Microsoft Excel for iPhone

No subscription needed for basic use

Microsoft no longer requires an Office 365 (Microsoft 365) subscription to use the core features of its Office apps on iPhone and iPad. Word, Excel, and PowerPoint are now offered as universal iOS apps with free editing capability. Some advanced tools and premium features remain behind a paid plan, but everyday creation and editing are available without a subscription.

Universal apps for iPhone and iPad

All three main Office programs—Word, Excel and PowerPoint—have been released as universal applications that run on both iPhone and iPad. This makes it easier to carry familiar productivity tools across multiple Apple devices without juggling separate versions.

Excel on touch devices: a hands-on experience

Excel’s interface has been adapted to work well with touch input. Navigation and data entry are intuitive: tapping a cell brings up the keyboard, selecting rows or columns is straightforward, and combining cells and creating formulas can be done with simple gestures. Many templates are included for common tasks, so you can quickly start from a prebuilt layout instead of building everything from scratch.

• Designed for landscape use to display more information on screen.
• Frequently used functions are grouped at the top of the screen for easy access.
• Freezing panes and other familiar features are present and often feel simpler than on desktop.

What Excel handles well — and where it struggles

Excel for iOS supports a broad set of features and a large collection of formulas, making it suitable for a wide range of tasks. It excels at quick edits, updating existing spreadsheets, lightweight bookkeeping, and viewing complex workbooks on the go. However, building very complex multi-sheet workbooks with extensive interlinked formulas or starting a full quarterly accounting model directly on a tablet can be more cumbersome than doing the same work on a desktop.

• Excellent for rapid edits, data entry, and simple to moderate spreadsheets.
• Less convenient for creating very large, multi-sheet financial models from scratch.
• Some advanced desktop-only capabilities remain limited or unavailable in the app.

Cloud compatibility and add-ins

If your device runs iOS 8 or later, Excel integrates with iCloud and other cloud storage services so you can open, edit, and save files from multiple devices seamlessly. iPad users on recent iOS versions can also install add-ins to extend Excel’s functionality, providing additional productivity tools not included in the default app.

AI assistance and recent improvements

Microsoft 365 Copilot brings AI-powered help into Excel, assisting with data analysis, trend detection, and producing clearer visualizations. These AI features can cut the time spent exploring data and help produce polished output more quickly.

The latest updates also focus on performance and reliability. A new Check Performance tool in the task pane helps identify and remove unnecessary formatting that can bloat workbooks and slow them down. The release also addresses bugs such as improperly closed embedded .xls files, failed collaborative uploads, and issues inserting pivot tables into new sheets.

Is this the best spreadsheet option on iOS?

For users who need to edit spreadsheets frequently and value parity with desktop features, Excel for iOS is a strong choice. Casual users may not require all of its capabilities, but for professionals who depend on Excel’s functions and formulas, the mobile app offers a practical, touch-friendly environment for getting work done away from the desk.