Connecting your own AI account to Grid by Zaweba

Grid by Zaweba is a complete spreadsheet without any AI at all. If you'd like some help from an AI model, though, Grid can work with one, on your terms. There's no Zaweba AI service and no account to create with us. You connect your own AI account, or a model running on your own PC, and Grid uses it only when you ask.

Connecting an account

Grid can connect to a wide range of providers, including Claude, OpenAI, Gemini, Azure, Mistral, Grok and DeepSeek. If you'd rather nothing left your PC, it can use free models running locally, such as through Ollama. And if you have no account with an API at all, there's a copy and paste route: Grid prepares the request, you paste it into a chat website, and paste the reply back.

Until an account is connected, the AI actions are greyed out. That makes it obvious at a glance whether AI is available, and means nothing can happen by accident on a PC where it hasn't been set up.

The Ask AI panel

Ctrl+Shift+I, or the AI menu, opens the Ask AI panel. It holds a conversation about your sheet: ask how to work out a figure, what a formula does, or how to lay out a summary, and follow up with more questions in the same thread.

The panel has a Context sent view. It shows exactly what Grid included with your question, such as the sheet name, the selected cells and nearby formulas, so you can see what the model was told. That's useful for privacy, and also for understanding the reply: if an answer seems off, the context view often shows why.

Nothing is sent until you ask

Grid doesn't watch your sheet in the background or send anything ahead of time. Data goes to your AI provider only when you press to ask a question or run an action, and only the context for that request. Select the cells that matter before asking, and both the answer and the amount sent will be better focused.

What the AI menu can do

Beyond the panel, the AI menu has actions for specific jobs. Formula actions write, explain and fix formulas, with every suggested formula checked by Grid's own engine before you can insert it. Data actions clean up columns, analyse a selection, suggest a chart, fill down from examples, translate cells and generate sample data, with table replies previewed before they're written into the sheet. An image-capable account can also generate a picture for the sheet.

Using it well

Treat the AI as a knowledgeable helper rather than an authority. Check suggested formulas against a figure you can work out by hand. Read the preview before writing a table into cells. Each write is one undo step, so an unwanted result comes out with a single Ctrl+Z.

Be thoughtful about what you select. If a sheet holds personal or confidential data, either use a model on your own PC or select only the cells the question really needs. The Context sent view lets you confirm what went.

And remember the AI is optional. Everything else in Grid by Zaweba, from functions and pivot tables to charts and PDF export, works without it, offline, with no account.