Copilot in Excel and Word: Copilot Excel Prompts (and Word Prompts) That Work

TL;DR: Copilot excel prompts work best when they name the exact columns, say what output you want (a new column, a chart, a PivotTable), and state the edge cases. Word prompts work best when they name the audience, length and source file. Checked 17 September 2026: Excel's in-cell COPILOT function is gone, so every prompt below runs in the Copilot pane.

Which Copilot does this guide cover?

This guide covers Copilot inside the Excel and Word apps, the pane you open from the Copilot icon in a workbook or document. Microsoft uses the Copilot name on several products, and they behave differently, so it is worth being precise before you copy a prompt.

Three things are out of scope. The standalone Copilot app and Copilot Chat are separate experiences; Microsoft's Excel FAQ says Copilot Chat is where you reach agents such as Analyst or Researcher. GitHub Copilot is a coding assistant with its own instructions system, which we cover in GitHub Copilot custom instructions. And Excel's in-cell =COPILOT() function no longer exists, which we come to next.

Access depends on your licence. Microsoft's Copilot in Excel FAQ, checked 17 September 2026, lists four ways in:

• Microsoft 365 Personal or Family with an AI credits plan
• Microsoft 365 Premium
• A commercial Microsoft Copilot subscription
• A Copilot Chat-eligible Microsoft 365 or Office 365 business or enterprise subscription

On Family and Premium plans, Microsoft's subscription FAQ says the AI features in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Designer are only available to the subscription owner and cannot be shared. Business users also see an in-product label: "M365 Copilot (Premium)" means the add-on licence with priority access, "M365 Copilot (Basic)" means standard access without it. If the Copilot button is missing entirely, your licence or your admin's settings are the first thing to check.

What happened to the COPILOT function in Excel?

It was removed. Microsoft's function reference page says it plainly: "Starting September 14, 2026, the COPILOT function is no longer available in Microsoft Excel." The function had only ever been a preview, available through the Frontier program and the Microsoft 365 Insider program, so most users never had it.

If you built a workbook around it, two things happen. Results already calculated stay in the cells as cached values. But the moment one of those cells recalculates, it returns a #NAME? error, because Excel no longer recognizes the function. A workbook that looked fine on Monday can fill with errors after someone edits a source cell.

Microsoft's migration advice is to describe the same job in the Copilot pane. Its own before-and-after examples translate =COPILOT("Classify sentiment", B2:B100) into a plain request to classify each entry in B2:B100 and add the result in a new column. The difference matters: the function returned a live, recalculating value, while the pane writes a result into the sheet once. If your data changes daily, you will need to re-run the prompt or build a real formula instead.

Many "Copilot Excel prompts" lists published before September 2026 still lead with =COPILOT() examples. Skip those.

How do you write Copilot Excel prompts that actually work?

Name the data, name the output, and state the rules. Microsoft's tips page gives the core advice in two lines: "Be specific." and "Start broad, then refine." It adds that you should name the columns or ranges you want Copilot to work with, especially for formatting and analysis requests.

In practice, most weak results trace back to one of four gaps:

1. No column names. "Show me the trends" makes Copilot guess which columns matter. "Show monthly totals of Revenue by Region" does not.
2. No output format. Microsoft's insights page says that to get a result in a particular format, such as a PivotTable, you should say so in the prompt. Otherwise Copilot picks.
3. No edge cases. Blank cells, refunds recorded as negative numbers, duplicated order IDs. If you don't mention them, the formula will quietly mishandle them.
4. Messy data. One header row, no merged cells, no subtotal rows mixed into the data. Format the range as a table first. This is our own experience rather than a Microsoft rule, but it removes most "I couldn't find" replies.

Two settings matter too. Microsoft's FAQ says Copilot editing is only supported when Calculation Options are set to Automatic. And Copilot changes the workbook directly in edit mode, so anyone with access sees the change once it is saved.

Which Copilot mode should you use: edit, plan or chat?

Use chat mode to ask questions without touching the sheet, plan mode for multi-step jobs you want to approve first, and edit mode when you are ready for Copilot to change the workbook. Edit is the default when Copilot in Excel opens, per Microsoft's getting-started page.

A good habit: start a complex job in plan mode, read the plan, then let it run. You catch a wrong assumption ("I'll treat column D as dates") before it rewrites 5,000 rows.

Copilot Excel prompts you can copy

Every prompt below names its columns. Swap in your own column names before running them, and keep the structure. The first line of each block is the prompt; anything after # is a note for you, not for Copilot.

Analysis and insights

Which Region had the highest and lowest total Revenue in Q2 2026? Show the answer as a PivotTable with Region as rows and Revenue summed.

