Short answer: two kinds of AI now run inside Excel. General assistants (Microsoft Copilot in Excel, Claude for Excel, ChatGPT for Excel, Shortcut) build, edit and explain spreadsheets from a prompt; Anthropic and OpenAI both tell users in their documentation to check the output. Audit add-ins with AI (DataSnipper, Blast Audit, Moby Analytics) apply extraction, cited answers and agents to supporting documents, so a figure in the workpaper can be traced back to a page of evidence.
Blast Audit publishes this article and Blast Audit is our product. Every fact about another tool below links to a public page we read in September 2026.
Seven AI tools for Excel at a glance
| Tool | Type | AI features in Excel | Public price | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blast Audit (our product) | Audit add-in | AI agent that operates Excel and Blast Audit tools; AI extraction from a plain-language description, with citations; Probe Q&A with page citations | €45/user/month, €37.50 billed annually, all features | Pricing |
| DataSnipper | Audit add-in | Excel Agents, DocuMine, AI Extractions (Accelerate plan); Alwin (Elevate plan) | Quote only | datasnipper.com/pricing |
| Moby Analytics | Audit add-in | "AI agents included"; audit tests filled with figures linked to their source | €348/user/year excl. tax | mobyanalytics.com |
| Microsoft Copilot in Excel | Built into Excel | Edits worksheets, generates data and formulas, creates charts and PivotTables, web search, imports data from other workbooks | $30/user/month paid yearly (Microsoft 365 Copilot); $21 for Copilot Business, up to 300 users; a qualifying Microsoft 365 plan is also required | Microsoft Support, pricing |
| Claude for Excel (Anthropic) | General add-in | Answers with cell-level citations, updates assumptions while keeping formulas, debugs errors, builds models | Included in Claude Pro ($20/month, $17 billed annually), Max (from $100/month), Team and Enterprise | Claude docs, pricing |
| ChatGPT for Excel (OpenAI) | General add-in | Builds, updates and explains spreadsheets, web search, reusable Skills | Included in ChatGPT plans; Free and Go have limited usage | OpenAI Help Center |
| Shortcut | General Excel agent (web app and Excel plugin) | Builds and edits Excel models | Free tier; Pro $100/month billed annually; Teams $320/month plus $100 per seat | shortcut.ai/pricing |
The dividing line is evidence. The general assistants work on what is in the workbook. The audit add-ins also work on the PDFs and scans behind it.
How we compared
- Scope. AI tools that run inside Excel, or connect to it as an add-in, and that audit or finance teams can buy today. Audit management platforms outside Excel are not included.
- Criteria. Which AI features exist, which plan they sit on, whether the price is public, and whether an AI output points back to its source (a cell, a page, a document).
- Sources. Vendor pages first, including each vendor's own statement of limitations. All facts were checked in September 2026.
- What we did not do. We did not benchmark accuracy or speed. No scores or percentages appear here because we did not measure any.
- Disclosure. Blast Audit publishes this article and sells one of the products listed.
If you are choosing an audit add-in on its non-AI features (OCR, snips, matching, form templates), our comparison of the best audit software for Excel covers that.
Three AI capabilities that matter in audit work
AI extraction. You describe the fields you want (supplier, date, total, line items) and the tool pulls them from a batch of documents into the workbook. The test for an auditor: does every value carry a citation to the page it came from, so a reviewer can check it without searching?
Q&A with citations. You ask a question across contracts or statements ("Which leases have a break clause before 2028?") and get an answer. The useful version cites the exact page and passage. An answer without a citation is a lead, not evidence.
Agents that act in the workbook. The tool plans and carries out several steps: writing formulas, filling a lead schedule, flagging differences. The test here is control: can you see each change, and undo it?
Audit add-ins with AI
Blast Audit (our product)
Blast Audit is an Excel add-in for auditors. Its AI features sit on top of the same document layer as its OCR, snips and matching:
- AI extraction: describe what to extract in plain language, the add-in builds a typed schema (text, numbers, dates, tables), runs it on a batch of documents and writes the results to Excel with citations to the source location. Schemas can be saved as templates.
- Probe: ask questions across one or several documents and get answers that cite the page and location. Click a citation to open the evidence.
- AI agent: give an instruction in plain language and the agent works in Excel through Office.js. It writes formulas (VLOOKUP, SUMIF, INDEX-MATCH), formats and sorts data, creates snips, runs document matching and can write VBA macros. Each change is tracked, and you can review or undo it.
