How to Get Real-Time Oil Prices in Excel (3 Methods + Free Add-In)

The Problem with Manual Oil Price Updates

If you're an energy trader, financial analyst, or work in procurement, you've probably spent countless hours manually updating oil prices in Excel. The routine is familiar: open Bloomberg or an energy news site, copy the latest WTI price, switch to Excel, paste it into the right cell, and repeat for Brent, natural gas, and diesel. Every. Single. Morning.

This manual workflow costs you 15-30 minutes per day. That's 2.5 hours per week—time you could spend analyzing trends, building better models, or making trading decisions. Worse, manual updates are error-prone. Copy the wrong price, paste into the wrong cell, or forget to update entirely, and suddenly your financial model is using yesterday's data.

The good news? There's a better way. In this guide, I'll show you three methods to get real-time oil prices in Excel automatically—from simple copy-paste improvements to fully automated solutions that update prices every 5 minutes without lifting a finger.

Whether you're tracking WTI-Brent spreads for arbitrage, building DCF models for oil companies, or managing fuel procurement budgets, this guide has you covered. Let's start with the method most people use today—and why it's time to upgrade.

Method 1: Manual Copy-Paste (The Old Way)

This is how most people get oil prices into Excel today. You visit an energy website, highlight the price, copy it (Ctrl+C), switch to Excel, and paste it (Ctrl+V) into your spreadsheet. Simple enough for one price. But what if you need WTI, Brent, Natural Gas, RBOB Gasoline, Heating Oil, and Diesel?

Suddenly, you're juggling multiple browser tabs, copying and pasting six times, and hoping you didn't accidentally paste Brent prices into the WTI column. The process looks like this:

1. Open Bloomberg, Investing.com, or trading platform
2. Find WTI crude oil price
3. Copy the price value
4. Switch to Excel
5. Navigate to the correct cell (hopefully)
6. Paste the value
7. Repeat 5-10 more times for other commodities

Problems with Manual Updates

• ⏱️ Time-Consuming: 15-30 minutes daily adds up to 125+ hours per year
• ❌ Error-Prone: Easy to paste into wrong cells or miss updates entirely
• 📉 Stale Data: Prices only update when you remember to check
• 🚫 Not Scalable: Impossible to track 50+ commodities this way
• 🔄 No Automation: Can't trigger calculations based on price movements

If you're only checking oil prices once a week for general awareness, manual copy-paste works fine. But if you're making trading decisions, building financial models, or managing procurement, you need something better. Let's look at automated solutions.

Method 2: Using Power Query (The Technical Way)

Power Query is Excel's built-in data import tool. It can fetch data from web APIs, databases, and files. If you're comfortable with Excel's advanced features and want full control over your data pipeline, this method gives you flexibility without installing add-ins.

Step-by-Step Setup

Advanced: Power Query M Code

For Excel power users, here's the M language code you can paste directly into the Advanced Editor:

let
    Source = Json.Document(
        Web.Contents(
            "https://api.oilpriceapi.com/v1/prices/latest",
            [
                Headers=[
                    Authorization="Token YOUR_API_KEY_HERE",
                    #"Content-Type"="application/json"
                ],
                Query=[by_code="BRENT_CRUDE_USD"]
            ]
        )
    ),
    data = Source[data],
    price = data[price],
    ConvertedToTable = Table.FromRecords({[Price=price]})
in
    ConvertedToTable

Pros and Cons

Best for: Data engineers, Excel power users who need one-time data imports, or teams that want to avoid add-ins for security reasons. If you're looking for something simpler, keep reading.

Method 3: Excel Add-In (The Easy Way) ⭐ RECOMMENDED

This is the method we recommend for 90% of users. Instead of complex Power Query setups or daily copy-paste routines, you install a lightweight Excel add-in that gives you simple formulas like=OILPRICE.LATEST("WTI_USD").

Prices update automatically every 5 minutes. No VBA macros. No programming. Just clean, Excel-native formulas that work like =SUM() or =VLOOKUP().

Installation (Step 1 of 3)

Installing the Oil Price API Excel add-in takes about 30 seconds:

1. Go to oilpriceapi.com/excel
2. Click the "Install Free Add-In" button
3. Excel will open automatically and show an installation dialog
4. Click "Get It Now" to confirm
5. The add-in appears in your Excel sidebar (usually on the right)

The add-in works in Excel 2016 and newer on both Windows and Mac, plus Excel Online (Office 365). No administrator privileges required.

Getting Your API Key (Step 2 of 3)

The add-in needs an API key to fetch prices. Here's how to get yours:

1. In the Excel sidebar, click "Get Free API Key"
2. You'll be redirected to oilpriceapi.com/auth/signup
3. Sign up with your email and password (takes 30 seconds)
4. Copy your API key from the dashboard (looks like: 3839c085...)
5. Paste it into the Excel sidebar
6. Click "Save Key"

Using the Formulas (Step 3 of 3)

Now for the fun part. With the add-in installed and your API key saved, you can start using oil price formulas in any Excel cell.

Basic Formula: Get Current Price

Returns: $82.30

The price updates automatically every 5 minutes during trading hours. No need to refresh manually.

Available Commodities

The add-in supports over 100 energy commodities and related products:

See the full commodity code list for all available options including refined products, international benchmarks, and carbon credits.

Advanced Formula Examples

Auto-Refresh Settings

The add-in refreshes prices automatically, but you have full control:

• Automatic: Prices update every 5 minutes during trading hours
• On Open: Fresh prices load when you open the workbook
• Manual: Click "Refresh Prices" in the sidebar anytime
• Disable Auto-Refresh: Toggle the setting if you prefer manual control

That's it! You now have real-time oil prices flowing into Excel with simple, maintainable formulas. No more copy-paste. No more stale data. Just accurate, up-to-date commodity prices at your fingertips.

Method Comparison: Which Should You Choose?

All three methods work, but they're optimized for different use cases. Here's an honest comparison to help you decide:

Real-World Use Cases: How Traders & Analysts Use This

Theory is great, but let's look at how real energy professionals use Excel oil price formulas in their daily workflows. These examples come from actual customers.

Pricing & Request Limits

The Excel add-in is free to install. You need an API key to fetch prices, and we offer a generous free tier plus affordable paid plans for heavy users.

What 100 Requests Means

Each time a formula fetches a price, it counts as one request. Here's how long 100 requests lasts:

• Checking 5 prices daily: 500 ÷ 5 = 100 days (3+ months)
• Weekend trader checking 10 prices: 500 ÷ 10 = 50 days
• Personal project tracking 3 prices: 500 ÷ 3 = 166 days (5+ months)

The free tier is perfect for testing the add-in, personal projects, and light professional use.

Paid Plans

Troubleshooting Common Issues

Most issues with the Excel add-in are quick to fix. Here are the five most common problems and their solutions:

Frequently Asked Questions

Ready to Stop Copy-Pasting Oil Prices?

Getting real-time oil prices in Excel used to be a daily chore. You'd spend 15-30 minutes copying prices from websites, pasting them into cells, and hoping you didn't make a mistake. That workflow is outdated.

With the right tools, it's now a 2-minute setup that runs on autopilot. Whether you choose Power Query for technical control or the Excel add-in for simplicity, automated oil prices save time, reduce errors, and keep your models current.