Get Started With AI in Google Sheets and Skip the Copy-Paste
Install SheetMagic in about a minute, click Activate, and type AI formulas like =AITEXT() in Google Sheets. Write, translate, or classify 200 rows with one dragged formula instead of an hour of copying between ChatGPT and your sheet.
Phil Nguyen · 13 min read · Updated
To get started with AI in Google Sheets, install SheetMagic from the Google Workspace Marketplace, click Activate, and type =AITEXT() like any other formula. One formula dragged down 200 rows replaces about an hour of copying between ChatGPT and your sheet, and the free tier covers your first tests.
You already know spreadsheets. Now add AI to them.
Say you run a small online store out of Google Sheets. You track inventory, plan content, and manage suppliers there. Then you need 200 product descriptions. Or a column translated into French. Or a pile of customer reviews sorted by complaint.
You probably open ChatGPT in another tab. Then you copy, paste, wait, copy, paste, wait. At about 18 seconds a row, 200 rows is an hour of your week gone, and you do it again next month when the catalog changes.
There's a better way.
SheetMagic adds AI formulas right inside Google Sheets. You type =AITEXT("your prompt", A2) just like you'd type =SUM(A2:A10). The AI reads your prompt, looks at the data you pointed it to, and puts the answer in your cell. One formula. One cell. One result. Drag it down and every row runs on its own.
This guide will walk you through installing SheetMagic, writing your first formula, and learning every function available to you. By the end, you'll have a working AI-powered spreadsheet.
Install SheetMagic in under 60 seconds
Open the Google Workspace Marketplace
Go to the Google Workspace Marketplace and search for SheetMagic. You can also get there from inside any Google Sheet: click Extensions > Add-ons > Get add-ons and search for "SheetMagic" in the marketplace search bar.
Click Install and grant permissions
Click the Install button. Google will ask you to pick your account and approve permissions. SheetMagic needs access to your spreadsheet data (to read cell values and write results) and external network access (to call AI providers and scrape websites). These are standard permissions for any add-on that works with data.
Open a spreadsheet and find the SheetMagic menu
After installation, open any Google Sheet. Click Extensions in the top menu bar. You should see SheetMagic in the dropdown. This is your control center for switching AI models, managing API keys, and accessing settings.
Click Activate
Click Extensions > SheetMagic > Activate. One Google sign-in popup confirms your account, and your free trial starts. No dashboard account and no API key needed.
Run your first formula
Click on any empty cell. Type this formula and press Enter:
=AITEXT("Write a one-sentence summary of what Google Sheets is")
In a few seconds, the AI's answer appears. With Keep Formula on (the default), your formula stays in the cell as text and the answer lands in the cell to its right, so you can see and reuse the prompt. Switch Keep Formula off in Open AI Settings if you would rather have the answer replace the formula. That's your first AI formula. You did it!
That's it. No API keys to set up on the free tier. No developer console. No environment variables. Install, click Activate, and the AI formulas work right away in every spreadsheet on your Google account.
Note
The free tier gives you 20,000 AI tokens and 100 scraping credits (a one-time allowance that never expires) to get started. No credit card needed. That's enough to test the key formulas in this guide and see real results. Check the pricing page for paid plan details, and AI tokens vs scraping credits for what each one actually pays for.
The core formulas
SheetMagic adds three types of formulas to Google Sheets: AI generation, web scraping, and page data extraction. Here's every formula you should know.
AI formulas: generate, transform, and analyze text
=AITEXT() is the one you'll use most. Give it a prompt and an optional cell reference, and it gives you text back.
Formula
=AITEXT("Translate the following to French:", B2)Sends the content of B2 to the AI model with your translation instruction. The result lands in the cell to the right (Keep Formula on, the default) or replaces the formula (Keep Formula off).
Formula
=AITEXT("Classify the sentiment of this review as Positive, Neutral, or Negative. Return only the label.", A2)Returns a single word. Great for filtering and sorting an entire column of reviews.
=AILIST() gives you a vertical list from a prompt. Instead of one block of text, it spreads results down a column, one per cell.
Formula
=AILIST("List 10 blog post ideas about remote work productivity")Returns 10 results, one per cell, spreading downward from the formula cell.
=AILISTH() does the same thing but sideways. Results spread across columns in a single row.
=AIIMAGE() creates images from text descriptions, right inside your sheet.
Formula
=AIIMAGE("A minimalist logo for a coffee shop called Brew and Bean, white background, flat design")Generates an image with your selected image model (GPT Image or a Gemini image model) and returns a link to it.
=AISPEECH() turns text into audio, with 13 OpenAI voice options.
Formula
=AISPEECH(A2, "nova")Converts the text in A2 to audio using the Nova voice. Returns a playable audio link.
