Frequently asked questions

Bring your own key. You connect an API key from an OpenAI-compatible provider in the Cellmate add-on. That provider bills you for AI usage; Cellmate does not sell tokens.

You keep your existing provider account, rates, and model choices — no separate AI markup from Cellmate. Use OpenAI, Groq, OpenRouter, a self-hosted endpoint, or anything else that speaks the OpenAI API shape.

You need an account with an OpenAI-compatible provider that has credit or billing set up. Many offer trial credit. Self-hosted options like Ollama can run with no per-token cost.

New users get a 7-day free trial from the Sheets sidebar. After that, Cellmate is $25/month. Your AI provider bills you separately for API usage. Earn $5 off per paid referral (up to 5 → $0/mo). See Pricing.

Any provider with an OpenAI-compatible chat completions endpoint — for example OpenAI, Azure OpenAI, Groq, Together AI, Fireworks, OpenRouter, Mistral, or self-hosted runtimes like Ollama or vLLM.

Yes. Add multiple API configs, set a default, and optionally assign a provider or model to individual custom commands.

If your runtime exposes an OpenAI-compatible HTTP endpoint (common with Ollama, LM Studio, and vLLM) and is reachable from Google Apps Script, add it as a custom base URL in API configs.

Cellmate shows the provider's error in the sidebar or in the formula cell — the same way other failed formulas surface errors.

Your API key is configured in the add-on and stored in Google User Properties. With cache off, AI calls go from Google Sheets to your provider. With cache on (the default), formula and Run requests may go through Cellmate's execute API to look up or store an encrypted cached result — and on a cache miss, to call your provider. See the Privacy Policy for details.

In Google's User Properties, scoped to your Google account and the Cellmate script. You add and clear it from the add-on settings. See our Privacy Policy.

We don't keep a separate prompt log. With cache on, the execute API may briefly see the prompt and context to serve or fill encrypted Redis (and call your provider on a miss). Your provider may retain request data under its own terms.

Cellmate collects limited account data for billing and support. Cache and execute behavior are described in Privacy. Your AI provider has its own policy for prompts and responses.

Yes. Clear a key from Settings anytime, or uninstall from Extensions → Add-ons → Manage add-ons in Google Sheets.

New users get a 7-day free trial. After that, Cellmate is $25/month via Stripe. Start the trial and cancel anytime from the Cellmate sidebar in Google Sheets (Manage billing). AI usage is billed by your provider (BYOK), not by Cellmate.

Share your referral link from the Cellmate sidebar in Google Sheets. Friends still get their own 7-day trial. Your discount starts after they convert to a paid subscription.

Each paid active referral gives you $5 off per month, up to 5 credits ($0/month). Extra referrals wait in signup order — if a slotted referral cancels, the next one fills that slot.

No. While they're on trial, the referral shows as Pending. It becomes Active(and applies your $5 credit) only once their paid subscription is active. If they cancel before paying, you don't get a discount for that signup.

No. Five credits × $5 = $25 off = $0/month on the $25 plan. Extra active referrals don't create credit or a negative balance.

Yes. Sheets recalculates custom formulas often. Without a cache, every reload would call your AI provider again.

When Enable cache is on (the default), matching formula and sidebar Run results are stored in encrypted Redis on Cellmate for up to 30 days. Entitlement and cache use the spreadsheet owner Google account email. Open the sidebar once in each file so the owner email is saved for formulas. For permanent results, Paste special → Values only.

Use the Enable cache checkbox in the Cellmate sidebar. Turning it off stops reading and writing the cache; it does not clear existing entries. Leave it on for day-to-day use to save cost; turn it off when you always want a fresh response.

Pass 0 as the fourth argument (cacheSeconds):

=cellmate("Write a tagline for an ice cream shop", , , 0)

Changing the prompt, value, or config name also misses the cache.

When the prompt, value, config name, and active model/base URL match a previous run (sidebar Run also includes scope and range). =cellmate(A1) and =cellmate(B9) share a cache entry when A1 and B9 contain the same text.