Guide to the Microsoft Excel Add-In

Utilize Climatiq’s custom formulas in Microsoft Excel to seamlessly convert your business activity data into carbon estimates.

Overview

The Climatiq Excel Add-In generates audit-ready carbon estimates directly within Microsoft Excel. It uses verified emission factors and data from Climatiq’s trusted Data Explorer  to calculate emissions across key business activities such as freight, energy, procurement and more. All estimates are GHG Protocol and ISO 14067 & 83 compliant, with results accompanied by a comprehensive audit trail for transparency.

This makes it easy to calculate, visualize, and analyze carbon emissions in a familiar spreadsheet environment. You can build custom reports, create graphs, and share results with stakeholders.

Pricing & Plans

Upon installing the Add-In from Microsoft AppSource, you’ll automatically be enrolled in our free Community plan. This includes 250 emission calculations per month with access to all Climatiq emission calculation formulas. Your monthly allowance resets on the 1st of each month.

Without an active plan, the Add-In provides limited functionality - you’ll only have access to General Estimates and General Search features. If you exhaust your monthly allowance, these basic capabilities remain available until your allowance resets.

Please note that the free plan is only meant for testing purposes. For commercial usage or if you need more than 250 calculations per month, please contact our team . You can also sign up for the Community plan directly here  if you haven’t installed the Add-In yet.

Installation Guide

Optional: Set your Climatiq Key

Once installed, only if you receive a warning message prompting you to set your Climatiq Key in the Support tab, please follow these steps.

You can then paste the key in the Climatiq Key box in the Support tab of the Add-In.

Your Climatiq Key connects the Add-In to your account and tracks your usage against your plan limits.

Navigating the Add-In

The Climatiq Add-In provides a sidebar interface alongside your Excel spreadsheet with four main tabs:

1. Calculate: Learn how to perform quick calculations in the Climatiq examples, as well as in your own files of business activity data.
2. Formulas: Browse all available formulas organized by category (Travel, Energy, Freight, etc.). Click Insert Formula to add any formula to your current cell. Alternatively, you can also access formulas directly in Excel by typing =CLIMATIQ in any cell to see the full list of available formulas.
3. Templates: Access pre-built templates aligned to GHG Protocol scopes, plus reference guides for units, regions, currencies, and fuel types.
4. Support: Set or update your Climatiq key, find tutorials, and access help resources.

Watch our walkthrough of the Add-In:

Key Concepts

Understanding these basics will help you get the most out of the Add-In.

How the Add-In Calculates Emissions

When you use a Climatiq formula, the Add-In connects to our database of verified emission factors, which are scientific values that convert activities (like flights or energy use) into carbon emissions.

Here’s what happens:

1. You provide activity details (like locations, distances, or energy amounts)
2. The Add-In shares this data with Climatiq’s API, where the applicable emission estimation methodology is applied and the relevant emission factor for your activity are selected and applied
3. Your results are calculated and returned with an audit trail showing exactly which emission factors were used

This ensures your carbon estimates are accurate, transparent, and compliant with reporting standards like the GHG Protocol.

Working with Formula Inputs

Each formula has required inputs that must be filled in, and optional inputs, shown with square brackets like [flightclass], that can be skipped.

Formatting Rules:

• Text values need quotation marks: "Berlin" not Berlin
• Numbers don’t need quotation marks: 100 not "100"
• Locations accept city names (“Berlin”), airport codes (“BER”), or coordinates (52.520008, 13.404954)

Example:

• Climatiq.Calculate_Travel_Air("BER", "JFK", "economy") ✓
• Climatiq.Calculate_Travel_Air("BER", "JFK") also works ✓ (flight class is optional)

Understanding Results and Errors

How Results Are Displayed

Climatiq formulas return results across multiple columns with CO2e emissions, distance/consumption data, applied emission factors, and calculation methodology. To add labels above your results, select the cell directly above your first result and click “Add Header” in the Formulas tab. To add further audit details to the results, utilize our audit-trail formulas.

Common Error Messages

• “Climatiq key not set”: Your Climatiq Key isn’t set correctly. Generate your key and go to the Support tab to set it.
• “#NAME!”: You forgot quotation marks around text, i.e. change Berlin to "Berlin".
• “You do not have access to this feature”: You’ve reached your monthly limit or this feature isn’t in your plan.
• Other calculation errors: Double-check that your inputs match the required format in the formula documentation.

See the Troubleshooting guide for more help resolving Excel errors.