=AIVIDEO() creates short videos from text descriptions.
=GPTV() looks at images for you. Give it an image URL and a prompt, and the AI describes, sorts, or pulls information from the image.
Formula
=GPTV(A2, "Describe this product image in one sentence for an e-commerce listing")Analyzes the image at the URL in A2 and returns a text description. GPTV needs OpenAI as your chat provider in Open AI Settings.
Tip
You can chain formulas together. Use =AITEXT() to write a product description, then point =AIIMAGE() at the cell holding that description to create a matching visual. Use =AITEXT() to write a script, then point =AISPEECH() at it to make a voiceover. AI formulas run in the background and show "Processing..." first, so keep each one in its own cell instead of nesting one inside another.
Web scraping formulas: pull data from any website
=SERP() gives you search engine results for any keyword, in a nice structured format.
Formula
=SERP("best crm software for startups")Returns up to 20 DuckDuckGo results with titles, snippets, and URLs, in result order.
=BULKSERP() returns the same data in a horizontal layout. One row per keyword, results spread across columns.
=VISIT() grabs the full text content of any webpage, up to 50,000 characters.
Formula
=VISIT(A2)Pulls the full page content from the URL in A2. Supports JavaScript-rendered pages.
=PAGEDATA() pulls metadata from one or more URLs in a single call.
Formula
=PAGEDATA(A2)Returns a header row and one row of metadata for the URL in A2: URL, Title, Meta Description, H1, and a Success or Failed status. Pass a range such as A2:A20 to get one row per URL.
=GETSELECTOR() scrapes content using CSS selectors for precise extraction.
=GETIMG() pulls image URLs from any page.
=DOMAINCHECK() tells you if a domain name is available.
Page metadata formulas: extract SEO data fast
These formulas grab specific metadata from any URL. They're built for SEO work:
| Formula | What it extracts |
|---|---|
=GETMETATITLE(A2) | The page's title tag |
=GETMETADESCRIPTION(A2) | The meta description |
=GETH1(A2) | The H1 heading |
=GETH2(A2) | All H2 headings |
=GETHEADINGS(A2) | All headings (H1-H6) |
=GETP(A2) | All paragraph text |
For a full walkthrough of scraping workflows, read the web scraping guide. For SEO uses, see 5 ways to use AI for SEO.
Choosing the right AI model
SheetMagic connects to multiple AI providers. You switch between them in the SheetMagic settings (Extensions > SheetMagic > Open AI Settings). Your formulas stay exactly the same. The model change applies to all of them.
| Provider | Models | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| OpenAI | GPT-5.5, GPT-5, GPT-4o | General purpose, creative writing, image generation (GPT Image) |
| Anthropic Claude | Opus 5, Sonnet 5, Haiku 4.5 | Analytical tasks, detailed formatting, long-form content |
| Google Gemini | 3.8 Flash, 3.5 Flash, 3.1 Pro | Fast processing, multilingual tasks, image generation (Gemini image models), video (Gemini Omni 1.1 Flash) |
| OpenRouter | Any model OpenRouter lists | Access to specialized and open-source models |
| Mistral | Mistral Large, Small | European languages, cost-efficient processing |
| Perplexity | Sonar models | Research tasks, fact-based answers with citations |
Note
How API keys work: Subscribers (Solo, Growth, Scale) use SheetMagic's platform API keys by default, so you don't need to set up anything. You can also bring your own API keys (BYOK) and get unlimited usage at your provider's rates. Turn BYOK on with the switch in Open AI Settings; the Extensions > SheetMagic > Manage AI API Keys menu item then appears for your keys. For more on plans, visit pricing.
Five things to build right now
Now that you're set up, here are real workflows with the exact formulas you need.
1. Product catalog enrichment
Put product names in column A and specs in column B. Then generate everything else:
Formula
=AITEXT("Write a 2-sentence product description for an e-commerce listing. Be specific and highlight the main benefit.", A2&" -- "&B2)Generates a unique description for each product using its name and specs as context.
You can keep going. Add columns for SEO titles (=AITEXT("Write an SEO title under 60 characters for:", A2)), meta descriptions, and even product images (=AIIMAGE("Product photo of "&A2&", white background, studio lighting")).
2. Lead research from company websites
Put prospect URLs in column A and =VISIT(A2) in column B. VISIT runs in the background and shows a loading placeholder first, so give it a moment, then extract everything you need for outreach from the scraped text:
Formula
=AITEXT("Extract: company name, what they do in one sentence, industry, headquarters city, approximate company size. Format as pipe-separated values.", B2)Put this in C2. It extracts structured prospect data from the page text that =VISIT() wrote into B2. With Keep Formula on (the default), the answer lands in D2.
