LikelyAI formulas for Sheets and Excel, compared honestly
There are now several ways to run AI over a column of text in a spreadsheet. They are not interchangeable: most of them write text into your cells, and one returns a number. This page is written by the people who make Likely, so weigh it accordingly. Every claim about another product links to that product's own page.
The short version
Google =AI() | GPT for Work | Categorize AI | Likely | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Works in | Google Sheets | Sheets or Excel | Google Sheets | Sheets and Excel |
| Returns | Text | The model's answer to your prompt | A category from your list | A probability 0–1, a label from your list, or a score on your scale |
| Writes sentences | Yes, if asked | Yes, if asked | No | Never |
| Size per run | First 350 selected cells | Bulk tools available | Up to 2,000 rows | 5,000 rows per formula; bulk run for more |
| Price | Needs an eligible Workspace or Google AI plan | From $25/month, metered by tokens | Free with paid features | Free for 2,000 rows/month; $12 or $39/month |
| Can generate and summarise | Yes | Yes | No | No |
Checked 19 October 2026 against Google's AI function help page, GPT for Work's pricing page (GPT for Work is now called Autosheet) and Categorize AI's Marketplace listing. Those pages are the authority if they have changed since.
Google's =AI() function
Built into Sheets, so there is nothing to install. It takes a prompt and a range and writes its answer into the cell. Per Google's documentation, it needs an eligible Google Workspace or Google AI plan, responses are text only, and when you generate a selection only the first 350 selected cells with AI functions are generated, with further short- and long-term generation limits.
Pick it when you already have the plan, you want a written answer (a summary, a rewrite, a draft reply), and your sample is a few hundred rows or fewer.
GPT for Work (GPT for Sheets and GPT for Excel)
A general-purpose add-on: formulas like =GPT() send your prompt to a model of your choice and return its answer, plus bulk tools and an agent. Its pricing page lists a Standard plan at $25/month including $25 of usage, a Business plan at $45 per seat, and usage metered by the tokens sent and received.
Pick it when you need open-ended generation across many rows, want to choose the model, or want one tool for writing and analysis together.
Categorize AI
A Sheets add-on focused on one job: you choose a column and your categories, and it labels each row. Its listing says it handles up to 2,000 rows per run, reads only the sheet you are working in, and lets you save category sets to reuse.
Pick it when you only ever need a label from a fixed list, in Sheets, and a sidebar workflow suits you.
Likely
Our add-in, built around one decision: it never writes text. You ask a question in plain English and every row comes back as a number you can sort, filter and chart:
=LIKELY(A2:A5001, "Is the customer asking for money back?") → 0.98, 0.01, 0.97, 0.43 …
LIKELY_CHOICE picks a label from your list (optionally with its confidence) and LIKELY_SCORE rates on your own scale. In Excel the formulas are LIKELY.IS, LIKELY.CHOICE and LIKELY.SCORE. The number is the point: rows near 0.5 are the ones the model is unsure about, so you can read just those instead of all of them.
Likely's servers judge 5,000 rows in about a second; your spreadsheet adds its own time to send the cells and write the answers. Repeated cells are free. The Sheets add-on only asks for access to the spreadsheet you open it in.
Pick it when the job is to decide something about every row (refund or not, which team, how urgent, churn risk) and you want the answer to work with sort, filter and conditional formatting. Skip it when you need anything written: it cannot summarise, translate or draft.
A rule of thumb
- Want words in the cell?
=AI()or GPT for Work. - Want a label in the cell, Sheets only, small batches? Categorize AI or Likely's
LIKELY_CHOICE. - Want to sort, threshold or review only the unsure rows, in Sheets or Excel? That is what Likely is for.
Try it on your own text
The demo on the front page runs on text you paste, with no signup. A free key is 2,000 rows a month, no card.
Get a free key What replaced COPILOT()
Written 19 October 2026. Third-party features, limits and prices change; the linked pages are the authority.