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Microsoft Excel

Microsoft’s spreadsheet app, free on the web with a Microsoft account.

See 3 Microsoft Excel guides Visit Microsoft Excel ↗

Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet app: a grid of cells for numbers, text and formulas that calculate on their own. People use it for budgets, lists, invoices and anything that needs adding up, sorting or turning into a chart.

You do not have to pay to use it. Excel for the web runs in a browser at microsoft365.com with a free Microsoft account and covers most everyday work. The full desktop app for Windows and Mac comes with a Microsoft 365 Personal or Family subscription, which also includes 1 TB of OneDrive storage per person.

Excel first appeared on the Apple Macintosh in 1985. Its files have used the .xlsx format since Excel 2007, and Google Sheets, Apple Numbers and LibreOffice can open them too.

01Is Microsoft Excel free?

Excel for the web is free at microsoft365.com with a Microsoft account and handles most everyday spreadsheets. The full desktop app for Windows and Mac comes with a Microsoft 365 Personal or Family subscription, or as a one-time purchase in Office Home. The phone apps are free to use, with some features kept for subscribers.

02How to start using Microsoft Excel

  1. 1

    Go to microsoft365.com and sign in with a Microsoft account, or create one free. An Outlook.com or Hotmail address already is one.

  2. 2

    Select Excel, then Blank workbook, or start from a template such as a budget.

  3. 3

    Type labels in the top row and numbers below them. Each box is a cell, named by its column letter and row number, such as B2.

  4. 4

    Total a column with AutoSum, as in how to add up a column in Excel.

  5. 5

    Workbooks made in Excel for the web save to OneDrive on their own, so they open on any device where you sign in.

03Is Microsoft Excel safe?

Files from other people

A workbook from an email or a download opens in Protected View, read-only, until you select Enable Editing. Do not enable macros in a file you were not expecting: macros are a common way to deliver malware.

Sharing

A sharing link can allow editing. In Share, set the link to view only for anyone who just needs to read the workbook.

Account security

Turn on two-step verification for your Microsoft account at account.microsoft.com, under Security.

What works and what does not

04Microsoft Excel guides and posts