Build spreadsheets with AI, with every formula checked before it’s used
Tinkerly builds budgets, trackers, price lists and timesheets from a sentence or from a file you attach. The AI plans the sheets, headers, formulas and formats; the app checks every formula before it goes in a cell, and you review the result before it’s saved. Download it as Excel or CSV.
Updated · By The Tinkerly team
How do you make a spreadsheet with AI?
Open AI Sheets and describe the sheet: what it tracks, the period and the currency. The AI builds it on a copy, and you see the result highlighted before anything changes. Accept keeps it, Discard throws it away, and accepting saves a version you can go back to.
Step 1: Describe it
“A 12-month budget with income, expenses and savings rate”, or attach a report and ask for a sheet of its figures.
Step 2: Answer its question
When the currency, units or period aren’t clear, it asks first instead of guessing.
Step 3: Review the preview
New sheets, formulas and formats are highlighted. Edit cells right there, then Accept or Discard.
Step 4: Keep working
Edit like any spreadsheet, or ask the AI for a formula, a chart or a cleaned-up column.
Does the AI type your numbers into the sheet?
No. Numbers from your file are copied by code, cell for cell, so none are dropped or changed. The AI sees only the shape of the data (column names, types and a sample of rows) and answers with instructions: which sheets, columns, formulas and formats to make.
Every formula the AI writes is calculated by the spreadsheet engine first. One that doesn’t work, or gives an error such as #REF! or #NAME?, is left out and listed, never put in a cell silently.
What files can it build a sheet from?
Excel and CSV files, and tables in Word, PowerPoint, PDF, HTML, Markdown, JSON, XML and text files. Pictures of tables and scanned PDF pages are read by an AI model, a page or a strip at a time. You can also open these files directly as a new workbook.
When several tables are found, each becomes its own sheet. A total row in the file is checked against the rows above it, so a misread table shows up.
What happens when the numbers aren’t in the file?
You choose. Ask first, let the AI estimate, or leave the gaps for you. Every input goes on one Assumptions sheet, marked as taken from the file, worked out from it, or estimated. A quote said to be from the file is checked against the file’s text, so a made-up source can’t pass.
- Estimates come with a one-line reason and a low and high value, and a switch picks the conservative, base or optimistic case.
- Without permission to estimate, a missing input is an empty cell marked Needs input.
- Other sheets use the inputs by name, so changing one recalculates everything.
What else can the AI do in a spreadsheet?
Besides building a sheet, it writes a formula from a sentence, explains a formula in plain words, cleans up messy columns, answers questions about the data, adds charts, and fills a column row by row, such as sorting comments into positive, neutral and negative.
| Question | What you ask | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Formula | “Total sales for the North region” | A formula in the selected cell |
| Explain | A formula you didn’t write | What it does, in plain words |
| Clean | “Trim spaces, turn amounts into numbers” | Tidy data, duplicates removed |
| Ask | “Which month grew the most?” | An answer, and a summary sheet if useful |
| Fill | “Classify each comment” | A column filled in batches of rows |
What does it cost?
Each AI request is billed at the chosen model’s price per message, plus a small fee for the spreadsheet tool. AI Fill works in batches of rows, each batch one charge, and shows an estimate before it runs. Typing, formulas and charts you add by hand are free.
An answer that can’t be used isn’t charged, and a failed batch in AI Fill isn’t either. Reading a scanned page or a picture is charged per page. A chat message costs from 1 to 11 credits today, depending on the model. The pricing page lists every model.
What can’t it do yet?
Charts aren’t included in the Excel download yet. There are no pivot tables beyond the summary sheets the AI writes as formulas, and no filter controls on columns. Older .xls and OpenDocument .ods files can’t be opened yet; save them as .xlsx first.
Several people can work on a spreadsheet in a shared project, but there’s no live co-editing: when two saves clash, the app asks whether to load the other one or keep yours.
Keep reading
Build your first AI spreadsheet
Sign up free with no card, describe the sheet, and review every formula before you keep it.