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GPT for Sheets errors

Resolve common errors in Google Sheets and find solutions.

OpenAI free trial expired​

Error: your OpenAI API free trial is expired or inactive.

Problem: Your OpenAI free trial is expired or inactive. To check for sure, submit a prompt in the OpenAI playground. If you get an error there, you need to upgrade to a paid OpenAI account.

Solution

Set up a paid account on OpenAI dashboard.

warning
  • ChatGPT Plus subscriptions don't include paid access to the OpenAI platform.
  • Verifying your account with a phone number that hasn’t been used before is necessary to benefit from a free trial.

Exceeded maximum execution time​

Exceeded maximum execution time (line […]).

Problem: Your request took more than 30 seconds which is above the limit of Google Sheets functions. It happens more frequently at peak usage time when OpenAI servers are taking a lot of load. OpenAI API servers are usually under extremely heavy load and the response time depends on the model and your account status.

You can track response times of all models on our OpenAI API response time tracker.

Solutions
  • Upgrade your free trial OpenAI account to a Pay as you go account, as the response time is much faster for paid accounts.
  • Choose a model with a faster response time (text-davinci-003 is usually much faster).
  • Try again, outside of peak hours.
  • Use the Google Docs integration if you want to generate longer content such as blog posts.
info

We are working on a permanent fix for this problem.

Invalid prompt parameter​

Error: Invalid prompt parameter.

Problem: Your prompt is not recognized by OpenAI.

Solutions

  • Check that you have quotation marks around your prompt if it is not in a cell:

    ✅ =GPT("hello")

    ✅ =GPT(A1)

    ❌ =GPT(hello)

  • Check that you have quotation marks around your model parameter:

    ✅ "text-davinci-003"

    ❌ text-davinci-003

  • Check that you are using the correct number format for temperature for your locale: 0.8 or 0,8?

  • Check that your arguments are in the correct order. See our reference here

Set OpenAI API key​

Error: Please set OpenAI API key in Extensions menu.

Problem (1): You have not set your API key.

Solution

Set up your API key.

Problem (2): You're using multiple Google accounts in the same browser session.

Solution
  1. Create a dedicated Chrome profile.
  2. Create a new spreadsheet.
  3. Set up your API key in this new file.
  4. Try using a GPT function in Sheets.

Response is cut or incomplete​

Problem: The response you get seems to be incomplete.

Solution

You need to increase the last parameter of the formula: max_tokens. It is the maximum size of the response. You can increase it to a maximum of 4000. Learn more here.

Service invoked too many times​

Exception: Service invoked too many times for one day: urlfetch.

Problem: You have reached your daily quota of calls to an external service from your Google account.

  • Quota for gmail.com accounts: 20k / day
  • Quota for Google Workspace accounts: 100k / day

(subject to arbitrary change by Google)

Solution

Quotas reset every 24 hours, so please wait for the end of this period to regain access.

Rate limit reached​

429: Rate limit reached for […] requests per min.

Problem: You have reached your limit of requests per minute.

Solutions
  • Short term: Wait for one minute before submitting additional requests.
  • Long term: Set up a payment method on OpenAI dashboard to increase your rate limit. It will be increased to 3500 requests per minute after 48 hours.

Unknown function​

#NAME? Unknown function: 'GPT' or 'gpt'.

Problem: You haven't enabled the GPT functions.

Solution

Click Extensions > GPT for Sheets and Docs > Launch sidebar.

Formula parse error​

Formula parse error.

Problem: Your formula can't be interpreted by OpenAI.

Solutions
  • Check that you are using the right parameter separator for your locale: , or ;?
  • Check that your arguments are in the correct order. See our reference here

Script error​

ScriptError: Authorisation is required to perform that action.

Problem: You are likely using multiple Google accounts in the same Chrome session.

Solution
  1. Create a dedicated Chrome profile.
  2. Create a new spreadsheet.
  3. Set up your API key in this new spreadsheet.
  4. Try a GPT function again.

Cannot use GPT-4​

Problem: You don't have access to GPT-4.

warning

The ChatGPT Plus subscription doesn't cover usage of OpenAI API and so paying for ChatGPT Plus won't enable you to use GPT-4 in this extension.

Solution

The GPT-4 API which this extension uses is currently only available via waitlist. To check if you have access, you should go to the OpenAI playground and check if you can select the gpt-4 model there.

Problem: When you click Extensions > GPT for Sheets and Docs, the only option you see is Help. Accessing the Extensions menu immediately after opening your document or spreadsheet may cause this problem.

Solution

Refresh your page, wait 30 seconds, then try to launch the add-on again.

Need more help?​

If none of the listed solutions address your issue, fill this form to reach out to our support team for further assistance.

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