Google Sheets and Excel MCP Servers: Spreadsheets From an Agent

For Google Sheets there are two official routes. Claude’s Google connectors read spreadsheets through Drive, and a separate Google Sheets connector, in beta, lets Claude create sheets and edit them live beside the chat. Google also runs its own Sheets MCP server at https://sheetsmcp.googleapis.com/mcp/v1, in Developer Preview, which reads values and writes cells, formulas and whole-sheet changes with your own Google Cloud project and OAuth client. For Excel, no Microsoft MCP server works at the level of cells today: Claude’s Microsoft 365 connector reads Excel files in SharePoint and OneDrive, and creates or updates files when an admin turns write tools on, while Microsoft’s Work IQ servers handle files, not cells. Whatever the route, the scope covers every spreadsheet the account can open, a write reaches everyone who shares the file, and any cell can hold text meant for the assistant.

The Drive and Gmail sides of the same Google family are covered in Google Drive and Docs MCP and Gmail and Google Calendar MCP. This piece is about spreadsheets.

Which route fits

• You use Claude on the web or desktop and want it working today: Claude’s Drive connector to read, plus the Sheets connector to edit.
• You want to own the OAuth client, the scopes and the Cloud project, or use another MCP host: Google’s Sheets MCP server.
• You use ChatGPT: its Google Drive app, which carries the Sheets actions.
• Your spreadsheets are in Excel on SharePoint or OneDrive: Claude’s Microsoft 365 connector, or Claude for Excel inside the workbook.
• You need something none of these does: a community server, after the checks further down.

Claude’s Google Sheets connector

Anthropic’s guide to Google Workspace connectors↗ (opens in a new tab) splits the job in two. The Google Drive connector searches for files and reads Sheets, taking the text only. The Google Docs, Sheets and Slides connectors, in beta, are separate: they create new files and edit them live in a pane beside the chat, and you and Claude can work in the same sheet at once. You turn them on from the plus sign in the chat, under Connectors, then paste a Sheets link or ask for a Google Sheet by name. Asking for a generic spreadsheet without naming Google makes a local file instead.

By default Claude asks for your approval before actions such as sharing, moving or trashing a file. On Team and Enterprise plans an Owner or Primary Owner enables the connectors first and decides whether members may let those actions run without asking. On the Google side, a Workspace admin may need to trust Claude as an app before anyone can sign in, as the Drive guide describes.

Google’s Sheets MCP server

Google’s Sheets MCP reference↗ (opens in a new tab) labels the server Developer Preview, available through the Google Workspace Developer Preview Program, so expect tool names to change. Each tool maps to a Sheets API method:

• Read: get_values for a range of cells, and get_spreadsheet for titles, sheet names, grid properties and, if asked, the full grid data.
• Write: update_values, update_formulas and insert_dimension, and update_spreadsheet, which runs a batch of structural changes.

Look closely at update_spreadsheet. Its list of allowed changes includes deleteSheet, deleteRange, deleteDimension for rows and columns, findReplace, sortRange, pasteData and changes to data validation and conditional formatting. It is the sheet-level equivalent of a delete tool, and a single call can hold several changes.

Setup, in outline

1. In a Google Cloud project, enable the Google Sheets API (sheets.googleapis.com) and the Google Sheets MCP API (sheetsmcp.googleapis.com).
2. Configure the OAuth consent screen: Internal if you are on Workspace, or External with named test users.
3. Add the four scopes Google lists: drive.readonly, drive.file, spreadsheets.readonly and spreadsheets.
4. Create an OAuth client and add the server to your MCP host. In Claude, that is a custom connector with the client ID and secret under Advanced settings, the same steps the Drive and Gmail servers use.

claude mcp add --transport http \
  --client-id YOUR_CLIENT_ID --client-secret --callback-port 8080 \
  google-sheets https://sheetsmcp.googleapis.com/mcp/v1

As with the other Workspace servers, register http://localhost:8080/callback as a redirect URI on the client first, and remember Google’s requirement to screen prompts and responses for prompt injection, with Model Armor or a solution of your own that you document.

