Ask Questions About a Spreadsheet in Plain English

If you have ever stared at a spreadsheet knowing exactly what you wanted to find but not which formula to use, you are not alone. The good news is that you can now ask questions about a spreadsheet in plain English and get a calculated answer — no formula syntax, no pivot tables. You type a question, and the answer comes back as a number, a table, or a chart.

Why ask questions about a spreadsheet in plain English?

Formulas are powerful, but they have a steep learning curve. You need to remember function names, nest them correctly, and get every cell reference right. One misplaced comma and the whole thing breaks.

Plain English removes that friction. Instead of building =SUMIFS(...), you simply ask:

• "What were total sales by region last quarter?"
• "Which 10 customers spent the most?"
• "Show me monthly revenue as a line chart."
• "What's the average order value for repeat buyers?"

You describe the outcome you want, and the tool figures out how to calculate it against your columns. It is the difference between knowing what you want and having to remember how to build it.

How it works

AskCSV lets you open a CSV or Excel file and start asking. Here is the whole flow:

1. Open the app and drag in your file. Use a CSV or Excel file, or paste delimited spreadsheet data. The first row should contain column headers.
2. Type a question in plain English. Use everyday language — "top products by profit," "how many orders shipped late," anything about your columns.
3. Read the answer. You get a clear result: a figure, a sorted table, or an auto-generated chart you can use immediately.
4. Keep going. Ask a follow-up to slice the data further, compare periods, or drill into a segment. Each question builds on your file.

That's it. There is nothing to configure and no query language to learn.

How the answer is calculated

This is the part that matters when real business numbers are involved. Your question becomes a read-only SQL query over your file in the browser, and the query runs over the whole file rather than a sample. Totals, counts, and averages are computed in code from the query result, and the generated SQL is shown with each chart — so you can see whether it summed what you meant to sum.

That means:

• The numbers are query results, not prose. The AI explains the result; it does not produce the figures.
• The calculation is auditable. The SQL behind each chart is on screen, for every answer.
• No account is needed to try it. Guests get $0.25 of credits to try it (about 5 answers); signing in with Google ties credits and billing to an account.
• Works with your own spreadsheet. CSV, TSV, delimited TXT, and Excel .xlsx all work — for a workbook, every sheet is read.

Your file is opened in this browser and kept in this site's storage for your account or guest session; it is not uploaded. AskCSV keeps what the AI sees to a minimum: to write the SQL and explain the result, the AI provider (OpenAI) gets only your question, the file's name and row count, the columns you chose to share with up to 10 sample rows, up to 100 rows of each query result plus summary figures, and the earlier messages in the chat. Guest credits expire 7 days after they are issued, and files and chats stay in this browser until you delete them or clear the site's data. The privacy policy lists the sub-processors involved.

Who this is for

You do not need to be technical. AskCSV is built for the business user, the analyst, the founder checking numbers before a meeting, and the operations manager who lives in spreadsheets. If you can describe what you're looking for in a sentence, you can get an answer.

It is also a great fit for quick, one-off questions — the kind where opening a formula-heavy workbook feels like overkill. Ask, read the result, move on.

A few tips for better answers

• Be specific about time and grouping. "Revenue by month in 2025" beats "revenue over time."
• Name your columns naturally. If a header is "amt," referring to "amount" or "sales" still usually works, but clearer questions get sharper results.
• Ask follow-ups. Treat it like a conversation. Narrow down, sort differently, or request a chart of the same result.

Try it with your own file

The fastest way to understand the workflow is to try the sample or a file you are authorized to use. Head to the app, open a CSV, and ask your first question in plain English. Guest use needs no account and nothing to install, and the SQL behind the answer is on screen.