Managing Your Usage

Every time a formula calculates (or recalculates), it counts toward your monthly plan limit of 250. By default, Excel automatically recalculates when you change inputs or reopen files.

To avoid overconsumption, preserve completed calculations as permanent values:

1. Select the cells with your calculation results
2. Copy them (Ctrl+C or Cmd+C)
3. Paste them back as values: Edit > Paste Special > Values

You can also disable automatic recalculation in Excel’s Formulas tab under Calculation Options > Manual.

Support and Feedback

If you have questions, reach out to the Climatiq team via the website chat or our support form . If you’re finding the Add-In helpful, we’d appreciate a rating on Microsoft AppSource.

Formulas

The custom Climatiq formulas are split into four major categories:

• Estimations: Easily calculate the emissions for different kinds of business activities, e.g. travel, shipping and energy usage based on detailed methodologies.
• Autopilot: Leverage Climatiq’s Autopilot to automate spend- and activity-based emission estimates.
• Search: Look up emission factors from our Data Explorer, directly within Excel.
• Audit Trail: Add comprehensive audit-trail details to your emission estimate results.

Our YouTube Playlist  provides step-by-step videos that guide you through every formula.

Freight Shipping

Intermodal Freight

Calculate the total estimated emissions of freight shipping. The distance between the locations will be calculated by considering the actual transport network where possible.

Climatiq.Calculate_IntermodalFreightTransport(start; end; mode; weight; weightUnit; direct; vehicle_details)

Parameters

Examples

Example inputs for vehicle_details

Add granularity to your Road, Rail, Air or Sea Freight calculations by including additional vehicle details. These need to be inputted in one vehicle_details input field, and not split out. Here are some examples of how to add these parameters into the Freight formula:

Road Freight

For road freight, it is possible to specify the vehicle_type, vehicle_weight and fuel_source. The table of valid parameter combinations is available here.

The following formula calculates emissions for a 10t road shipment from Berlin to Frankfurt using a diesel-powered van with a carrying capacity of ≤ 3.5t:

Climatiq.Calculate_IntermodalFreightTransport("Berlin","Frankfurt","road",10,"t",TRUE,"vehicle_type=van,vehicle_weight=lte_3.5t,fuel_source=diesel")

Sea Freight

For sea freight, it is possible to specify the vessel_type, tonnage and fuel_source. The table of valid parameter combinations is available here.

The following formula calculates emissions for a sea freight journey using a bulk carrier with a capacity of less than 10 deadweight kilotonnes (dwkt — the maximum tonnage that a ship can safely carry), powered by heavy fuel oil (hfo):

Climatiq.Calculate_IntermodalFreightTransport("Hamburg","Barcelona","sea",10,"t",FALSE,"vessel_type=bulk_carrier,tonnage=lt_10dwkt,fuel_source=hfo")

Air Freight

For air freight, it is possible to specify the aircraft_type of the vehicle, as well as the radiative_forcing_index. The table of valid parameter combinations is available here.

The following formula calculates emissions for a 10t air freight journey from Berlin to Cape Town in a freighter aircraft (dedicated cargo plane), with a radiative forcing index applied:

Climatiq.Calculate_IntermodalFreightTransport("Berlin","Cape Town","air",10,"t",FALSE,"aircraft_type=freighter,radiative_forcing_index=2")

Rail Freight

For rail freight, it is possible to specify the fuel_source of the vehicle, as well as the load_type. The table of valid parameter combinations is available here.

The following formula calculates emissions for a rail freight shipment for 10t of chemicals using a diesel-powered train:

Climatiq.Calculate_IntermodalFreightTransport("Berlin","Frankfurt","rail",10,"t",TRUE,"fuel_source=diesel,load_type=chemicals")

Travel

Air Travel

Calculate the total estimated emissions of air travel. The distance between the airports will be calculated using great circle distance.

Climatiq.Calculate_Travel_Air(start; end; flightclass; year)

Parameters

Examples

Road Travel

Calculate the total estimated emissions of road travel. The distance between the locations will be calculated by considering the actual road network where possible.

Climatiq.Calculate_Travel_Road(start; end; car_size; car_type; year)

Parameters

Examples

Rail Travel

Calculate the total estimated emissions of rail travel. The distance between the locations will be calculated by considering the actual rail network where possible. Otherwise the road distance will be used.

Climatiq.Calculate_Travel_Rail(start; end; year)

Parameters

Examples

Spend-based Travel

Calculate travel emissions based on spend-based data in any currency by using EXIOBASE emission factors. This calculation automatically takes inflation into account, if the year you spent the money was different than the year of the emission factor.

