Restore a table from an image with AI, then check the numbers

Prepare a small, readable image

Use the example below to make a screenshot of A1:C4, including its headings. The rows are Notebook, 3, 12.50; Pen, 10, 1.20; and Folder, 5, 2.40. Crop away unrelated content. Arte Sheets accepts PNG or JPEG up to 4 MB, with at most 6000 pixels on either side and 16 megapixels overall.

A photo contains visible values, not the formulas, validation rules or formatting of the original workbook. This workflow transcribes one table; it does not recover an original Excel file.

Choose the destination and send the image

Open a workbook and select an empty starting cell, such as A1. Open the AI assistant and choose Image → table. Selecting a file sends that image to OpenAI for recognition. Use an image you are authorized to share. An active Pro subscription, a verified email and available AI credits are required.

The result is positioned relative to the selected starting cell. The extraction is limited to 500 cells, 100 rows and 26 columns. Crop larger tables into smaller sections and review each section separately.

Review before applying

The preview lists each destination address, its existing value and the proposed value. Check headings, decimal separators, leading zeros and row alignment against the image. Uncertain cells are listed with an explanation and are not written; empty image cells also leave existing values unchanged.

Choose Apply changes only after reviewing the destination. Recognized nonempty values can replace existing values at those addresses. Undo reverses the applied batch. Read-only access cannot apply changes, and suggestion mode follows the document permissions. If the workbook changes while recognition is running, request a fresh preview.

Rebuild and test the arithmetic

After checking the six numeric inputs in B2:C4, calculate the total. Three notebooks cost 37.50, ten pens cost 12.00 and five folders cost 12.00. The expected total is 61.50. The screenshot itself does not prove those values are correct; compare every input first.

Change B2 from 3 to 4 and predict 74.00. This input change verifies that your total is a working formula rather than a pasted result.

=B2*C2+B3*C3+B4*C4

Check numeric types and credit usage

COUNT(B2:C4) should return 6. If it returns fewer, inspect values that may have been recognized as text or that use a decimal separator inconsistent with the workbook locale. Preserve identifiers such as 00123 as text. Visible formula-like text is not treated as a recovered executable formula.

The panel shows the credits used for the recognition request. The amount varies with image size and response length; it is not a fixed per-image charge. Reading an image uses the separate text-and-image extraction flow, not a microphone session. You can practise the example below without sending an image.

=COUNT(B2:C4)