ChatGPT
From $8/monthFree plan available; Plus $20/month, Pro from $100/month
- Strength: Writes formulas, macros and SQL, and helps you understand error messages.
- Trade-off: The free plan has usage limits.
Job guide
Spreadsheets & dashboards
What buyers wantSmall companies have messy Excel files, form responses and exports, and want reports and dashboards that update themselves.
Four numbersLast 7 days · updated hourly · last update 10-04 11:04 (Beijing time)
- Job posts, last 7 days
- 71posts
- Overseas 68 · China 3
- Median budget
- $750
- USD fixed-price · 14 posts, last 4 weeks
- Median bids
- 24bids
- Per post · 47 posts with bid counts
- How much AI can do
- AI does most, a person checks
- First take, rechecked Oct 15
Where AI fits: AI writes formulas, macros, SQL and cleaning rules quickly. Whether the definitions are right and the numbers match the source is for you to check.
Market
Market for this job
6 sub-categories combined; a post that fits several counts once
Trend
Job posts per week (weeks start Monday, Beijing time), both markets
| Week | Total | Overseas | China | Days with data |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| week of 2026-09-21 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 1 |
| week of 2026-09-28 | 71 | 68 | 3 | 7 |
- Last full week
- 71posts · 09-28 to 10-04
Job posts per week, Monday to Sunday (Beijing time), both markets. Lighter bars are partial weeks (this week so far, or weeks with days missing). Hover a bar for the split by market.
Sub-categories
By job posts in the last 7 days. Category pages are in Chinese for now.
- Excel reporting and dashboard building22
- Data cleaning and annotation20
- Data pipeline and ETL development18
- Ad hoc data analysis11
- Ecommerce operations reporting1
- Survey design and analysisnone in 30 days
Budgets
median $750
- Hourly (USD)
- $28/hourmedian · 12 posts
- Other currencies (not converted)
- 31 postsINR 25 · EUR 5 · AUD 1
- Listing prices (Etsy / eBay services)
- $64median · 14 listings, last 30 days
Budgets are what the posts state: USD uses the upper end of fixed-price budgets (Freelancer uses brackets, so percentiles often land on $30, $250 or $750); CNY uses the stated budget. Neither is the final deal price. Last 4 weeks of posts; fewer than 3 posts means no percentiles; other currencies are counted, not converted.
China vs overseas
| Metric | Overseas96% of last 7 days | China4% of last 7 days |
|---|---|---|
| Job posts, last 7 days | 68 posts | 3 posts |
| Job posts, since 09-27 | 71 posts | 4 posts |
| Median budget | $750USD · 14 posts | n/afewer than 3 posts with a budget in 4 weeks |
| Median bids per post | 2447 posts with bid counts | n/aonly Freelancer shows bid counts |
| New listings, last 7 days | 5 postsSince 09-27: 5 | 0 postsSince 09-27: 0 |
| Median listing price | $6414 Etsy / eBay service listings | n/anone in 30 days |
| Posts that mention AI | positive 12% · negative 0%72 posts, last 4 weeks | —4 posts in 4 weeks; we need 10 for a share |
Positive = the buyer wants AI output, names an AI tool or accepts AI; negative = says no AI (posts that say both count as negative). Job posts only. Listings = service listings first seen that day (Etsy / eBay service listings only); freelancers who sell privately don't show up here.
Tools
Tools you need
Three levels: get the essentials first, add the next level as work grows, use the optional ones when a client asks
Essentials
Enough to start taking work
Claude
From $17/monthBilled yearly; $20 monthly; free plan available
- Strength: Reads large sheets and long documents in one go — good for pinning down how each number is defined.
- Trade-off: The free plan has usage limits.
Airtable
From $20/monthTeam, billed yearly; $24 monthly; free plan available
- Strength: Turns scattered spreadsheets into a database you can filter and link.
- Trade-off: Collaboration needs the Team plan: $20/month billed yearly, $24 monthly.
Level up
Add when you have more work
Make
From $9/monthyearly price; monthly not verified; free plan 1,000 credits a month
- Strength: Pulls data into your sheets on a schedule, so reports update themselves.
- Trade-off: On the free plan, scenarios run at most every 15 minutes.
Supabase
From $25/monthfree plan: 2 projects, paused after 1 week idle
- Strength: Move to a real database once the data grows; the free plan is enough to start.
- Trade-off: Free projects are paused after 1 week of inactivity.
Grafana Cloud
Freefree-forever tier; Pro from $19/month plus usage
- Strength: Dashboards and alerts on the free-forever plan.
- Trade-off: Pro starts at $19/month, plus usage-based charges.
Optional
Use when a client asks
Jotform
From $34/monthBronze, billed yearly; $39 monthly; free plan available
- Strength: Collect data with forms and surveys.
- Trade-off: The free plan takes 100 submissions a month; Bronze is $34/month billed yearly.
Cursor
$20/monthfree plan available (Hobby)
- Strength: Write Python for files too large for a spreadsheet.
- Trade-off: The paid individual plan is $20/month.
Prices and partner terms come from each vendor's official pricing pages (check dates on each card) and change over time. Prices may vary by region, and tax may be added at checkout; the official page is always the final word. “Price not verified” means we haven't checked the pricing page yet. Links go through our redirect page: “Affiliate” means we may earn a commission; “Has an affiliate program” means we don't have a link yet.
Where to find work
Where to find this work
Posts for this job we collected in the last 28 days: Freelancer 47, Himalayas 19, freelancermap 9, We Work Remotely 5, Jobicy 2, Hacker News 2. We only count platforms we collect from; a missing platform doesn't mean there is no demand there.
| Name | What it is | Fees | Best for | Go |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Upwork | One of the largest general freelance marketplaces — send proposals for fixed-price or hourly work | 0%–15%varies by contract, shown when you send a proposal | Good English · longer projects | Go → |
| Freelancer | Bid on projects with public budget ranges; many of the job posts we track come from here; 47 of these posts here in the last 28 days | 10% or $5, whichever is higherhourly projects 10% per payment | Good for first jobs | Go → |
| Fiverr | Package your service as fixed-price gigs; buyers order directly | 20%sellers keep 80%; withdraw 14 days after completion | Can package a service | Go → |
Platform fees, payouts and getting your first order: see Platforms (in Chinese)
Get started
Get started
Four general steps: pick tools → make samples → list a service or bid → let AI draft, check by hand
Pick your tools
An AI model writes the formulas and scripts, a spreadsheet database or a database stores the data, and an automation tool runs the scheduled updates.
Build a sample that updates itself
Use public data (government open data, for example) to build a report or dashboard that updates automatically, and add screenshots and a screen recording to your portfolio.
List a service or bid
Price by the number of reports and data sources. State where the data comes from, how often it updates and who maintains it.
Let AI draft, check by hand
AI writes the formulas and scripts; you check every figure against the source sheets. Deliver with a one-page note explaining how each number is calculated. Handle files with personal data only as the client allows, and delete them after delivery as agreed.
Updated 2026-10-04 11:04 (Beijing time) · data up to 10:48 · demand numbers aggregate public job posts, not completed deals; tool prices and partner terms follow the official pages.