How to use Google Sheets: Google's free spreadsheet application that users can share and update in realtime (2024)

Google Sheets can be used to manage work or personal projects, create charts, make calculations, or perform statistical analyses.

What is Google Sheets?

Google Sheets is a cloud-based spreadsheet program. Users can create, share, and update spreadsheets in real time. The program also connects to other Google Workspace apps, like Google Slides, Google Docs, and Gmail.

What is Google Sheets used for?

Google Sheets can be used for any purpose that typically involves a spreadsheet. This might include creating budgets, making calculations, performing analyses, drafting charts, or managing projects or tasks. It can be used for business or personal projects.

You most likely don't need to worry about whether Google Sheets has the bandwidth for your dataset. Google Sheets can handle up to 10 million cells or 18,287 columns — far more than most users will need.

What's the difference between Google Sheets and Microsoft Excel?

Google Sheets is part of Google Workspace, while Microsoft Excel is part of Microsoft 365. Both let you create spreadsheets for various purposes, such as bookkeeping or planning, and they share some similar features, such as writing equations and presenting data in an organized, easy-to-understand way.

Google Sheets is free and easily allows multiple users to collaborate in a spreadsheet in real time, but it's also fairly simplistic. Microsoft Excel is a more complex program that's more difficult to collaborate in, especially because it reserves its full functionality for paying users (though it has a limited free version).

You can also convert Google Sheets into Excel files by using Sheets' downloading functions.

How to download Google Sheets

To access Google Sheets, visit sheets.google.com. Or, within Gmail or Google Chrome, click on the Google Apps icon in the upper-right corner (it's a series of three rows of dots), and select Sheets.

There's also a Google Sheets app for Apple and Android devices. Visit the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store and search for Google Sheets. Follow the prompts to download the app to your device.

What templates are available?

Google Sheets has dozens of templates available to create calendars, schedules, letters, calculators, budgets, and more. To browse the different templates, open Google Sheets, and then click Template Gallery in the upper-right corner.

You can also make your own Google Sheets templates, which you can use again and again. Once you create a new spreadsheet and customize it to fit your needs, include "template" in the file's name so you can find it easily. The next time you want to use the template, open it, click File from the top menu, and select "Make a copy." Give it a new name and start working.

Where to learn how to use Google Sheets

Google offers several quick start guides and cheat sheets online to help you learn to use Google Sheets. The company also provides a free three-hour Google Sheets online course to teach the program.

Other educational websites, like Udemy, have Google Sheets courses available. There are also plenty of YouTube videos featuring Google Sheets instructions and tutorials.