Images
Excel and Google Sheets have no formula that reads text out of a photo. In Excel 365, use Data > From Picture > Picture from File (or Picture from Clipboard) — Excel runs OCR on the image and inserts the recognized rows and columns as real, editable cells, with a review step so you can fix misread characters before accepting it. Google Sheets has no equivalent import: upload the image to Google Drive, open it with Google Docs (right-click > Open with > Google Docs), which OCRs it automatically, then copy the recognized text into Sheets.
A worked example
A phone photo of a printed price list is saved as prices.jpg on your computer.
Data > From Picture > Picture from File, then select prices.jpg
Excel opens a review pane with the recognized table; accept it and the rows become real cells you can reference in formulas — check any 0/O, 1/l or 5/S misreads before accepting, since OCR mixes those up most often.
Which one do I need?
| If you want to… | Use |
|---|---|
| You're on Excel 365 (Windows or Mac) with an image file saved locally | Data > From Picture > Picture from File |
| You copied a screenshot or photo to the clipboard | Data > From Picture > Picture from Clipboard — no need to save the file first |
| You're in Google Sheets, not Excel | No built-in OCR — open the image with Google Docs (right-click in Drive > Open with > Google Docs) and copy the recognized text out |
| The photo has handwriting or a low-quality scan | Expect to hand-correct several cells — OCR accuracy drops fast outside clean, printed tables |
| You're on Excel 2019/2021 or an older perpetual license | Insert Data from Picture isn't available — it needs Microsoft 365 or the Excel mobile app |
Frequently asked questions
Why did Insert Data from Picture read my numbers wrong?
OCR most often confuses visually similar characters — 0/O, 1/l, 5/S — especially on low-resolution photos. Excel highlights uncertain cells in the review pane before you accept the import; always check those, especially in columns of numbers.
Can Google Sheets extract text from an image directly?
Not natively. Upload the image to Google Drive and open it with Google Docs, which runs OCR automatically and adds the recognized text below the image in the new Doc; copy that text into Sheets.
Does Insert Data from Picture work on every version of Excel?
No — it requires Microsoft 365 (Windows or Mac) or the Excel mobile app. It is not available in perpetual-license Excel 2019 or 2021.
Will the imported data keep my original formulas or formatting?
No. Insert Data from Picture creates a new range of plain values from what the OCR engine read, not the source workbook's formulas — reapply number formatting yourself after accepting the import.
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