Excel COPILOT() Function in 2026: Write AI Formulas That Search the Web and Ground Your Data

Formulas used to be closed systems. You typed a function, it looked at your workbook, and it gave you back an answer built entirely from cells you could see. In 2026, that boundary has quietly disappeared. The new COPILOT() function in Excel lets you write a formula that reasons, searches the live web, and pulls in outside data – all without leaving the grid. If you have not tried it yet, this is the tip that will change how you build spreadsheets this year.

What the COPILOT() Function Actually Does

COPILOT() is a native Excel function, not a chat pane bolted onto the side of your screen. You type it into a cell like any other formula, point it at a question or a set of reference cells, and it returns an answer directly into your worksheet. Because the result lives in a cell, it can be referenced by other formulas, included in a PivotTable, or used to trigger conditional formatting – something a chat answer could never do.

The key difference from earlier AI features is grounding. Rather than guessing from training data alone, COPILOT() can search the web and cite live sources, or pull from connected financial data providers including FactSet, Morningstar, PitchBook, S&P Global, CB Insights, and Daloopa when your organization has those connections enabled. That means a formula asking for a company's current headquarters, latest funding round, or most recent stock price can return an answer that reflects today, not a snapshot from months ago.

Getting Started

Open a workbook in Excel (desktop or web) with Microsoft 365 Copilot licensing enabled. The COPILOT() function is rolling out through 2026, with general availability targeted for December, so confirm it appears in the formula AutoComplete list before relying on it for production work.

Click any empty cell and type =COPILOT( to trigger the formula.

Pass in a prompt as text, or reference a cell that contains your question, plus any supporting cells you want considered as context.

Press Enter. Excel calculates the formula like any other function, showing a small AI indicator in the cell so you always know which values were AI-generated.

Practical Ways to Use It

Enrich a table with live company data

Say you have a column of company names in column A. In B2, a formula like =COPILOT("What industry is " & A2 & " primarily classified under?") will return an answer for each row when filled down. Because it is a real formula, you can wrap it in IFERROR, reference it from a lookup, or chain it into a larger calculation.

Pull in current benchmarks

Instead of manually searching for average conversion rates, salary bands, or interest rates and pasting them into your model, ask directly: =COPILOT("What is the current average 30-year US mortgage rate?"). The formula grounds its answer in current web results rather than outdated training knowledge.

Summarize or classify text already in your sheet

COPILOT() is equally useful without web grounding. Point it at a cell full of customer feedback and ask it to return a one-word sentiment, or summarize a long product description down to a single sentence for a dashboard.

Combining COPILOT() With Other Functions

Because the output is a normal cell value, you can nest COPILOT() results inside XLOOKUP, use them as criteria in FILTER, or feed them into GROUPBY for aggregation. A common pattern is using COPILOT() to generate a new column of classifications, then using that column as a grouping key elsewhere in the sheet – turning unstructured text into structured, sortable data in one step.

Things to Watch For

Verify anything used for financial or compliance decisions. Web-grounded answers are strong, but they should be spot-checked the same way you would check a analyst's citation.

Watch calculation cost. AI formulas take longer to resolve than arithmetic and may be subject to usage limits on your license tier – avoid filling AI formulas down thousands of rows unless you actually need a unique answer per row.

Combine with your organization's approved data providers. If your tenant has enabled financial data connections, COPILOT() will prioritize those sources over general web search, which usually means more reliable, sourced numbers for finance workflows.

How This Changes Spreadsheet Habits

For years, the workaround for a question a formula could not answer was to open a browser tab, search manually, and paste the result back into the sheet by hand. That workaround is exactly what breaks a model over time – the pasted value never updates again, even after the real-world number changes. A COPILOT() formula behaves like any other live formula: it recalculates when you refresh, which means a workbook built around it stays current instead of slowly drifting out of date the way a workbook full of pasted values always does.

This also changes how teams share workbooks. A colleague opening your file no longer needs to know which numbers were manually researched versus calculated, because the AI indicator marks exactly which cells were AI-generated. That small visual cue does a lot of work for trust and auditability, especially in shared financial models where knowing the provenance of a number matters as much as the number itself.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does COPILOT() work in Excel for the web as well as desktop?

Yes. The function is designed to work consistently across Excel desktop and Excel for the web, though rollout pace can differ slightly between the two depending on your Microsoft 365 update channel.

Will it slow down large workbooks?

AI formulas take noticeably longer to resolve than standard arithmetic, and recalculating hundreds of them at once can slow a workbook down. Use COPILOT() selectively for cells that genuinely need a researched or web-grounded answer, rather than as a blanket replacement for every lookup.

Can other people in my organization see my prompts?

Treat COPILOT() prompts the same way you would treat any other content in a shared workbook – anyone with edit or view access to the sheet can see the formula and its prompt text, so avoid embedding sensitive internal information directly in the prompt string.

Try It Today

The COPILOT() function turns Excel from a calculator into a research assistant that lives inside your grid. Start small: pick one column in a workbook you already use and replace a manual lookup with a single COPILOT() formula. Once you see it update automatically as source data changes, you will find new places to use it every week.