Power Query for Google Sheets

Google Sheets · Power Query equivalent

Google Sheets has no Power Query. This is the equivalent for database data.

Sheets’ own QUERY() only reshapes cells already in the spreadsheet, and Connected Sheets reaches BigQuery alone. To pull live rows from SQL Server, PostgreSQL, MySQL or any other database into a tab and refresh them on a click, you install a small Agent next to the database and use the Query Streams add-on. No Apps Script, no exports, no credentials in the sheet.

About 10 minutes No Apps Script Data stays on your network The Free plan covers it

The short answer

No, Google Sheets does not have Power Query, and Google has not announced one. What it has instead falls into three buckets, and which one you need depends on where the data is:

The rest of this page is the third row: how to get live database rows into Google Sheets with a Run Query button, what it costs, and where Excel’s Power Query is still the better tool.

What you’ll end up with

A tab that holds the result of a SQL query against your database, and a side panel with a Run Query button that pulls the latest rows whenever you want them. Like this:

Sales Saved to Drive

FileEditViewInsertFormatDataToolsExtensionsHelp

	A	B	C	D	E
1	customer_id	first_name	last_name	country	total
2	1042	Maria	Alvarez	USA	1,284.50
3	1043	Daniel	Okafor	USA	612.00
4	1047	Priya	Nair	USA	2,090.75
5	1051	Thomas	Berg	USA	338.20
6	1056	Lucía	Ferreira	USA	1,455.00
7	1060	Kenji	Sato	USA	874.10
8

+ customers Sheet1 Live from your database

The query runs on a computer that can already reach your database, not in Google’s cloud and not in the sheet. A small program called the Agent sits there, makes one outbound connection to Query Streams, runs the SQL and streams back only the rows. The add-on in Sheets asks for those rows and lays them out under your headers. The database password stays on the Agent; nobody who opens the sheet ever sees it.

What you’ll need

A Query Streams account

The Free plan is enough for this guide. Sign up at my.querystreams.com.

The Agent on a computer that can reach the server

A small program that runs in the background and queries the database when Google Sheets asks. Often the database server itself, or any always-on computer on the same network.

Your own connection details

The server name, the database name, and a username and password that can read it. If someone else manages the database, this is the bit to ask them for.

Set it up in four steps

1. Create your account

   Go to my.querystreams.com and sign up with the Google account you use for Sheets. Pick the Free plan. It is a real plan, not a trial, and it covers two connections and ad-hoc SQL from Google Sheets.

2. Install the Agent on a computer that can reach the server

   Sign in, open Download, and install the Agent on a machine that can already reach your own database: often the database server itself, or any always-on computer on the same network. It takes a minute and starts on its own from then on.

   Why a small program instead of a driver? The Agent is one install for Windows, Mac or Linux (about 85 MB on Windows, a little over 100 MB on Mac and Linux) that runs quietly in the background. It makes one outbound, encrypted connection to Query Streams, the same way a browser does, so you open no firewall port and set up no VPN. Your database stays on your network, and the rows travel to wherever you are, across the internet if need be. The only thing on your side is the add-on.

   The Download page shows Your Access Key. Paste it into the Agent when it asks, and wait for the badge to read Connected to Query Streams. That is the only thing you do on the Agent itself.

   Full walkthroughs if you want them: Windows, Mac, Linux.

3. Add your database connection

   In the portal open Data → Data Agents, click Add connector on your Agent, choose the database type and fill in the host, port, database and a read-only login. Click Test connection; when it reads Connected, pick the databases to include under Schema capture and click Save.

   Nothing to open on the firewall. The Agent connects to your database from inside your network and to Query Streams outbound over HTTPS. There is no Google address range to allow and nothing to keep in step with.

4. Run the SQL from Google Sheets

   Open your spreadsheet and install the Query Streams add-on from the Google Workspace Marketplace if you have not yet. It recognises the Google account you are already signed in with; there is no separate login. Open it from the icon in the side panel on the right (it is also under Extensions), click Query Streamer, pick your connection and paste a query:

   Example · SQL

   SELECT customer_id, name, city
   FROM customers
   ORDER BY name
   LIMIT 1000;

   Choose the tab under Destination Sheet and click Run Query. The rows land under your column headers. Click Run Query again whenever you want the latest data. To have the tab refresh on its own, save the query in Query Builder and set up an Automation, every five minutes to weekly.

Power Query vs this, only what holds up

Excel’s Power Query is two things in one: a connector to hundreds of sources and an editor with several hundred transformations that you can replay. Query Streams is the first half done differently, and deliberately not the second. Side by side:

Combining sources: Power Query’s strongest card, and the answer to it

The one thing Power Query users miss most in Sheets is merging two sources. Query Streams does that with a federated query: one SQL statement over two or more connections. In the Query Builder choose New Query → Federated query, pick the connections (each gets an alias), and name tables as alias.schema.table. The connections can be different engines — SQL Server, PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB, Oracle, Snowflake, BigQuery and more SQL Server, PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB, Oracle, Snowflake, BigQuery and more — or an API connector or a folder of files, each behind its own Agent. Query Streams sends each source only its piece, in that engine’s dialect, read-only, and joins the returned rows itself. The Plan tab shows exactly what each database will be asked before you run.

SELECT o.order_id, o.total, c.name, c.city
FROM shop.public.orders AS o
JOIN crm.dbo.customers AS c ON c.customer_id = o.customer_id
WHERE o.ordered_at >= '2026-09-01'
ORDER BY o.total DESC;

Save it once and it runs unchanged from the Sheets add-on, Excel, the REST API, Claude via MCP and scheduled syncs. It is on every plan, including Free, which joins two connections and returns up to 250 rows. Today a federated statement is a single SELECT with joins, filters, grouping and window functions; CTEs, sub-queries and UNION are not supported yet. How federated queries work.

When Power Query is still the right tool

If your work is shaping data — joining five spreadsheets, unpivoting a report, cleaning a column of dates — and it lives in Excel, keep Power Query. Nothing here replaces the editor. If you are on Google Sheets, or the job is “get the current rows from the database into a tab that other people refresh,” that is the job this page is about.

What the plans allow

Ad-hoc SQL from the Google Sheets add-on is on every plan, including Free. Free includes two connections and a monthly data allowance of 5 MB of results, enough for a table like the one above refreshed many times a day. Running queries you saved in Query Builder from the add-on starts at Personal Core; queries a colleague shares with you run on every plan. Compare the plans.

Questions people ask

Related guides

• How to connect MySQL to Google Sheets
• How to connect PostgreSQL to Google Sheets
• How to connect SQL Server to Google Sheets
• Apps Script JDBC: the honest version
• Install the Google Sheets add-on
• Power Query alternative for Excel