Put =SPLIT(D2, "|") in E2 to spread the answer across E (company name), F (what they do), G (industry), H (city) and I (size). Then write a personalized email opener in J2:
Formula
=AITEXT("Write a 2-sentence cold email opener for a prospect at "&E2&" in the "&G2&" industry. Reference something specific about their business.", F2)Uses the extracted company description (F2) to generate a personalized outreach message.
3. Content calendar generation
Formula
=AILIST("Generate 10 blog post ideas for a SaaS company that sells project management software. Focus on bottom-of-funnel topics that address specific pain points.")Returns 10 ideas in separate cells. Each one can feed into a content brief formula.
4. Multilingual content at scale
Formula
=AITEXT("Translate to Spanish. Return only the translation, no commentary.", A2)Clean translation output that is ready to use without editing.
Copy the column and change "Spanish" to "French," "German," or "Japanese" for instant multilingual content.
5. Survey and review analysis
Formula
=AITEXT("Analyze this customer review. Return three fields separated by pipes: Sentiment (Positive/Neutral/Negative) | Main Topic | One-sentence summary. No other text.", A2)Put this in B2. With Keep Formula on (the default) the answer lands in C2, so split it into columns with =SPLIT(C2, "|") in D2.
Run this across hundreds of reviews. Then use Google Sheets' built-in =COUNTIF() to tally up the sentiment. No fancy survey tool needed.
What can you do with the AI results once they are in your sheet?
The hour you skip copying is the first win. The second is that the results are already in rows, next to the data they came from, so the next step is a sort or an export instead of another round of pasting:
- Load the descriptions straight into your store. Download the sheet as CSV (File > Download) and import it. 200 descriptions go live without anyone retyping them into the store admin.
- Answer the complaint that keeps coming back. Split the review analysis into columns, then
=COUNTIFS(D:D,"Negative",E:E,"Shipping")tells you how many unhappy customers mention the same thing. A repeated shipping complaint is a refund or a lost repeat order you can fix at the source. - Send outreach from the opener column. The lead research workflow leaves a personalized first line beside every prospect. Feed that column into a mail merge and the research and the writing are both done.
- Re-run instead of redo. An answer stays fixed once it lands, so it never changes under you. When a spec in column B changes, re-enter the formula on just that row. Next month's catalog update is a few re-entered rows, not another hour in ChatGPT.
Tips for getting the best results
Test one cell, then scale. Always run your formula on a single row first. Check the output. Tweak your prompt. Then drag down.
Be clear about what you want back. Adding "Return only the label" or "Respond in under 20 words" stops the AI from writing too much. In a spreadsheet, short answers are almost always better.
Use cell references, not hardcoded data. =AITEXT("Summarize:", A2) works for every row. =AITEXT("Summarize: The quick brown fox...") only works once. Point your formulas at cells and your sheet stays flexible.
Mix AI and scraping together. The best workflows use =SERP(), =VISIT(), or =PAGEDATA() to gather data, then =AITEXT() to make sense of it. Check out the SEO guide and web scraping guide for detailed examples.
Try different models for different jobs. Claude tends to follow formatting rules very closely. GPT-4o is great at creative writing. Gemini is fast and handles big context well. Play around under Extensions > SheetMagic > Open AI Settings.
What comes next
You've got SheetMagic installed. You know the formulas. And you have five workflows ready to go. If typing formulas is not how you want to work, the AI Chat Agent takes the same instructions in plain English, and enriching a lead list is a good first job to hand it. You can try all of this on the free tier. No credit card needed. You get 20,000 AI tokens and 100 scraping credits (a one-time allowance that never expires), which is enough to test these workflows and see real results.
When you're ready for more, paid plans start at $20/month with 3.25 million AI tokens and 10,000 scraping credits. Visit the pricing page for the full breakdown.
For deeper guides on specific use cases:
- How to use AI formulas in Google Sheets, covering prompt techniques and advanced examples
- 5 ways to use AI for SEO in Google Sheets, a complete SEO workflow
- The complete guide to web scraping in Google Sheets, every scraping formula explained
- March 2026 product update, AI Chat sidebar and platform scrapers
Install SheetMagic free from the Google Workspace Marketplace and run your first formula in the next two minutes.
Have questions? Visit the FAQ for answers about AI formulas, web scraping, providers, and billing.
Text and scraping formulas run on the free allowance. Install from the Google Workspace Marketplace, no card, no expiry.
Install free for Google SheetsAbout the author
Phil NguyenPhil builds SheetMagic, the Google Sheets add-on that brings AI and web scraping into the spreadsheet, used by 6,300+ people. He writes these guides from the formulas he runs on his own sheets.