Docs

1. Install the add-on from the Google Workspace™ Marketplace, open a spreadsheet, and choose Extensions → Bulk AI Studio → Open Bulk AI Studio.
2. Sign in from the sidebar. This is required before any formula works — Google runs custom functions anonymously, so the sidebar is the only place that can establish who you are.
3. Paste the sample data below into a blank sheet, starting at cell A1.

Download the test workbook — a fictional retailer’s support tickets and prospect list, with every formula below already written out and the result to expect beside it.

In Google Sheets™: File → Import → Upload. The AI formulas will not run in Excel, only in Sheets with the add-on installed.

Every function here starts with AI_. Google Sheets has its own built-in =AI(), which will appear first in the autocomplete when you type =AI. That one is Google’s — it answers from Gemini, without sources, and does not use your credits. Ours is =BAI_PROMPT().

Free-form instruction. Named BAI_PROMPT because Google ships its own built-in =AI() in Sheets, which would shadow ours.

Sorts a cell into one of your labels. Point it at a range you have already labelled and it reuses exactly those, so a new row cannot invent a category.

Pulls one field out of the cell's own text. Empty if it is not there.

Translates the cell. Arabic and Urdu are tuned rather than left to the model's defaults.

Shortens the cell to at most the number of words you give.

One of positive, negative, neutral, mixed.

Several fields in one call, spilling across columns. Point it at your header row and each column is filled using its own heading. Three fields cost one credit, not three.

Asks about several cells at once, so the model sees the whole row rather than one value.

Looks up one fact about the thing named in the cell. Returns NOT_FOUND rather than guessing.

The same, with the source spilled into the next cell.

Answers a question that needs current information.

The test that matters most

Put a company you know well in a cell and ask for something that has changed recently — a CEO, a funding round, a headcount. Then try a company that does not exist:

=BAI_ENRICH("Zzyzxqq Holdings Ltd", "CEO")

It should return NOT_FOUND. Most AI enrichment will invent a plausible name here, and an invented name is indistinguishable from a real one once it is sitting in your spreadsheet. That refusal is the feature.

Custom functions stop after 30 seconds, which is Google’s limit, not ours. For anything larger, use Bulk run in the sidebar.

1. Select a column of cells — try A2:A4 from the sample data.
2. Type what you want in plain language: find the CEO of each company. Press Continue.
3. Check the sentence it shows you. It says what it is about to do before spending any credits.
4. Press Run. Results are written back in one pass; you can close the browser.

Then hover a result cell. Every looked-up value carries a note with the sources behind it and the date it was checked. That is the part no other spreadsheet AI tool does.

Select a range and ask a question about it — what is the pattern in these complaints? Tick Live to search the web instead of answering from training data. Insert into cell writes the answer back into your sheet.

A row costs the same whether the cell holds ten characters or a thousand, so you can count the cost of a run before starting it. See pricing for what each plan includes.