Google Sheets and Excel in n8n: When Spreadsheets Still Hold Up as a Data Source

Google Sheets and Excel hold up in n8n as a data source as long as the data volume stays small and only a few processes access the same spreadsheet at the same time: for simple lists, approval logs, or small evaluations, n8n's built-in nodes are sufficient, but under heavy parallel access or frequent structural changes, a spreadsheet quickly becomes an error source. The Google Sheets node covers, according to the n8n documentation, among other things, creating, appending, updating, and deleting rows; the Excel node offers comparable operations for spreadsheets in OneDrive or SharePoint. As of: August 2026.

Which Operations Do the Two Nodes Specifically Offer?

According to the documentation, the Google Sheets node supports creating and deleting entire sheets as well as, at the row level, the operations append, update, append-or-update, read rows, and remove rows or columns. The Microsoft Excel node, by contrast, works on three levels: at the table level, rows can be appended, columns and rows read out, or a search performed for a specific column value; at the workbook level, new worksheets can be created and all workbooks retrieved; at the worksheet level, all sheets and their content can be read out. For missing functions, both nodes refer to the HTTP Request node, through which the respective API can be addressed directly.

How Does Authentication Work?

For the Google Sheets node, according to the documentation, you set up your own Google Sheets credentials. For the Excel node, according to the n8n documentation, three options are available: the standard Excel OAuth2 credentials, a generic Microsoft OAuth2 Graph credential that can be reused across several Microsoft nodes, and, from version 2 of the node onward, additionally a Microsoft Entra service principal for pure application authentication without a signed-in user. Anyone working in a government cloud environment must also set the appropriate Microsoft Graph API base URL in the credentials.

Where Do Spreadsheets Become an Error Source in Practice?

According to reports from the n8n community forum, most problems occur where several workflows access the same spreadsheet at the same time, or where the structure and position of the spreadsheet change at runtime. Cited issues include, among others, duplicate rows appended by parallel-triggering webhooks, an append-or-update operation that overwrites existing rows instead under high request frequency, lost rows under high concurrent load, and errors when the spreadsheet name or document ID is passed dynamically from previous steps. The official documentation does not describe these cases in detail; they mainly concern the interplay with high concurrency, not the basic function of the nodes themselves. In practice, this means: for a single, sequentially running workflow, Google Sheets and Excel are usually unproblematic; as soon as several parallel runs write at the same time, it is worth either putting a queue in front of the spreadsheet or switching to a real database.

From What Point Is Switching to a Database Worthwhile?

Switching is worthwhile as soon as a spreadsheet has to take on more than one of the following roles at the same time: data store for several parallel workflows, basis for complex queries with links between several sheets, or storage for data that is updated more often than once a minute. In all three cases, a spreadsheet is technically possible, but the error rate rises noticeably faster than the effort required for a small database. If you are unsure whether your current workflow can still be supported by a spreadsheet, we check this as part of our n8n consulting.

Frequently Asked Questions About Google Sheets and Excel in n8n

Can I Also Create New Sheets Within a File Using the Google Sheets Node?

Yes. According to the documentation, the node supports both creating and deleting entire sheets within a document as well as deleting individual rows and columns.

What Do I Do If a Required Operation Is Missing from the Node?

For this case, both nodes refer, according to the documentation, to the HTTP Request node: this allows the respective API from Google or Microsoft to be addressed directly, reusing the credentials already set up.

Why Does My Append-or-Update Operation Sometimes Overwrite Data Instead of Appending It?

This behavior is described several times in the n8n community forum under high request frequency, when several runs write to the same spreadsheet almost simultaneously. The official documentation does not address this; in practice, it usually helps to spread out the writing runs or serialize them via a queue.

Do I Need My Own Microsoft 365 Subscription for the Excel Node?

You need access to an Excel file in OneDrive or SharePoint as well as suitable credentials for one of the three supported authentication methods. Whether this uses your own subscription or an existing organizational access depends on your existing Microsoft 365 environment and is not an n8n-specific requirement.