Are there outliers in the Unit Price column? List the rows, explain why each looks unusual, and do not change the data.
# Use chat mode for this one.

Review the comments in the Feedback column and identify the five most common themes. Add a new column called Theme that tags each row with one of them.

Compare Revenue by Month for 2025 and 2026 and show it as a line chart with one line per year.

Formula columns

Add a column called Margin % that calculates (Revenue - Cost) / Revenue for each row. If Revenue is 0 or blank, show a blank instead of an error.

Add a column called Days to Close that calculates the number of days between Created Date and Closed Date. Leave it blank where Closed Date is empty.

Add a column called Stock that looks up the quantity for each SKU from the Inventory sheet. If the SKU is not found, show "Missing".

Add a total row under the table that sums Revenue and Cost and averages Margin %.

Single-cell formulas and explanations

Write a formula in F2 that returns the first name from the full name in C2. Names may include a middle name.

Explain the formula in the selected cell step by step, and tell me what happens if any referenced cell is blank.

Explain the formula in D3 and suggest a simpler version that returns the same result.

Cleanup and formatting

Highlight in light red every row where Status is "Overdue" and Due Date is before today.

Remove duplicate rows based on Order ID only, keeping the most recent Order Date. Before you do it, tell me how many rows will be removed.
# Run this in plan mode first.

Split the Address column into Street, City and Postcode columns. Keep the original column.

Microsoft's own examples on its insights page are shorter, such as asking which region had the highest and lowest sales. They work, but adding the column names and the output format is what turns a guess into something you can check.

What are Copilot Word prompts that work?

Tell Word Copilot who the reader is, what shape the output should take, and which file to draw from. Microsoft's prompt guide breaks a prompt into four parts: the goal, context, expectations, and source. Its Word page adds a reassuring note: "Prompts do not need to be perfect." Start with the outcome and add length, format, tone or source material as you go.

Word gives you three ways in, per Microsoft's welcome page: draft new content from the chat pane, select text and use a preset such as Rewrite, or ask about the document with the pane set to chat only so nothing changes. To point Copilot at a specific file, email or meeting, type / in the pane and pick it from the list.

Drafting

Draft a one-page project update for the leadership team using /Q3 Launch Plan. Sections: status, milestones hit, risks, decisions needed. Plain language, no more than 400 words.

Create an outline for a customer onboarding guide for small accounting firms. Six sections, each with a one-line description. Friendly, practical tone.

Write a formal letter to our landlord requesting a repair to the heating system, reported on 2 September. Firm but polite, under 200 words.

Rewriting and editing

Make this section more concise and customer-ready without changing the meaning. Keep all numbers exactly as written.

Rewrite the selected paragraph for a non-technical reader. Replace jargon with plain words and keep it to three sentences.

Reorganize this section so the problems, risks and next steps are easier to follow. Use subheadings.

Turn the selected list of vendors and prices into a table with columns for Vendor, Plan and Monthly Price.

Understanding a document

Summarize this document in five bullets, then list any decisions it asks the reader to make.
# Set the pane to chat only.

Which parts of this proposal may be unclear to a customer who has never used our product? Quote each passage and explain why.

List every date, deadline and dollar figure in this contract with the section it appears in.

Three of those prompts adapt examples Microsoft publishes on its own Word pages; the rest follow the same four-part structure.

What does a vague prompt look like after it's fixed?

Here is one request rewritten three times, the way it usually goes in a real sales workbook.

Version 1: "Analyze my sales." Copilot has to guess the metric, the grouping, the period and the output. You will get something, usually a generic summary of whichever numeric column it notices first, and it rarely answers the question you actually had.

Version 2: "Show sales by region." Better. Now Copilot knows the grouping. It still has to decide whether "sales" means units or revenue, which months to include, and whether you want a chart, a table or a sentence.

Version 3: the one that works.

Using the Orders table, create a PivotTable with Region as rows and Month (Jan to Jun 2026) as columns, showing the sum of Revenue. Exclude rows where Status is "Cancelled". Then add a clustered column chart of the same data on a new sheet called Region Chart.

Every ambiguity from version 1 is gone: the table, the metric, the period, the exclusion rule, the output type, and where the output goes. That prompt takes 30 seconds longer to write and usually saves two or three rounds of follow-up. It is also the prompt worth saving, because next quarter you only change the months.

The same fix applies in Word. "Write a summary" becomes "Summarize /Board Pack September in five bullets for a reader who missed the meeting, then list the three decisions it asks for." Audience, length, source and a second deliverable, all in one line.

Why does Copilot say it can't do something you asked?

