When was Excel's COPILOT() function retired?

On 14 September 2026. Microsoft introduced the function in August 2025 and decided not to move forward with it, consolidating Excel's AI features into the Copilot pane instead.

Is there a formula that replaces COPILOT()?

Not from Microsoft: its replacement is the Copilot pane, which is chat rather than a formula. Third-party add-ins still provide cell formulas. Likely is one of them, for the classifying and scoring part of what COPILOT() did.

Can Likely generate text the way COPILOT() could?

No. Likely only returns probabilities, labels and scores, never prose. If you used COPILOT() to draft or summarise text, the Copilot pane is the right replacement, not Likely.

What does Likely cost?

2,000 rows a month are free with no card. Pro is $12 a month for 250,000 rows and Team is $39 a month for 2,000,000.

=COPILOT() is retired. What replaces it in Excel

Microsoft retired Excel's COPILOT() function on 14 September 2026, thirteen months after introducing it. The replacement is the Copilot pane, which is a chat window, not a formula. If what you liked was putting a question in a cell and filling it down a column, that specific thing is gone, and this page is about getting it back.

What happened

Microsoft shipped COPILOT() in August 2025. It took a prompt and some cell references and returned an answer from a language model straight into the grid. It was good at summarising, classifying, generating content and looking things up on the web. On 14 September 2026 it stopped being available: Microsoft decided not to move the feature forward, and is consolidating Excel's AI around the Copilot pane instead. The details are on Microsoft's own COPILOT function page.

The pane does much of the same work. What it does not do is behave like a function: you cannot fill it down 5,000 rows, it does not recalculate, and what comes back is a paragraph rather than something you can sort a column by.

What you lose, use by use

What you used COPILOT() for	Where it stands now
Drafting or rewriting text	Copilot pane. This is the case it handles best.
Summarising a long cell	Copilot pane, one at a time rather than down a column.
Looking something up on the web	Copilot pane.
Classifying rows (is this a refund request? which team?)	No formula from Microsoft. This is what Likely does.
Scoring or rating rows (how urgent, 1–5?)	No formula from Microsoft. This is what Likely does.

The split is worth noticing, because the two halves want different tools. Writing is one answer you read once. Classifying is thousands of answers you never read at all — you sort, filter and threshold them. A chat pane is the wrong shape for the second job, which is why losing the formula hurt.

A formula that gives you a number back

Likely is a Sheets and Excel add-in whose formulas return numbers instead of prose:

=LIKELY.IS(A2:A5000, "Is the customer asking for a refund?")
  → 0.98, 0.01, 0.97, 0.27 …

It spills down the column, and every value is a probability from 0 to 1. Sort by it and the refund requests are at the top. Filter above 0.8 and you have a queue. Conditional-format the 0.35–0.65 band and you have the rows that are genuinely ambiguous — “Why was I billed after cancelling?” comes back at 0.27, and that uncertainty is information rather than a hedge buried in a sentence.

Two more, for the other shapes of question:

=LIKELY.CHOICE(A2:A500, "Which team should handle this?", "billing, technical, sales")
=LIKELY.SCORE(A2:A500, "How urgent is this?", "1, 2, 3, 4, 5")

5,000 rows come back in about a second, because the model answers in parallel and returns a typed judgement rather than writing text. Judging the same cell twice with the same question does not cost anything the second time.

What Likely will not do

It does not write. There is no Likely formula that drafts an email, summarises a paragraph or looks something up on the web, and there will not be: the model behind it returns probabilities and labels, not sentences. If those were the parts of COPILOT() you used, the Copilot pane is your replacement and this page is not for you. If you used it to sort a column out, read on.

Trying it

There is a demo on the front page that runs on your own text with no signup and no card. If it does what you need, a free key is 2,000 rows a month.

Excel: the AppSource listing is in certification. Until it is live the add-in loads from its manifest in about a minute, and a Microsoft 365 admin can deploy it to a whole team from Integrated apps today. Google Sheets: the Marketplace listing is in review, and installs by hand until it is live. Both routes are in the docs.

Get a free key Try the demo first

Doing the same job in Google Sheets instead? How to classify text in Google Sheets compares the four ways, including Google's own =AI() function.

Questions people are asking

Is COPILOT() coming back?

Microsoft has said it is not moving forward with the feature, and is putting its Excel AI work into the Copilot pane. Treat it as gone rather than paused.

What happens to workbooks that used it?

The function is no longer available, so those cells stop getting answers from it. Microsoft's page above is the authority on the exact behaviour in your channel and version.

Is Likely an official Microsoft product?

No. Likely is made by Simber Tech, an independent company in the Netherlands, and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Microsoft. Copilot and Excel are Microsoft's.

What does it cost?

2,000 rows a month free, no card. Pro is $12 a month for 250,000 rows, Team $39 for 2,000,000. Pricing.

Written 22 September 2026, eight days after the retirement. If Microsoft changes course, this page is wrong and we would rather hear about it: support.