How to Do Predictive Analysis in Google Sheets with ChatGPT
Predicting the future sounds like something out of science fiction, but you can get surprisingly close using tools you already know and love. By combining the number-crunching power of Google Sheets with the brainpower of ChatGPT, you can forecast future trends, sales, or website traffic without needing a Ph.D. in data science. This article will show you exactly how to perform predictive analysis using your own data in just a few simple steps.
What is Predictive Analysis, Anyway?
Forget the complicated definitions for a minute. At its core, predictive analysis is just about making educated guesses about the future based on things that have already happened. It’s like noticing it gets colder every October and predicting you’ll need a jacket in November - but for your business data.
You use historical data to spot patterns, identify trends, and then project those patterns forward. For businesses, this can answer critical questions like:
“How many widgets are we likely to sell next quarter?”
“What will our website traffic look like over the holidays?”
“Based on current sign-ups, how many new customers will we have by the end of the year?”
Traditionally, this required complex statistical software or an experienced data analyst. Now, with ChatGPT, anyone with a spreadsheet can get started.
Why Use Google Sheets and ChatGPT?
This dynamic duo is perfect for anyone who wants to dip their toes into data forecasting without a steep learning curve or expensive software. Google Sheets is free, collaborative, and familiar to almost everyone. ChatGPT provides the analytical engine, translating your simple questions into statistical models behind the scenes.
Basically, Google Sheets holds your data, and you deputize ChatGPT to be your on-demand data analyst. It’s a powerful, accessible, and budget-friendly way to get started with forecasting.
Step 1: Get Your Data Ready in Google Sheets
This is the most critical step. The quality of your prediction depends entirely on the quality of your data. Think of it as providing good ingredients for a recipe - if your data is messy, your forecast will be, too. This is often summed up by the acronym GIGO: Garbage In, Garbage Out.
Your goal is to organize your historical data into a clean, simple table. For most forecasts, a simple two-column layout works best:
Column A: The Time Period (e.g., Date, Month, or Week)
Column B: The Metric You Want to Predict (e.g., Sales, Users, Traffic, Units Sold)
Example: Formatting Monthly Sales Data
Let’s say you want to predict sales for the next quarter. Your spreadsheet should look something like this:
Placeholder for example data
Before you move on, do a quick sanity check on your data:
Is it consistent? Make sure your dates are all formatted the same way (e.g., MM/DD/YYYY) and your numbers don't contain any stray text or symbols (like commas or dollar signs, ChatGPT usually handles these fine, but it's cleaner without them).
Are there gaps? Make sure you have data for each time period. If you’re tracking monthly sales but you’re missing data for July, the model will struggle. Either find that data or, for a simple analysis, remove the row if it's not a critical piece of a larger trend.
Is there enough of it? More data is generally better. For a monthly forecast, having at least 12-24 months of data will give you a much more reliable prediction than just having three months' worth.
Step 2: Take Your Data to ChatGPT
While there are third-party Google Sheets add-ons that integrate directly with ChatGPT, the easiest and most accessible way to start is by using the ChatGPT web interface you’re already familiar with. This method doesn’t require you to install anything or handle API keys.
Here’s the process:
Select the data in your Google Sheet, including the headers (e.g., "Month" and "Sales").
Copy it (Ctrl+C or Cmd+C).
Open a new chat at https://chat.openai.com/.
Paste the data directly into the chatbox (Ctrl+V or Cmd+V).
Now, everything is set up for the most important part: asking the right question.
Step 3: Crafting the Perfect Prompt for Predictions
How you ask your question determines the quality of your answer. You need to give ChatGPT clear context and instructions. Don’t just paste the data and say, "What's next?"
A good predictive prompt should include these four elements:
The Context: Tell the AI what the data represents.
The Task: State clearly that you want a prediction or a forecast.
The Horizon: Specify how far into the future you want to predict (e.g., "the next 3 months," "the next 6 weeks").
The Format: Ask for the output in a clean format, like a table, so you can easily copy it back.
Example Prompts for Different Scenarios
Here are a few templates you can adapt. Notice how they all follow the structure above.
For Predicting Sales:
For Predicting Website Traffic:
For Customer Sign-ups:
After you submit your prompt, ChatGPT will analyze the data, identify the underlying trend (and sometimes seasonality), and generate the forecast you requested.
Step 4: Interpreting the Predictions and Taking Action
ChatGPT will likely give you both the predicted numbers and a short explanation of its reasoning. It might say something like, “The data shows a consistent positive trend with an average growth of about 8% month-over-month. The forecast for the next three months reflects a continuation of this growth.”
Remember, these predictions are not infallible. They are AI-generated estimates based only on the historical data you provided. The model doesn’t know about your upcoming marketing campaign, a new competitor entering the market, or global economic shifts. It’s simply projecting the past into the future.
So, how do you use these numbers? Treat them as a baseline. A data-informed starting point for your strategic planning.
Setting Goals: If your forecast predicts 150 sales next month and your team's goal is 250, you now know that you need a specific plan to bridge that gap.
Managing Inventory: If you sell physical products, the forecast can help you stock the right amount of inventory - avoiding both stockouts and over-buying.
Allocating Budgets: If traffic is predicted to grow, maybe it's time to invest more in server capacity or customer support to handle the increase.
Pro Tip: Go Deeper with Follow-up Questions
Don't stop at the first answer. The conversational nature of ChatGPT is perfect for digging deeper. Ask follow-up questions to refine your understanding:
"Can you plot this forecast on a simple chart?"
"Which month was the biggest outlier compared to the trend line?"
"What is the projected year-over-year growth rate based on this forecast?"
Final Thoughts
This simple process of using Google Sheets and ChatGPT makes predictive analysis accessible to everyone, helping you move from reactive decision-making to proactive strategy. You can replace gut feelings with data-driven forecasts to better prepare your business for what's coming next.
While this manual copy-and-paste method is a great start, a lot of time can be lost moving data between platforms. At Graphed, we've built a way to automate this whole process. We connect directly to your data sources like Google Analytics, Shopify, Facebook Ads, or HubSpot, so you work with real-time data automatically. Instead of crafting detailed prompts in a separate tool, you can simply ask https://www.graphed.com/register a question like, "forecast my revenue for the next three months," and get an interactive, live-updating dashboard in seconds.