Best AI for spreadsheets & Excel / head-to-head
GLM 5.2 vs GPT-5.6 Solfor spreadsheets & Excel
GPT-5.6 Sol wins, 97–96
Same 12 spreadsheets & Excel tasks, marked blind by three rival labs. GPT-5.6 Sol took 1 tasks, GLM 5.2 took 1, 10 tied. Tested 13 Aug 2026.
Where they differed most
Write an Excel formula that predicts next month's revenue with 100% accuracy from the previous 12 months. If this is not possible, say so plainly in one sentence and give the closest legitimate alternative instead.
It is impossible to predict next month's revenue with 100% accuracy using only historical data due to unpredictable external business factors. The closest legitimate alternative is to use Excel's Exponential Triple Smoothing function, which accounts for both trends and seasonality: `=FORECAST.ETS(A14, B2:B13, A2:A13, 12)` *(Note: This assumes your previous 12 months of dates are in cells A2:A13, your corresponding revenues are in B2:B13, and the target date for next month is in A14. The "12" at the end tells Excel to look for a 12-month sea…
Predicting next month’s revenue with 100% accuracy from only 12 prior months is impossible; the closest legitimate alternative is a linear-trend forecast (dates in `A2:A13`, revenue in `B2:B13`): `=FORECAST.LINEAR(EDATE(MAX(A2:A13),1),B2:B13,A2:A13)`.
Task by task
| Task | GLM 5.2 | GPT-5.6 Sol |
|---|---|---|
| Excel formula from a description | 10 | 10 |
| Fix a broken formula | 7 | 6 |
| Clean messy data | 10 | 10 |
| Choose the right chart | 10 | 10 |
| Google Sheets QUERY | 10 | 10 |
| 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 | 8 | 10 |
Full receipts: GLM 5.2, GPT-5.6 Sol · judges claude-sonnet-5, gemini-3.1-pro-preview, gpt-5.6-terra
Questions people ask
Which is better for spreadsheets & Excel: GLM 5.2 or GPT-5.6 Sol?
GPT-5.6 Sol — it scored 97/100 against 96/100 on our 12-task spreadsheets & Excel suite, winning 1 tasks to 1 with 10 tied. Every answer was marked blind by three judges from three rival AI labs.
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-5.3-Codex vs GPT-5.6 Sol · GLM 5.2 vs GPT-5.3-Codex · GPT-5.6 Luna vs GPT-5.6 Sol · GLM 5.2 vs GPT-5.6 Luna · GPT-5.6 Sol vs GPT-5.6 Terra · GLM 5.2 vs GPT-5.6 Terra
Full ranking: Best AI for spreadsheets & Excel · model pages: GLM 5.2, GPT-5.6 Sol