# Google Sheets API vs Microsoft Excel (Microsoft Graph workbook API)

> Google Sheets API scores 76.3 (BB) on agent readiness against Microsoft Excel (Microsoft Graph workbook API)'s 58.5 (C), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do sheets read. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-sheets-api-vs-microsoft-excel-graph
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-sheets-api-vs-microsoft-excel-graph.md (~2,300 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-sheets-api-vs-microsoft-excel-graph.min.md (~730 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-sheets-api-vs-microsoft-excel-graph.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-08

Google Sheets API scores 76.3 (BB) on agent readiness against Microsoft Excel (Microsoft Graph workbook API)'s 58.5 (C), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do sheets read.

- Google Sheets API: grade BB, 76.3/100, rank #33 of 629. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/google-sheets-api.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/google-sheets-api.json
- Microsoft Excel (Microsoft Graph workbook API): grade C, 58.5/100, rank #399 of 629. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/microsoft-excel-graph.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/microsoft-excel-graph.json

## Which one, for what

### Google Sheets API (BB)

Good for: Agents reading and writing cells, formulas and formatting in spreadsheets people already keep in Google Sheets.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 90 against 62
- Security & auth, 80 against 65
- Payments & pricing, 35 against 15
- Maintenance & community, 85 against 53
- Transparency & trust, 80 against 75

Also in its favour:
- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better
- No incidents deducted, where Microsoft Excel (Microsoft Graph workbook API) loses 4 points for them

Watch for: Quotas are 300 reads and 300 writes a minute per project and 60 each per user per project

### Microsoft Excel (Microsoft Graph workbook API) (C)

Good for: Agents working on .xlsx files that already live in a Microsoft 365 tenant, and for using Excel's calculation engine through function endpoints.

Watch for: Reference pages list delegated permissions only and mark application permissions as not supported


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Google Sheets API | Microsoft Excel (Microsoft Graph workbook API) | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 90 | 62 | Google Sheets API +28 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 83 | 85 | Microsoft Excel (Microsoft Graph workbook API) +2 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 74 | 73 | Google Sheets API +1 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 80 | 65 | Google Sheets API +15 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 35 | 15 | Google Sheets API +20 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 85 | 53 | Google Sheets API +32 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 80 | 75 | Google Sheets API +5 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -4 | |
| **Total** | | **76.3 · BB** | **58.5 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Google Sheets API | Microsoft Excel (Microsoft Graph workbook API) |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Google | Microsoft |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://sheets.googleapis.com/v4` | `https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth | OAuth |
| Pricing | Free | Your plan |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under the Google APIs Terms of Service. The client libraries are Apache-2.0 | MIT (SDKs) |
| Tools exposed | 6 | none |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | no |
| Last release | 2026-10-07 | 2025-09-19 |
| Terms last updated | 2021-11-09 | 2025-10-01 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-10-01 | 2026-09-01 |
| Customer content may train models | yes | yes |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 12k stars, 1.9M npm/wk, 31.8M PyPI/wk | 835 stars, 2.9M npm/wk, 1.6M PyPI/wk |

## Verdicts

**Google Sheets API.** Batch updates apply atomically and count as one request, and the drive.file scope limits an app to files the user picks. Quotas are 300 reads and 300 writes a minute per project, reads are by range with no row filter or paging, and a person must complete OAuth consent first.

**Microsoft Excel (Microsoft Graph workbook API).** Ranges, tables, charts and 366 worksheet function endpoints are reachable over REST with a public OpenAPI, and a non-persistent session lets an agent test changes without saving them. The reference pages list delegated permissions only, with Files.ReadWrite as the least privileged scope, and writes take no idempotency key.

## Before you call either

### Google Sheets API

1. Ask for drive.file where the user picks the files. spreadsheets and spreadsheets.readonly are sensitive scopes and need extra verification for a public app
2. Send valueInputOption=USER_ENTERED to write formulas. With RAW the string =1+2 is stored as text
3. Put related changes in one spreadsheets.batchUpdate. It counts as one write request and none of it applies if any request is invalid
4. Pass ranges and a fields mask on spreadsheets.get and leave includeGridData off for large files
5. Back off exponentially on 429 and 503, and keep to one request a second per spreadsheet. After a timeout on values.append, read the range before retrying

### Microsoft Excel (Microsoft Graph workbook API)

1. Create a session with POST /workbook/createSession and send `workbook-session-id` on every call. Persistent sessions expire after about 5 minutes idle
2. Set `persistChanges` to false when you only need a calculation or a chart image, so nothing is saved to the file
3. Send one request at a time per workbook and wait for each response. Microsoft warns that parallel writes cause throttling, timeouts and merge conflicts
4. Add rows in one call with a two-dimensional `values` array, and check the table before repeating a row add that returned 504
5. Read bounded addresses such as A1:D500. A whole-column range such as C:C returns null for values, and writes to it are refused

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Google Sheets API or Microsoft Excel (Microsoft Graph workbook API)?

Google Sheets API scores 76.3 (BB) on agent readiness against Microsoft Excel (Microsoft Graph workbook API)'s 58.5 (C), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories.

### Do Google Sheets API and Microsoft Excel (Microsoft Graph workbook API) need an API key?

Both use an OAuth sign-in.

### Can an agent call Google Sheets API and Microsoft Excel (Microsoft Graph workbook API) without installing anything?

Yes. Google Sheets API has a hosted endpoint at https://sheets.googleapis.com/v4 and Microsoft Excel (Microsoft Graph workbook API) at https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-sheets-api-vs-microsoft-excel-graph.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-sheets-api-vs-microsoft-excel-graph.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "google-sheets-api", "b": "microsoft-excel-graph"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare google-sheets-api microsoft-excel-graph`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/google-sheets-api.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/microsoft-excel-graph.json

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