The Claude Excel plugin is an official Office add-in from Anthropic, listed on Microsoft AppSource as Claude for Microsoft 365. To install it, open that listing, select Get it now, then open Excel, activate the add-in and sign in with your Claude account. It works in Excel on Windows, Excel on Mac and Excel for the web, and it needs a paid Claude plan (Pro, Max, Team or Enterprise). There's no separate download, and the add-in itself costs nothing extra.
This guide has the exact steps for each version of Excel, how admins roll it out to a whole company, what a working install looks like, and fixes for the problems people hit most. If you want to know what Claude can actually do once it's in your spreadsheet, that's in our Claude for Excel guide.
TL;DR
- What it is: the Claude for Excel add-in, now officially named "Claude for Microsoft 365." One install covers Excel, PowerPoint and Word.
- Where to get it: the Claude for Microsoft 365 listing on Microsoft Marketplace (opens in a new tab) (listing ID WA200010725). Select Get it now.
- Then: open Excel, find it under Home > Add-ins (Windows) or Tools > Add-ins (Mac), and sign in with your Claude account.
- You need: a Pro, Max, Team or Enterprise plan. The Free plan doesn't include it. Excel 2016, Excel 2019 and Excel on iPad aren't supported.
- Admins: deploy it from the Microsoft 365 Admin Center under Settings > Integrated apps.
Plugin, extension, download: it's all the same add-in
People search for this a lot of different ways: "Claude Excel plugin," "Claude extension for Excel," "Claude for Excel download," "Claude Excel add-in download." They all point to the same thing. Claude for Excel is an Office add-in. It isn't a browser extension, and there's no installer file to download. You add it to Excel from Microsoft's add-in store, and it opens as a sidebar inside your workbook.
The same add-in also works in PowerPoint and Word, which is why Anthropic renamed it from "Claude for Excel" to "Claude for Microsoft 365." Install it once and it's available in all three. (Claude for Outlook is a separate listing, currently in beta.)
Also don't confuse it with "Claude in Excel" through Microsoft Copilot. That's Microsoft's product with Anthropic models inside, licensed through Microsoft. This guide covers Anthropic's own add-in. We compare the two in the Claude for Excel guide.
Before you start
Check these three things first. Most failed installs come down to one of them.
| Requirement | Details |
|---|---|
| Claude plan | Pro, Max, Team or Enterprise. The Free plan isn't included. The add-in is free to install; usage counts against your normal Claude plan limits. Cheapest path: Claude Pro at $20/month ($17/month billed annually). |
| Excel on Windows | Microsoft 365 subscription, build 16.0.13127.20296 or later |
| Excel on Mac | Version 16.46 or later (build 21011600 or later) |
| Excel for the web | Supported |
| Not supported | Excel 2016 and Excel 2019 (one-time purchase or volume license), Excel on iPad, Excel on Android |
| Account | A Claude account on one of the plans above. You'll also need to be signed in to Microsoft to add the add-in. |
How to check your Excel version: on Windows, go to File > Account and look under About Excel. On a Mac, open the Excel menu and choose About Excel. If you see "2016" or "2019" as a one-time purchase, the add-in won't run; you'll need Microsoft 365 or Excel for the web.
Install Claude for Excel on Windows
- Open the Claude for Microsoft 365 listing (opens in a new tab) in your browser. Make sure the listing says Claude for Microsoft 365 and the URL ends in WA200010725. That's the official Anthropic listing.
- Select Get it now. Sign in with the Microsoft account you use for Excel if Microsoft asks.
- Open Excel and open any workbook (a blank one is fine).
- Go to Home > Add-ins on the ribbon and select Claude to open the sidebar.
- Sign in with your Claude account when the sidebar asks.
If you don't see Claude under Home > Add-ins right away, close Excel completely and reopen it. See the troubleshooting table if it's still missing.
Install Claude for Excel on Mac
The steps on a Mac are the same, with one difference: the add-ins menu lives under Tools in the Mac menu bar, not on the Home tab.
- Check your version first: Excel > About Excel should show 16.46 or later. If not, update Excel.
- Open the Claude for Microsoft 365 listing (opens in a new tab) and select Get it now.
- Open Excel and open a workbook.
- Go to Tools > Add-ins and select Claude to open the sidebar.
