Essential Skills

Beginner

4 min read 6 stepsApril 20, 2026Verified April 2026

Create Spreadsheets for Free with Excel Online

Use the free browser version of Microsoft Excel to organize data, build budgets, and create charts — no software purchase required.

At a Glance

Open Excel Online at Office.com

~23s

Open your web browser and go to office.com. Sign in with your free Microsoft account. Click the Excel icon (green with an X logo) from the app grid. On the Excel home screen, click New blank workbook to open a fresh, empty spreadsheet.

Quick Tip

A workbook is the whole file. A worksheet (the tab at the bottom) is a single page inside it. One workbook can hold many worksheets.

Enter data into cells

~20s

Click on any cell — for example, cell A1 in the top-left corner — and start typing. Press Tab to move one cell to the right, or press Enter to move one cell down. Type column headers in row 1 to label your data, such as "Date," "Description," and "Amount." Then fill in your data in the rows below.

Write a basic formula

~37s

Click on an empty cell where you want a total to appear. Type an equals sign (=) to tell Excel you are writing a formula. Then type SUM( followed by the range of cells to add up, and close with a parenthesis. For example: =SUM(C2:C10) adds up everything in column C from row 2 to row 10. Press Enter and the total appears. Other useful formulas include =AVERAGE(C2:C10) for the average and =COUNT(C2:C10) to count how many items are in a range.

Quick Tip

You can also click and drag to select a range instead of typing it. Start typing =SUM( then click the first cell, hold Shift, click the last cell, then type ) and press Enter.

Format your data as a table

~20s

Select your data by clicking the top-left cell, holding Shift, and clicking the bottom-right cell. Then click Format as Table in the Home toolbar and pick a color style. Excel will add filter arrows to your column headers and stripe the rows for easier reading. Table formatting also makes it easier to sort and filter your data.

Create a simple chart

~24s

Select the columns of data you want to visualize — for example, the "Month" column and the "Total" column. Then click Insert in the top menu and choose Chart. Pick a chart type from the list, such as a Bar chart or Column chart. Excel will draw the chart on your worksheet. You can click and drag it to reposition it. Click on the chart to see options for changing colors and labels.

Save and share your spreadsheet

~30s

Excel Online saves automatically to OneDrive, so your work is always backed up. To share with someone, click the Share button in the top-right corner and either invite them by email or copy a link. To download a copy to your computer, click File then Save As then Download a Copy to get a standard .xlsx file that opens in any version of Excel.

Warning

Excel Online does not support macros. If someone sends you an Excel file that uses macros (.xlsm file extension), you will need the full desktop Excel to run those features.

You Did It!

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Excel Online is the free, web-based version of Microsoft Excel. You access it through your browser at office.com using a free Microsoft account — no software purchase or installation required. It works on Windows, Mac, iPad, and Android, and your work saves automatically to OneDrive.

Excel is a spreadsheet program, which means it organizes information into rows and columns on a grid. Each box in the grid is called a cell. You can type words, numbers, or dates into cells, and Excel can do math for you automatically using formulas. For example, you could type a list of monthly expenses, and Excel will add them all up with a single SUM formula.

Excel Online covers all the everyday uses people rely on spreadsheets for: tracking a household budget, keeping a list of contacts, organizing a recipe collection, recording medical appointments, or logging monthly bills. It handles basic formulas, table formatting, sorting data, filtering lists, and creating simple charts like bar graphs and pie charts.

There are a few things Excel Online does not do that the paid desktop version can: it does not support VBA macros (automated scripts), it has fewer chart customization options, and some advanced features like Power Query are not available. For most personal and small-business needs, though, Excel Online is more than enough.

The best way to learn Excel is to start with a simple project. A monthly budget spreadsheet is a perfect first project. You will learn how to enter data, write formulas, and format your sheet all at once.

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