Price: €45 per user per month, or €37.50 billed annually, with every feature in one plan. Each user adds about 10,000 OCR pages and €20 of AI credits per month, pooled across the organization. There is a 14-day free trial. Blast Audit has completed a SOC 2 Type 2 report and holds an ISO 27001:2022 certificate.
DataSnipper
DataSnipper's AI features are spread across its plans, according to its pricing page:
- Accelerate adds Excel Agents, Disclosure Agents, DocuMine, AI Extractions and an Agent Builder with prebuilt agents. Excel Agents offer "a catalogue of ready-to-use agents for audit and finance procedures", from revenue cut-off testing to three-way AP matching. DocuMine lets you "ask specific questions, receive precise answers" about documents without leaving Excel.
- Elevate adds Alwin by DataSnipper, launched on 22 September 2026 and described in the announcement as "an agentic platform that can run complete, multi-step audit and finance procedures end-to-end".
DataSnipper does not publish prices: the plan cards say "Book Demo" or "Contact sales". When you ask for a quote, name the AI features you plan to use, since they are not in the Start plan.
Moby Analytics
Moby calls itself "AI for financial auditors, inside Excel" on its website. It fills audit workpapers "with every figure linked to its source", analyses general ledgers and ties out financial statements. The Essential plan costs €348 per user per year excluding tax and includes AI agents with 18,000 to 36,000 pages a year; extra credits can be bought. Enterprise pricing is on request from 50 licences.
General AI assistants in Excel
These tools are general spreadsheet assistants. Their documentation focuses on building and editing workbooks and does not present audit evidence features such as snips or document matching. They are still useful for the spreadsheet side of the job: building a lead schedule, explaining a client's formula chain, cleaning an export.
Microsoft Copilot in Excel
Microsoft's support page lists what Copilot can do in a workbook: edit worksheets, generate data and formulas, create charts, PivotTables and shapes, identify insights, highlight, sort and filter, search the web and import data from other workbooks. It runs on Windows, Mac and the web, with fewer modes on iPad and phones.
Microsoft 365 Copilot is listed at $30 per user per month, paid yearly. The Copilot Business add-on for organizations of up to 300 users is listed at $21, shown at a promotional $18 until 31 December 2026 (first year only). Both require a qualifying Microsoft 365 plan.
Claude for Excel
Anthropic's documentation describes an add-in that answers questions about a workbook "with cell-level citations", updates assumptions while keeping formula relationships intact, finds the source of errors and builds or fills models. It can sort, filter, edit pivot tables and apply conditional formatting. It is available on the Pro, Max, Team and Enterprise plans; Pro is $20 a month, or $17 billed annually.
The same page is direct about limits. It says Claude for Excel is not recommended for "audit-critical calculations without verification", that macros and VBA are not supported, and that files from outside sources can carry hidden instructions (prompt injection), so it should be used with trusted spreadsheets. That warning matters in audit, where most files come from the client.
ChatGPT for Excel
OpenAI's help page describes a sidebar that can "build, update, and explain spreadsheets", including large multi-tab files, search the web and apply reusable Skills. It is available on every ChatGPT plan, with limited usage on Free and Go. OpenAI lists its own limitations: VBA and macros "may not be fully supported", and outputs "may be incomplete or incorrect", so formulas and changed cells should be reviewed before anyone relies on them.
Shortcut
Shortcut is an AI agent for building and editing Excel models, aimed at finance teams. Its pricing page lists a free tier with 20 weekly credits, Pro at $100 a month billed annually, and Teams at $320 a month plus $100 per seat. It runs on the web, as a desktop app, and as an Excel or Google Sheets plugin.
Can you use both kinds?
Yes, and many teams will. A general assistant is included in software you may already pay for, and it helps with formulas and layout. An audit add-in covers the part those assistants do not describe: reading the evidence, placing each figure in the workpaper with a link to its page, and matching rows to documents. The two can run in the same workbook.
Questions to ask before you buy an AI tool for audit
- Where does each AI answer point? A cell, a page, a highlighted passage? Try clicking one in the demo.
- Which plan holds the AI features? On tiered products, check whether the AI is in the entry plan.
- How is AI usage metered? Credits, pages, or a monthly limit shared with other features.
- Can you see and undo what an agent changed?
- What happens with a client file that contains hidden instructions? Ask how the tool handles prompt injection.
- What security reports can the vendor share? For example a SOC 2 Type 2 report or an ISO 27001 certificate.
Facts about other vendors checked in September 2026 on the pages linked above. Blast Audit is not affiliated with any vendor named here; product names are trademarks of their owners.