Free Excel Formula Generator

Turn plain English into the exact Excel formula you need

Excel is great until it isn’t. You know what you want (sum this, look that up, match these rows, return a date), but translating that into the right combination of IF, SUMIFS, XLOOKUP, INDEX/MATCH, or text functions can get weird fast.

That’s the whole point of this tool. Get the Right Excel Formula (With an Explanation) by describing your goal in normal language, optionally pasting a tiny sample of your sheet, and letting the generator produce a paste ready formula plus a short, human explanation of what each part is doing.

If you’re exploring more tools like this, you can also browse the full toolkit on WritingTools.ai.

What this Excel Formula Generator is best at

Not every request needs a 10 line monster formula. Sometimes you just need the clean version that won’t break when you fill down or when a cell is blank. This generator is built for the common real world stuff:

Lookups that actually work (XLOOKUP for modern Excel, or safer legacy alternatives when needed)

Multi criteria totals with SUMIFS and COUNTIFS

Conditional logic with IF, IFS, and nested rules

Text cleanup and extraction (LEFT, RIGHT, MID, TEXT, TRIM, CLEAN, TEXTSPLIT)

Dates and schedules (EOMONTH, WORKDAY, NETWORKDAYS, DATEDIF)

Error and blank handling (IFERROR, blank checks, default outputs)

Array formulas when you are on Excel 365 or Google Sheets

A quick checklist to get a perfect formula

When people say “Excel gave me the wrong result”, it’s usually missing context. If you include these details, the formula gets way better, way faster.

Your column headers

Like InvoiceDate, Status, Amount, Customer, etc.

A tiny data example

Two or three rows is enough. Just paste it in. Even rough formatting works.

Your criteria in plain words

Example: “Status equals Paid” or “Date is in the last 30 days” or “Customer contains LLC”.

What to do with blanks and errors

Do you want 0, an empty cell "", or something like NA()?

Which Excel version you are using

Excel 365 can do things older versions can’t, so this matters more than people think.

Common formula requests (copy these as prompts)

Use these as starting points in the tool input and tweak the details.

1) Sum values based on multiple conditions (SUMIFS)

“Sum Amount where Status is Paid and Date is in January 2026.”

2) Lookup a value from another table (XLOOKUP / VLOOKUP)

“Find the Unit Price for ProductID in another table and return blank if not found.”

3) Return a label based on ranges (IF / IFS)

“If Score is 90+ return A, 80 to 89 return B, 70 to 79 return C, else F.”

4) Extract part of a text string

“From ‘INV 2026 00041’, extract the last 5 digits.”

5) Workdays and due dates

“Add 5 business days to a date, excluding weekends (and holidays if provided).”

Excel 365 vs legacy Excel vs Google Sheets, what changes?

A lot, honestly. The same goal can need different functions depending on where you run it.

Modern Excel (365) tends to use XLOOKUP, LET, FILTER, UNIQUE, dynamic arrays

Legacy Excel (2016) often needs INDEX/MATCH, helper columns, or different patterns

Google Sheets has its own quirks, plus functions like ARRAYFORMULA, QUERY, and different text split behavior

That’s why the version selector exists. It’s not just a label, it changes what “best” looks like.

Why the explanation matters (not just the formula)

Copy paste works, until it doesn’t. The explanation is there so you can:

confidently fill down without breaking references

adjust ranges when your sheet grows

change the criteria without rebuilding everything

spot mistakes like mixed relative and absolute references (A1 vs $A$1)

learn the pattern so next time is easier

If you’ve ever stared at a formula like =IFERROR(INDEX(...), "") and thought “I get it but I don’t really get it”, the extra context helps.

One small tip that saves a lot of time

When you paste sample data, include the headers and keep them exactly as in your sheet. “Column A” and “Column B” are fine, but real header names usually produce a cleaner, less ambiguous result.