Climatiq.Calculate_Travel_Spend(spend_type; amount; currency; location; year)

Parameters

Examples

Energy

Electricity

Estimate the emissions of electricity usage. The formula also provides details on the associated well-to-tank, transmission and distribution losses and their well-to-tank emissions.

Climatiq.Calculate_Electricity(amount; region; year; connectionType; supplier; supplier_ef; energy_source; recs; excludeIEA)

Parameters

Examples

Fuel

Estimate the emissions of fuel combustion. The calculation also provides details on the associated scope 3, i.e. the well-to-tank emissions.

Climatiq.Calculate_Fuel(fuel_type; amount; unit; region; year)

Parameters

Examples

Heat & steam

Estimate the emissions of heat and steam usage for combustion and well-to-tank.

Climatiq.Calculate_Heat_Steam(amount; region; year; energy_source; loss_factor; supplier_co2e)

Parameters

Examples

Autopilot

Autopilot is an AI-powered calculation endpoint designed to automate spend- and activity-based emission estimates. It uses a proprietary natural language processing (NLP) model paired with Climatiq’s scientific expertise to streamline complex emission calculations, making carbon insights accessible to non-experts.

Autopilot significantly reduces the time and manual effort spent identifying the appropriate emission factors and mapping activity data. Capable of ingesting any taxonomy and unstructured data, this feature matches raw text content to the correct emission factors and delivers accurate and compliant emission estimates.

One-Shot Estimate

Calculate total estimated emissions produced for a particular activity, in kgCO2e, using free-text input. The best matching emission factor will automatically be selected and used for the calculation.

Climatiq.Autopilot(text; amount; unit; year; region; source; source_dataset; access_type; lca_stage; scope; region_fallback; inflation_adjustment)

Parameters

Examples

Suggest

Receive a number of suggested Emission Factors for a particular input query. You can adjust the number of suggestions to return. Suggestions are ordered by the most likely match first. For each result, a suggestion ID is returned, which you can apply via the Autopilot_EstimateSuggest formula to calculate the respective emissions.

Climatiq_Autopilot_Suggest(results; text; unit_type; year; region; source; source_dataset; access_type; lca_stage; scope; region_fallback; flatten)

Parameters

Example - Not Flattened

Estimate Suggest

Calculate an emission estimation for an emission factor match. To calculate an emission estimation you will need to first find an emission factor using the Suggest endpoint. When you have selected an emission factor, you can request for a calculation using the suggestion ID.

Climatiq_Autopilot_EstimateSuggest(suggestID; unit; amount; spend_year)

Parameters

Examples

Procurement

By Industry Classification Code

Estimate the emissions for a purchase using an industry classification code to identify the type of purchased goods or service. This calculation accounts for tax, trade and transport margins using per-sector and per-country margins from EXIOBASE, if no user-supplied margins are provided. It also corrects for currency exchange rates and inflation adjustments, using rates from the UN Treasury, supplemented with per-industry inflation numbers from Eurostat. You can find details on the methodology here.

Climatiq.Calculate_Procurement_ByClassification(scheme; code; region; year; amount; currency)

Parameters

Examples

By Climatiq Activity ID

Estimate the emissions for a purchase using a Climatiq activity ID to identify the type of purchased goods or service. This calculation automatically accounts for tax, trade and transport margins using per-sector and per-country margins from EXIOBASE. It also corrects for currency exchange rates and inflation adjustments, using rates from the UN Treasury, supplemented with per-industry inflation numbers from Eurostat. You can find details on the methodology here.

Climatiq.Calculate_Procurement_ByActivityID(activity_id; region; year; amount; currency)

Parameters

Examples

Other

Search Emission Factors

Search the emission factor database of Climatiq. Please be aware that this might only return a subset of results (depending on the number of results specified). The search works in the same way as our Data Explorer . The formula returns a table of results, so make sure the surrounding cells are empty when using this formula.

Depending on whether an existing Climatiq subscription to use the raw emission factors is in place, these will also be returned as part of the response. If you want to gain access to the raw emission factors, please reach out to our team .

Climatiq.Search_EmissionFactors(query; numberOfResults; sector; category; source; source_dataset; region; year; unit_type; lca_stage; scope; data_version)

Parameters

Examples

General Estimate

Calculate the total estimated emissions produced for a particular activity, in kgCO2e, using any emission factor in the Climatiq database.

