How to get a spreadsheet formula explained
Grid by Zaweba can explain any formula in plain words with Explain this formula, using your own AI account, alongside its trace arrows and argument tips.
Click the cell and choose Explain this formula. In Grid by Zaweba, that AI action describes in plain words what the formula in the active cell does, step by step, once you've connected an AI account of your own. Grid's built-in tools help too, without any AI: coloured reference boxes, trace arrows and argument tips show what a formula reads and how it's put together.
Using Explain this formula
Connect an account first, through the AI menu. Grid works with Claude, OpenAI, Gemini, Azure, Mistral, Grok, DeepSeek and others, with free models on your own PC such as Ollama, or with a chat website by copy and paste. Until an account is connected the AI actions stay greyed out.
Then select the cell holding the formula and choose Explain this formula. Grid sends the formula, the values it refers to, the header row and a little context about the selection, and only when you ask. The explanation appears in the Ask AI panel, which you can also open with Ctrl+Shift+I to ask a follow-up question, such as why a particular range was used or what would happen if a value were blank.
The panel's Context sent view shows exactly what went with the request, so you never have to guess.
Taking a formula apart yourself
Explanations are quicker to follow when you can see the formula's parts on the sheet. Press F2 or click into the formula bar and Grid draws a coloured box around each range the formula uses, matching the colour of the reference in the text. You can see at a glance which column is being summed and which cells are compared.
Click inside a function's brackets and the argument tip shows that function's arguments with the current one in bold, so a long nested formula tells you what each piece is for. Insert Function and Function Arguments go further, showing a description of each argument and a live result for the function you're inside.
Expanding the formula bar helps with long formulas. If you're editing, Alt+Enter puts a line break inside the formula, so each part can sit on its own line.
Following where the numbers come from
Trace precedents draws arrows from every cell a formula reads to the formula itself. Running it again shows the next level back. For a total built on subtotals built on lookups, that chain of arrows often explains more than words could.
Show Formulas switches the sheet to show every formula instead of its result, which helps when the question is why one row behaves differently from the rest.
Understanding functions you don't know
Many formulas are hard to read simply because they use an unfamiliar function. Grid documents all 496 of its worksheet functions in Insert Function, with a description and the meaning of every argument. Looking up GROUPBY or XMATCH there is often all it takes.
When the formula is broken
If the formula returns an error, Fix this formula is the AI action to try. It suggests a corrected version, and Grid's own engine checks that suggestion before offering Insert as formula: it must parse, use real functions with the right number of arguments and refer to names that exist. A dialog shows what the corrected formula works out to now.
Error checking, without AI, takes you to cells showing errors, and the error value itself is a clue: #REF! means a reference was deleted, #NAME? a misspelt function or name, #SPILL! something blocking a dynamic array.
Making formulas easier to explain next time
Names and LET make formulas read like sentences. A formula that says Total times Rate needs little explaining. When you write a long formula, give its parts names, and the next person to open the sheet, perhaps you, will thank you.
Between its own tools and an optional AI explanation, Grid by Zaweba gives you several ways into a formula you didn't write, all on your own PC unless you choose otherwise.
