Users who are looking for a spreadsheet program have many options. Two popular programs are Google Sheets and Microsoft Excel. Knowing the advantages and disadvantages of each helps users decide what is right for them. Below is a chart to help illustrate the major advantages and disadvantages of each of these spreadsheet programs.

Limitations of Google Sheets

Google Sheets has some limitations not found in Microsoft Excel. For most users and organizations, these limitations are minor, and may never affect your work. However, they should be known, especially if you’re considering migrating spreadsheets from Excel to Google Sheets.

  • Cells: A maximum of 5 million non-empty data cells per document.
  • Rows: A maximum of 40,000 rows per document.
  • Columns: A maximum of 18,278 columns per document.
  • Sheets/tabs: A maximum of 200 individual sheets (“tabs”) per workbook.
  • Google Finance formulas: A maximum of 1,000 Google Finance formulas per workbook.
  • ImportRange formulas: A maximum of 50 cross-workbook reference formulas in a workbook.
  • ImportData, ImportHTML, ImportFeed, or ImportXML forumlas: A maximum of 50 formulas that import external data, per workbook.
  • String length: Any string used in a Google Sheets spreadsheet may not exceed 50,000 characters.
  • How to create a spreadsheet.
  • How to share files and folders in Google Drive.
  • How to change a tab-delimited text file to a CSV file.
  • See our Google Sheets page for further information and related links to Google Sheets.
  • See our Microsoft Excel page for further information and related links to Microsoft Excel.
  • Software help and support.
  • Computer-related comparisons.