Usually for one of four reasons, and each has a quick fix:

• The data isn't in a shape it can read. Merged header cells, several tables on one sheet, or totals mixed into the rows. Convert the range to a table with a single header row and try again.
• You're in the wrong mode. Chat mode will describe a change but not make it. Switch to edit mode, or to plan mode for anything touching many rows.
• Your platform doesn't support the action. On iPhone and Android, Copilot in Excel is chat-only, per Microsoft's platform table. Move to desktop or the web for edits.
• The document is too long for one prompt. Microsoft's Word FAQ says Copilot is limited in the number of words it can process per prompt. Point it at one section at a time, or ask for a summary of each part before asking about the whole.

If none of those apply, rephrase the request as a smaller step. "Add the Margin % column" succeeds more often than "Add margin, flag the worst ten products, and chart them", and you can chain the steps afterwards.

How do you keep Copilot edits safe in shared files?

Work from a file saved to OneDrive, review every change before you share, and use version history as your undo button. In Word, Microsoft says that when Copilot plans changes to a shared document it shows a preview in chat first, and "Nothing is added to the document until you review and approve it". Excel's edit mode is more direct: it changes the workbook, and saved changes are visible to everyone with access, including co-authors.

There is one contradiction in Microsoft's own documentation to be aware of. The Microsoft 365 subscription FAQ says "Copilot in Excel requires AutoSave to be enabled", meaning the file must be saved to OneDrive. The Copilot in Excel tips page says "Copilot in Excel runs in workbooks with autosave enabled or disabled." We checked both on 17 September 2026. The safe move satisfies both: save to OneDrive, and switch AutoSave off while you experiment if you don't want Copilot's edits saved immediately.

Then verify. Microsoft's Excel FAQ warns against relying on Copilot for decisions in sensitive areas such as finance, legal or medical topics, and says to review and verify anything it creates. For formulas, that means spot-checking three or four rows by hand, including a blank and an extreme value.

Can you pick the AI model behind Copilot in Excel and Word?

Yes, on some plans. Microsoft's Excel tips page says Copilot in Excel supports Anthropic and OpenAI models through a model picker in the top right of the pane, set to Auto by default, and that your choice lasts only for the current session. The Excel FAQ says using the switcher needs a commercial Microsoft Copilot subscription or Microsoft 365 Premium, and that business admins must enable Anthropic as a sub-processor before Claude appears.

Word's drafting page names Claude Sonnet and Claude Opus as examples and says custom model selection needs an eligible premium subscription; everyone else gets Auto, Instant and Think deeper.

For most prompts in this guide, Auto is fine. If you find one model handles long documents or multi-step spreadsheet edits better for your work, the prompts above still apply unchanged. What changes between models is mostly speed and depth, not the way you should phrase the request.

How do you reuse your best Copilot prompts?

Save them somewhere outside the chat. Microsoft's Excel page mentions custom skills for repeatable tasks, and workbook rules for standing guidelines, which suit teams working in the same files. For prompts you use across Word, Excel, ChatGPT and Claude, a separate library is simpler.

That is where Prompt Architects fits, and only there. It does not run inside the Word or Excel Copilot pane, and it is not a replacement for Copilot. It is a browser extension and web app for writing, improving and storing prompts. You can draft a structured Copilot prompt in it (our integrations page lists Microsoft Copilot among the platforms the generator can tailor prompts for), save it to your library, and paste it into the pane when you need it. Saving prompts starts on Pro (50 prompts at $4.99/month at the time of writing), with unlimited storage on Advanced. The Free plan includes 5 prompt enhancements per day, per our FAQ, but cannot save prompts.

Here is a reusable template for spreadsheet requests. Fill in the square brackets before pasting:

Goal: [what you want, in one sentence]
Data: sheet [name], table columns [list the exact column names]
Output: [new column called X / chart type / PivotTable with rows and values]
Rules: [how to treat blanks, zeros, duplicates, negative values]
Check: before editing, tell me how many rows will change.

The same idea works for custom GPTs, where a stable instruction block does the heavy lifting. See our custom GPT instruction templates for that version. If you use Copilot mostly in the Edge browser, our roundup of Edge extensions for ChatGPT and Copilot covers the browser side.

The short version

Copilot in Excel and Word rewards the same habits: name the data or file, say what the output should look like, and state the rules for edge cases. In Excel, the in-cell COPILOT function stopped working on 14 September 2026, so run everything from the pane, and audit any workbook that used it. Use plan mode for big edits, chat mode for questions, and check a few results by hand before you trust a formula. Access and model choice depend on your licence, so check Microsoft's Copilot in Excel FAQ if something in this guide doesn't appear for you.