ChatGPT and Sheets

In ChatGPT, Google Sheets is not a separate server address. OpenAI’s help center says Docs, Sheets and Slides actions come through the Google Drive app, subject to the Google permissions you grant and the actions your workspace allows, and OpenAI also documents a separate ChatGPT for Excel and Google Sheets. How apps work in ChatGPT generally is in ChatGPT connectors and apps.

Excel: what Microsoft and Anthropic offer

Excel has no Sheets-style MCP server from Microsoft. The practical routes are these:

• Claude’s Microsoft 365 connector. Anthropic’s guide to connecting to Microsoft 365↗ (opens in a new tab) lists Excel, including older .xls files, among the formats Claude can open in SharePoint and OneDrive. With write tools enabled by your admin, Claude can create and update files there. It needs a work or school account in a Microsoft Entra tenant; the details are in Claude with Microsoft 365.
• Claude for Excel. An add-in that works inside the open workbook, rather than across your tenant, with changed cells highlighted for you to review.
• Microsoft’s Work IQ servers. The Work IQ MCP overview↗ (opens in a new tab) marks them as a preview feature and lists servers for Mail, Calendar, SharePoint, OneDrive, Teams, Word and more. SharePoint and OneDrive manage files, folders and lists; none is listed for Excel cells. Setup and licensing are covered in the Outlook MCP server guide.

Community servers

Many open-source servers cover Google Sheets, and many more read and write Excel workbooks on disk. None is recommended here. Before you run one, check who publishes it and whether it is maintained, which scopes it asks for (full drive is very different from drive.file), whether it signs in as you or with a service account key, and where that key or your refresh token is stored. A service account can open every sheet shared with it, so share only the sheets it needs. Check whether it can delete sheets or overwrite formulas you rely on, and pin the version you read. The wider checklist is in MCP security risks.

Scopes: whole files, whole accounts

Google’s page on Sheets API scopes↗ (opens in a new tab) makes two points worth knowing before you connect anything. spreadsheets can see, edit, create and delete all your spreadsheets, and spreadsheets.readonly can see all of them. And scopes apply to a whole spreadsheet file; they cannot be limited to one sheet inside it. To stop edits to part of a file, Google points to protected ranges. drive.file, which covers only files the app created or you opened with it, is the narrow option Google recommends, but the Sheets MCP server asks for the broad scopes too.

The risks spreadsheets add

• Formulas. A formula is code that runs when the sheet recalculates. Google’s help page for IMPORTDATA↗ (opens in a new tab) shows it fetching a URL, and a URL can carry data out as easily as bring it in. Treat any formula an assistant writes, or one a stranger typed into a shared cell, as something to read before it lives in a sheet you care about. Ask for values rather than formulas when values will do.
• Shared sheets. A write reaches everyone who uses the file, at once. A sort, a find-and-replace or a deleted column can break other people’s formulas and lookups, and a structural batch can hold several such changes. Version history lets you roll back, but others may have acted on the broken sheet by then.
• Instructions in cells. Anyone who can edit a shared sheet, fill in a form that feeds one, or send you a file can put text in a cell aimed at the assistant. Reading the sheet is how it arrives; a write tool is how it would act. The pattern is covered in indirect prompt injection.

Prompts that keep it safe

• Name the file and the range. “In the Q3 Budget sheet, read the Totals tab, rows 1 to 40” beats “look at the budget.”
• Say read-only out loud. “Summarize the open items in the Vendor Tracker sheet. Do not edit, sort, share or delete anything.”
• Write somewhere new. “Put the cleaned list in a new sheet in a new file” leaves the original untouched.
• Ask to see changes first. “List the cells you would change and the new values. Wait for me to say go.”

When the spreadsheet is really a task list

Many team spreadsheets are task trackers that outgrew their columns: a status column nobody updates, an owner column with three names in it. If that is the sheet, a board may serve better. fenbs is one: with it connected at https://fenbs.ai/api/mcp, an assistant can read the rows through any of the routes above and file each open one as a feature, enhancement or bug with a priority from 1 to 10, searching first so nothing is filed twice. History records every task under the assistant’s name. Be honest about the trade: fenbs has no custom fields and no due dates, so a date or an owner from the sheet goes into the note. If you would rather review first, paste the rows into Add many yourself. The columns worth keeping in any tracker are in the project tracker template.