Climatiq.Calculate(activityID; amount; unit; region; source; year; calculation_method)

Parameters

Examples

CBAM

Calculate total estimated emissions produced for a particular Combined Nomenclature (CN) code, for use with CBAM reporting.

Climatiq.Calculate_CBAM(cn_code; production_region; weight; weight_unit)

Parameters

Examples

Audit Trails

Search by ID

For further auditing, you can use the Search by ID formula to retrieve detailed information about a specific emission factor used in Climatiq calculations.

Climatiq.Search_ByID(ID)

Parameters

The formula requires the ID, not the activity_id. For example, the emission factor for Office machinery and computers  has:

• activity_id: office_equipment-type_office_machinery_computers
• ID: 1afd8f9f-6cd9-485d-9801-4d5f3e5286b2

By entering the emission factor’s ID into the formula, you’ll receive additional details including:

• The raw factor value, if you have access to it
• Year released
• LCA activity stage
• Calculation method
• Constituent gases (where applicable)
• Source dataset
• URL to the specified emission factor in our Data Explorer 

This provides auditors and reviewers with a straightforward link to our vetted emission factor database for transparent verification.
To label the output data with column headers, insert the Climatiq.Search_ById_Headers() formula within Excel.

Examples

Retrieve Factor Details

For further auditing, you can apply the Retrieve Factor Details formula to retrieve detailed factor information for multiple emission factors used in Climatiq calculations. If the original Climatiq calculation returned an “Applied Emission Factors” column with multiple factors, use the Retrieve Factor Details audit formula instead of the Search by ID formula.

Climatiq.Retrieve_FactorDetails(factors; flattened)

Parameters

Frequently Asked Questions

General

Which Excel versions support the use of the Add-In?

The Add-In is available for Excel on Windows (Excel 2013 and later), Excel on Mac (Excel 2016 and later) and Microsoft 365 Online. Installing it once for your Microsoft account via the Microsoft AppSource will make the Add-In available to you across all platforms.

Is the Climatiq Excel add-in free to use?

If you are signed up to our Community Plan, our Excel add-in is free for non-commercial use, supporting up to 250 calculations per month. If you require higher calculation volumes or commercial use, please contact our sales team  to discuss your needs or join a demo .

How do I use the Climatiq formulas to calculate emissions?

Access to all our formulas use the =CLIMATIQ format. When typing this into a cell in sheets, a variety of different formulas will appear. Alternatively, in the Formulas tab of the Add-In sidebar, there is an “Insert Formula” button. These formulas can be applied in your existing Excel workbooks of business data.

What emission factors are available in the Excel add-in?

By default, you can access emission factors from all sources except for ecoinvent , IEA  and EXIOBASE v3.10  data. These premium sources require an additional subscription to be in place and are available via the estimation and Autopilot formulas with a valid subscription with Climatiq in place.

Can we manage or revoke keys centrally?

Yes, you can manage your keys via the Climatiq dashboard  and create new keys for any occasion. We also recommend to make use of Climatiq’s project management. This allows you to create a new project in your Climatiq dashboard for each new engagement. Each key belongs to a project - this allows you to create separate keys for different use cases or scenarios - and a project can hold several keys. You can track the number of calculations made per project in the Climatiq Dashboard, and enable or disable keys associated to this project as needed.

How does performance scale if we have thousands (or tens of thousands) of rows?

The Add-In can handle up to 100 complex calculations being performed in parallel e.g. for shipment, travel, or Autopilot requests. Making parallel requests exceeding this volume within a short time frame may result in errors in Excel. We therefore recommend to perform calculations in batches, i.e. insert the formula into 100 cells, wait a few seconds for the calculations to be completed and continue with the next set of 100 calculations. If you are aiming to perform calculations for tens of thousands of data points at once on a large scale, we recommend reaching out to our team to explore data processing options via the Climatiq API directly.

How can I get a direct link to the emission factors used in my calculations?

In a new Excel cell, enter this formula to create a clickable link:

="https://www.climatiq.io/data/emission-factor/" & [ID_CELL]

Replace [ID_CELL] with the cell reference containing the emission factor ID from your results. Alternatively, our Search by ID and Retrieve Factor Details audit trail formulas also provide these URLs automatically.

Troubleshooting

Why am I getting an “Climatiq key not set” error in fields?

Your Climatiq key may not be set, was set incorrectly or Excel is not recalculating the formula. To fix this issue, ensure the Climatiq Add-In is installed and that your key is set in the “Overview” page, or that you have set the key for the current file in the Support tab of the Add-In. After setting the key, you can re-calculate the fields in which this error is shown.

