a broken formula | 7 | 9 |
| Clean messy data | 10 | 10 |
| Choose the right chart | 8 | 10 |
| Google Sheets QUERY | 10 | 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 | 10 | 10 |
| Explain a formula back | 10 | 10 |
| Refuse the impossible | 7 | 10 |
Full receipts: DeepSeek V4 Flash, Grok 4.5 · judges claude-sonnet-5, gemini-3.1-pro-preview, gpt-5.6-terra
Questions people ask
Which is better for spreadsheets & Excel: DeepSeek V4 Flash or Grok 4.5?
Effectively a dead heat: Grok 4.5 edged it 94/100 to 93/100 on our spreadsheets & Excel suite — too close to matter, so 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: GPT-5.6 Luna vs Grok 4.5 · DeepSeek V4 Flash vs GPT-5.6 Luna · GPT-5.6 Terra vs Grok 4.5 · DeepSeek V4 Flash vs GPT-5.6 Terra · GPT-5.3-Codex vs Grok 4.5 · DeepSeek V4 Flash vs GPT-5.3-Codex
Full ranking: Best AI for spreadsheets & Excel · model pages: DeepSeek V4 Flash, Grok 4.5