- Sign in with your Claude account.
Claude for Excel on Mac has the same features as the Windows version. Anthropic's general-availability announcement says all Mac and Windows users on paid plans can access it.
Install Claude for Excel on the web
Excel for the web is a supported host, so this route works on any computer with a browser, including Chromebooks and machines where you can't install software.
- Open the Claude for Microsoft 365 listing (opens in a new tab) and select Get it now, signed in with the same Microsoft account you use for Excel online.
- Open a workbook in Excel for the web.
- Open the Add-ins button on the ribbon and select Claude. If you don't see it, search the add-in store from that same button for "Claude for Microsoft 365" and add it there.
- Sign in with your Claude account in the sidebar.
One thing to know about the web version: each step Claude takes has a shorter time limit (2 minutes on the web versus 5 minutes on desktop), so very large jobs are better split into smaller requests.
Admin deployment for Team and Enterprise
If you manage Microsoft 365 for your company, you can push the add-in to everyone instead of having each person install it. From Anthropic's docs:
- In the Microsoft 365 Admin Center, go to Settings > Org Settings > User owned apps and services and turn on Let users access the Office Store.
- Go to Settings > Integrated apps > Add-ins.
- Search AppSource for Claude for Microsoft 365.
- Assign it to the whole organization or to specific users or groups.
A few things that trip admins up:
- Office Store access turned off by policy? Deploy with Anthropic's custom manifest file instead:
pivot.claude.ai/manifest-excel.xml. - Using Entra PIM to activate your admin role? The Integrated apps page doesn't recognize PIM-activated roles (Microsoft is tracking this as ID 11126536). Use an admin account with the role permanently active. Individual users can still install it themselves in the meantime.
- Running Claude through Amazon Bedrock, Google Vertex AI, Azure AI Foundry or an LLM gateway? You can deploy without giving everyone a Claude account, but connectors and skills may not be available in that mode. Anthropic's connectors and skills docs (opens in a new tab) cover the setup.
Each person still needs a seat on your Claude Team or Enterprise plan unless you're using one of those cloud-provider setups.
First run: what a working install looks like
When the install worked, you'll see a Claude sidebar open on the right side of your workbook, asking you to sign in. After you sign in with your Claude account, you get a chat box at the bottom of the sidebar. That's it. There's nothing else to configure.
Start with something low-stakes on a workbook you already understand, so you can check the answer:
A good first prompt does three things: asks about the workbook as a whole, asks Claude to point to specific cells, and asks it to look for errors before changing anything. Claude cites the cells it used, so you can click through and confirm it's reading the right numbers.
Two settings worth knowing on day one:
- Instructions: open Settings in the Claude sidebar and use the Instructions field for standing preferences ("always use our fiscal year starting in July," "format currency with no decimals"). These apply in Excel only; PowerPoint and Word have their own.
- Overwrite protection: Claude warns you before it overwrites existing data and asks you to confirm risky operations. Read those prompts instead of clicking through them.
For ideas on what to ask next, see what Claude can do in Excel and Claude for finance for modeling workflows. If you just need a single formula without the add-in, our free Excel formula generator writes one from a plain-English description.
Troubleshooting Claude for Excel
Match what you see to the fix. Most problems are a plan, a version or a sign-in issue.
| What you see | What's going on | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Claude isn't under Home > Add-ins (Windows) or Tools > Add-ins (Mac) | Excel hasn't picked up the new add-in, or it went to a different Microsoft account | Quit Excel fully and reopen it. Make sure you selected Get it now while signed in to the same Microsoft account Excel uses. On a work account, your admin may have blocked the Office Store; ask them to deploy it for you. |
| The sidebar opens but won't sign in | Wrong Claude account, or an account without a paid plan | Sign in with the Claude account that has your Pro, Max, Team or Enterprise plan. On Team or Enterprise, confirm your admin has given you a seat. |
| Signed in but told your plan doesn't include it | You're on the Free plan | Claude for Microsoft 365 is Pro and up only. Upgrade to Pro or ask your company for a Team seat. |
| Add-in won't load in Excel 2016 or 2019 | Those one-time-purchase versions aren't supported | Use Excel with a Microsoft 365 subscription (Windows build 16.0.13127.20296 or later), Excel for Mac 16.46 or later, or Excel for the web. |
| Can't find it on iPad or Android | Excel on iPad and Android aren't supported | Use Excel for the web, Windows or Mac. Some older articles say iPad works; Anthropic's current docs say it doesn't. |
| Excel hangs while Claude is working | A large step is still running | Wait, and don't click repeatedly. If it times out, save and ask Claude for a smaller step. Unsaved work can come back through Excel's Document Recovery pane. |
| Slow or partial results on a huge workbook | Claude reads big sheets in chunks (up to 2,000 cells with data per read) | Name the sheet or range you mean, split the job into steps, and for big formula edits set calculation to Manual, then press F9. Workbooks under about 1 million used cells work best. |
| Need to send IT the details | In the Claude pane, open More options > Download Transcript and send that file. |
Anthropic keeps its own troubleshooting and performance notes at claude.com/docs/office-agents/performance (opens in a new tab).