Why am I getting a “#NAME!” error in my formulas?

This error is shown by Excel if it is trying to resolve the name of a formula or variable, but it not able to do so, because the name is unknown to Excel. One common cause are missing quotation marks (””) around alphabetical inputs. To fix this, make sure to wrap any text values, like city names, unit types, transportation modes and others in quotation marks (e.g., use “Berlin” instead of Berlin).

Another cause for this that Excel is not able to install the Add-In properly and is therefore unable to resolve the Climatiq formulas. In this case there should also be an error message shown in the footer bar of Excel. You can try to reinstall the add-in if custom formulas are not recognized. You can reinstall the Add-In by first navigating to the Add-in management view (Main Menu Bar - “Add-Ins” - “More Add-Ins” - “My Add-Ins”) and deleting the Add-In. You can then re-install it via the same view. If these fixes do not work, your company policies might block external Add-Ins from loading.

What does the “You do not have access to this feature” message mean?

You have already exceeded your monthly limit of 250 free calculations, or you are trying to access a calculation feature that is not part of your current subscription plan with Climatiq. Get in touch with our sales team to start a free trial based on your needs, or to learn more about our paid plans to upgrade for more access.

Why isn’t the Climatiq add-in showing up in Excel after adding it via the Microsoft AppSource?

The add-in may not be installed correctly. If the Climatiq Logo is appearing on your Excel navigation bar, but none of the formulas are working, you can try to reinstall the add-in. You can reinstall the Add-In by navigating to the Add-in management view (Main Menu Bar - “Add-Ins” - “More Add-Ins” - “My Add-Ins”) and first deleting it. Afterwards you can re-install it via the search bar in the same view. If the logo is not appearing in the navigation bar, open Excel > Click the red “Add-ins” button on the top right and search for “Climatiq” to install it.

How do I share an Excel sheet with Climatiq formulas?

If the recipient does not have the Climatiq Add-In installed, the Climatiq formulas will not be properly calculated in their Excel environments. Therefore, you will want to make sure to replace any cells using Climatiq formulas with the calculated values by copying the formula results and pasting them as values (Paste Special > Values).

Why am I getting an “Error loading add-ins” or “Error installing formulas” message?

These errors are usually caused by internal company firewalls blocking the required resources to be loaded. First try clicking the Climatiq Add-In in the Excel ribbon to manually initialize it. Alternatively, you can try to reinstall the Add-In. You can reinstall the Add-In by navigating to the Add-In management view (Main Menu Bar - “Add-Ins” - “More Add-Ins” - “My Add-Ins”) and first deleting it. Afterwards you can re-install it via the search bar in the same view. If these fixes do not work, your company policies might be blocking external Add-Ins from loading. Ask your IT team to allow access to https://excel.climatiq.io (via port 443) and ensure network settings do not block JSON file requests.

Security

How are updates to the Add-In being handled?

Whenever an update to the Add-In is being published, Excel will automatically install the latest version for you. Microsoft Excel does currently not support an opt-out for new versions of Add-Ins. To stay up-to-date with new releases and improvements of the Add-Ins, you can check out our Changelog and subscribe to our monthly Release Notes .

Does Climatiq have specific certifications (ISO, SOC 2, GDPR) that cover data processed via the Excel add-in?

Climatiq’s compliance with ISO 27001, SOC2 and GDPR is externally certified - you can find further details in our Trust Center .

How exactly is data routed from Excel to the Climatiq platform and back?

The diagram below shows a high-level overview of the dataflows between Excel and the Climatiq API. For more details, please reach out to us.

What are the types of data that are stored by Climatiq when using the Add-In?

Climatiq does not store the transacted business data that is part of the request. The only exception here is the search query of Autopilot requests. This data point will be fully anonymized, aggregated and potentially used as training data to further improve the accuracy of Autopilot. As the data is stripped of any user context before being used for training, no tracebacks to the original source of the data point can be made.

Additionally, other types of data are retained, all stored on servers within the European Union:

• Project Data: Configuration data, project name, API keys
• User PII: Account data like email and name and surname are stored after the sign-up
• Client IP Addresses: Belonging to end users, programs or servers that perform requests to the Climatiq API or use our Dashboard.
• API Request Metadata: Request metadata generated during an API call is stored as logs

All data access is strictly controlled and audited as part of Climatiq’s ISO27001 certification. Data is deleted upon request or 60 days after contract termination.