Google Sheets vs Excel (2026):
Which One Should You Use?

Google Sheets earns a point.

Google Sheets is FREE! And it’s hard to beat free stuff.

No cash goes out of your pocket, and you get all the features of the spreadsheet itself, from autosave to sharing to pivot tables.

Companies that want business email, admin controls and more storage can get Sheets as part of a paid Google Workspace plan.

Microsoft Excel is different. You can use Excel for the web for free with a Microsoft account, but the full desktop app costs money.

In the US, Microsoft lists Microsoft 365 Personal at $99.99 a year (or $9.99 a month). That includes Excel, Word and PowerPoint, plus 1 TB of OneDrive storage. Prefer to pay once? Office Home 2024 is a one-time purchase of $179.99 for one PC or Mac.

Prices change and vary by country, so check Microsoft’s site for your own price.

So on price alone, Google Sheets wins. But Excel gives you more tools for the money, which brings us to the next round: features.

This round goes to Excel.

Google Sheets covers everyday spreadsheet work well: formulas, pivot tables, charts, filters and conditional formatting. Many modern functions exist in both, like XLOOKUP, FILTER and LAMBDA.

Both also have an AI assistant now: Copilot in Excel and Gemini in Google Sheets. Both can create formulas, analyze your data and build charts. Which plans include them changes often, so check your own subscription.

But Excel has tools that heavy spreadsheet users need and Google Sheets doesn’t match:

• Power Query to import, clean and combine data from many sources, then refresh it with one click.
• Power Pivot and the Data Model to analyze millions of rows from several related tables.
• VBA macros in the desktop app to automate almost anything.
• Python in Excel: type =PY in a cell to run Python. It runs in the Microsoft Cloud and needs a qualifying Microsoft 365 subscription.

Google Sheets has its own handy functions, though, like GOOGLEFINANCE (stock data), IMPORTRANGE (pull in data from another spreadsheet) and QUERY (filter and summarize data with a SQL-like query). And when you record a macro in Sheets, it’s saved as Apps Script that you can edit.

We got a tie!

Google Sheets is cloud-first. You open it in any browser or in the mobile apps, from any computer, as long as you’re signed in. Your changes are saved to Google Drive automatically.

Excel works the other way around. The desktop app works fully offline, and when you save a workbook to OneDrive, you can also open it in Excel for the web and the Excel mobile apps.

Offline, it flips around. Google Sheets works offline only in Chrome or Edge with the Google Docs Offline extension, and you have to turn on offline access while you’re still online. Excel for the web needs an internet connection, but the desktop app doesn’t.

So if you often work without internet, Excel’s desktop app has the edge. If you hop between computers you don’t own, Google Sheets is simpler.

This round is close.

Excel has caught up with co-authoring. Save the workbook to OneDrive or SharePoint, click Share, and several people can edit it at the same time in the desktop app, in the browser or on their phone.

Google Sheets has done this from the start, and it’s still the simplest. Share a link and everyone edits the same file in their browser (up to 100 open tabs or devices can edit a file at the same time). There’s no app to install and no file format to think about.

Excel’s co-authoring has a few more requirements: the file must be saved in OneDrive or SharePoint in .xlsx, .xlsm or .xlsb format, and co-authoring in the Windows desktop app needs a Microsoft 365 subscription.

Every Google account comes with 15 GB of free storage. But it’s shared across Gmail, Google Drive and Google Photos, and Google Sheets files count toward it too.

A free Microsoft account comes with 5 GB of OneDrive storage. Microsoft 365 Personal raises that to 1 TB.

So for free users, Google gives you more space. If you pay for Microsoft 365, 1 TB is more than enough for spreadsheets.

Performance-wise, Excel gets the point.

An Excel worksheet holds up to 1,048,576 rows by 16,384 columns. That’s over 17 billion cells on a single sheet. And with Power Pivot, you can import millions of rows of data from several sources into one workbook.

Google Sheets allows up to 20 million cells (or 100 MB) per spreadsheet, across all its tabs. That’s plenty for most lists, trackers and budgets.

In practice, speed is often the limit you hit first. Google Sheets runs in a browser tab, so very large files with lots of formulas can feel slow to load and recalculate. Excel’s desktop app runs on your own computer.

In this round, Excel takes the point.

There is no one-size-fits-all spreadsheet program. Know what you need.

Excel won more rounds here, but that doesn’t mean you should go out and buy a license.

Choose Google Sheets if:

• You want a free spreadsheet
• You share spreadsheets with others and edit them together
• Your spreadsheets are fairly small and simple
• You switch between computers and devices a lot

Choose Excel if:

• You work with large datasets or data from several sources
• You need Power Query, Power Pivot, VBA or Python in Excel
• You build financial models, reports or dashboards
• You often work offline
• Your workplace already runs on Microsoft 365

And you don’t have to choose forever. Google Sheets can open Excel files, and you can download a Google Sheets file as an Excel workbook. Here’s how to convert Excel to Google Sheets.

Is Google Sheets as good as Excel?

For everyday spreadsheets, yes. Formulas, charts, pivot tables and sharing work well in both. For large datasets, advanced data tools (Power Query, Power Pivot), VBA macros and complex financial models, Excel is the stronger tool.

Is Google Sheets free?

Yes. Google Sheets is free with a Google account, and the free account includes 15 GB of storage shared across Gmail, Google Drive and Google Photos. Businesses can get Sheets through a paid Google Workspace plan.

Is Excel free?

Excel for the web is free with a Microsoft account, and your files are saved in OneDrive (5 GB free). The desktop app for Windows and Mac needs a Microsoft 365 subscription or a one-time purchase like Office Home 2024.

What is the difference between Google Sheets and Excel Online?

Both are free and run in a browser. Excel Online (now called Excel for the web) saves files to OneDrive and opens the same .xlsx files as desktop Excel, but it can’t run VBA macros. Google Sheets saves files to Google Drive, has more free storage (15 GB vs 5 GB) and can work offline in Chrome or Edge.

Can Google Sheets open Excel files?

Yes. Double-click an .xlsx file in Google Drive to edit it, or convert it to a Google Sheets file. Some Excel features don’t carry over, like VBA macros and links to other workbooks. Here’s how to convert Excel to Google Sheets.

Is Google Docs the same as Excel?

No. Google Docs is Google’s word processor (like Microsoft Word). The Google app that compares to Excel is Google Sheets.