Claude Google Sheets, Docs and Slides add-on guide

Claude for Google Workspace puts Claude in Google Sheets

Claude for Google Workspace is an add-on that lets you work with Claude from a sidebar next to a Google Sheets, Docs or Slides file. According to Anthropic's announcement, Claude reads whatever is open, notices which cells, text or slides you have highlighted, and writes its changes straight into the file.

Until now, using Claude on a spreadsheet meant copying a range into a chat and pasting the answer back. The sidebar removes that round trip. When you sign in with your Claude account, it also brings the models, connectors and skills you already use in Claude.

Which Claude plans include the Google Sheets add-on

The beta is open to every paid Claude plan (Pro, Max, Ultra, Team and Enterprise), but not to free accounts. For what each plan costs, see What Is Claude AI? Free Plan, Models, vs ChatGPT.

There is a second requirement on the Google side. The Google account you use has to be allowed to install apps from the Google Workspace Marketplace, which many companies restrict.

The Claude add-on vs. the new Google Docs connectors

Anthropic shipped two things on the same day, and they start from opposite ends. The add-on lives in the Google file and brings Claude to it. The new Google Docs, Sheets and Slides connectors, also in beta, live in a Claude chat and let Claude create or edit Google files from there.

With the connectors, you paste a Google file link or ask for a new doc, sheet or deck, and on supported setups the file opens in a pane beside the conversation. On Team and Enterprise plans, an owner or primary owner has to switch the connectors on first. Both are different from the older Drive, Gmail and Calendar connectors, which let Claude search and reference those services during a chat.

What Claude can do in Google Sheets, Docs and Slides

What you can hand to Claude depends on the app, but in all three you can also just ask questions without changing anything. The Help Center gives "What changed between the Q2 and Q3 tabs?" as an example of a read-only request.

Claude in Google Sheets: formulas, pivot tables and charts

In Google Sheets, Claude writes and fixes formulas, builds pivot tables and native Sheets charts, and adds new tabs. When data needs joining or cleaning, it loads the range into Python, does the work there, and writes the result back to the sheet.

Anthropic's own example starts from an empty sheet with source files attached. Claude is asked for a Q3 budget-versus-actuals report with one tab per team and a summary chart, and it marks the lines that went over budget. The Help Center adds smaller jobs, such as explaining how the total in H42 is calculated, converting a date column that mixes three formats to YYYY-MM-DD, or finding why a VLOOKUP returns #N/A.

Google Docs: Claude rewrites text and keeps the formatting

In Google Docs, Claude can reword a sentence or restyle a heading where it sits without touching the surrounding formatting. For larger rewrites it can put each proposed change on a card in the sidebar that highlights the passage, so you apply or dismiss it one at a time. The Help Center's examples include cutting a 14-page brief down to 6 pages while keeping every numbered requirement, and checking a contract for terms that are used but never defined.

One detail matters for shared documents. Claude's changes go in as direct edits, not as Google suggestions, and it cannot accept or reject suggestions that collaborators have already left.

Claude in Google Slides: new slides from your deck's layouts

In Google Slides, Claude builds new slides from the layouts and theme already in the deck, so they look like the rest of it. After that, it reviews its own slides and points out elements that overlap, run off the edge, or use text that is hard to read.

Charts are the catch. A chart that Claude adds to a slide is a picture, not a chart linked to Google Sheets, so it will not change when the numbers do. You have to ask Claude to make it again.

Install Claude from the Google Workspace Marketplace

You get the add-on from the Google Workspace Marketplace, either by installing it yourself or by having an admin install it for you. Which route works is decided by your company's Marketplace settings, not by your Claude plan.

Install the Claude add-on on your own Google account

If your organization allows Marketplace apps, the Help Center says setup takes about two minutes. The steps below are for a personal install.

1. Open the Claude listing in the Google Workspace Marketplace and click Install.
2. Pick the Google account you use for Docs, Sheets and Slides, review the permissions and click Allow.
3. Reload any Google file that was already open.
4. In a file, go to Extensions > Claude > Open Claude.
5. The first time, Google asks you to approve two permissions.
6. Sign in to your Claude account in the sidebar.

That single install adds Claude to all three apps. If the menu item does not show up, reload the file and check that you are signed in to Google with the account you installed it on.

How Google Workspace admins deploy the Claude add-on

A Google Workspace super administrator, the top-level admin role in a company's Workspace account, can install Claude for everyone or for chosen groups and organizational units. People in scope only need to reload their open files.

If you click Install and see "This application is not allowed by your administrator," your company blocks Marketplace apps. That message comes from Google, and only a Workspace admin can lift it.

The admin can either add Claude to the allowlist so people install it themselves, or use admin install, which works even while user installs stay blocked. Removing it later is done from the Google Admin console and takes effect the next time each user reloads a file.

How much the Claude add-on edits Google Docs without asking

A mode selector at the bottom of the sidebar decides how often Claude stops for you. The default, Ask before edits, describes each change on an approval card and waits until you click Allow. Accept all edits lets Claude work through the whole task without pausing.

Either way, every change is recorded under your name in Google's version history, so you can undo it or restore an earlier version like any other edit. For contracts or anything going outside the company, staying in Ask before edits lets you read each change before it lands.

Claude add-on actions that always need your approval

Even in Accept all edits, Claude still stops before it touches links, web images or file access. Three actions carry a "Security review" label and have no "always allow" option:

• Inserting an image from a web address
• Adding a link
• Removing someone's access to the file

Some requests are refused outright. Claude will not share the file, grant access, change who owns it, set up menus or scheduled automations, or pull an arbitrary web page into the file.

A file can also contain instructions planted by someone else, sometimes in white or tiny text. Claude treats file content as data and flags hidden text it finds. The Help Center still advises reviewing its proposed actions in files that came from outside your organization.

Claude Google Sheets beta limits and Google Drive access

As of October 2026 the add-on is a beta, and the Help Center lists what it cannot do yet. Some limits are on purpose: lifting them would require broader Google permissions than the two it asks for today.

To give Claude material from another file, paste it into the chat or attach it to your message. Content from connectors you turn on in the sidebar is the only other outside material Claude can see.

Google Workspace data sent to Claude is not used for training

Anthropic says it does not train its models on content sent through the add-on. Inputs and outputs are deleted from Anthropic's systems within 30 days, apart from exceptions listed in the Help Center.

The add-on asks Google for two permissions only: one to show the sidebar and one to read and edit the file it is installed in. It does not ask for Drive, Gmail, Calendar or contacts. For a company decision, these points from the Help Center also matter:

• Pro and Max use is governed by the Consumer Terms and Privacy Policy; Team and Enterprise use by the Commercial Terms and Data Processing Addendum.
• The add-on does not pick up custom data retention settings, and Zero Data Retention is not available.
• On Enterprise, the Compliance API, customer-managed encryption keys and OpenTelemetry audit export cover the add-on.
• It is not covered for HIPAA, so it should not be used with protected health information.
• Access through Amazon Bedrock, Google Cloud Vertex AI or Azure AI Foundry is not supported.

Check your plan, account and browser before installing

To use Claude in Google Sheets, you need three things: a paid Claude plan, a Google account allowed to install Marketplace apps, and Chrome, Edge or Safari. With those in place, one install from the Marketplace also covers Docs and Slides.

The beta only sees the open file and stops a task after six minutes. Since Claude's changes go in as direct edits, a sensible first run is a low-stakes file with Ask before edits left on.

Because the sidebar cannot open other Drive files, reference material has to go into the chat. If that material is a PDF, sakutto's PDF to Markdown converter turns it into plain text you can paste.