How to remove the Claude add-in
Claude for Excel is a standard Office add-in, so you remove it the way you remove any add-in: open the add-ins menu (Home > Add-ins on Windows, Tools > Add-ins on Mac, or the Add-ins button in Excel for the web), find Claude in your list of installed add-ins, and remove it from there. If your company deployed it centrally, it'll come back until your admin unassigns it in Settings > Integrated apps.
Removing the add-in doesn't cancel your Claude subscription. Manage that in your Claude account settings. And because the same add-in covers PowerPoint and Word, removing it may remove it there too.
Your chat history in the add-in is stored locally in your browser storage on that device, not synced, so it won't follow you to another computer anyway. Anthropic deletes add-in inputs and outputs on its side within 30 days, with some exceptions.
What to check before you rely on it
Claude for Excel is good at reading, explaining and building spreadsheets, but treat its work like a sharp new analyst's: check it.
- It doesn't handle macros, VBA or What-If data tables. Those are listed as unsupported.
- Verify before it goes to a client or an auditor. Anthropic itself says not to use it for final client deliverables or audit-critical calculations without review.
- Only open trusted files. A spreadsheet from an unknown source can contain hidden instructions aimed at the AI. Anthropic's docs say to only use it with trusted spreadsheets.
- Click the citations. Every answer points to cells. If Claude says revenue grew 12%, click through and confirm it read the right row.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a Claude Excel plugin?
Yes. The official Claude Excel plugin is an Office add-in from Anthropic called Claude for Microsoft 365, listed on Microsoft AppSource under ID WA200010725. "Plugin," "extension" and "add-in" all refer to the same thing. One install covers Excel, PowerPoint and Word.
How do I get Claude for Excel?
Open the Claude for Microsoft 365 listing on Microsoft Marketplace and select Get it now. Then open Excel, go to Home > Add-ins on Windows or Tools > Add-ins on Mac, select Claude and sign in with your Claude account. You need a Pro, Max, Team or Enterprise plan.
Is there a Claude for Excel download?
No. There's no installer file to download. Claude for Excel is an Office add-in you add from Microsoft's add-in store, and it runs as a sidebar inside Excel. Ignore third-party sites offering a "Claude Excel download."
Does Claude for Excel work on Mac?
Yes. It works in Excel for Mac version 16.46 or later. Install it from the Claude for Microsoft 365 listing, then find it in Excel under Tools > Add-ins and sign in with your Claude account.
Is Claude for Excel free?
The add-in is free to install, but it only works with a paid Claude plan: Pro, Max, Team or Enterprise. The Free plan doesn't include it. Usage counts against your normal Claude plan limits; there's no separate charge. Claude Pro is $20 a month, or $17 a month billed annually.
Does Claude for Excel work in Excel 2016 or on iPad?
No. Excel 2016 and Excel 2019 one-time-purchase versions aren't supported, and neither is Excel on iPad or Android. Use Excel with a Microsoft 365 subscription on Windows, Excel for Mac 16.46 or later, or Excel for the web.
Get more out of Claude
Once the add-in is running, the next step is knowing what to ask it. Our Claude for Excel guide covers what it does well and where it falls short, and Claude for finance goes deeper on modeling. If you also want Claude working across the files on your computer, not just inside Excel, the free Claude Cowork course walks through it step by step for non-developers. And if you were looking for the Claude desktop app or Claude Code instead, see how to download Claude.