Best for developers whose agents already write results into spreadsheets for non-technical teammates: research output, lead lists, or status trackers. Orthogonal closed a $4.3 million seed round in June 2026, backed by Pantera Capital, Y Combinator, and others, funding continued work on the wider skill catalog this integration ships from.
A SKILL.md package from Orthogonal that lets AI agents create, read, write, and search Google Sheets through six callable actions, routed over OAuth via the orth CLI or Orthogonal's MCP server. Reachable from Claude Code, Cursor, or any other MCP client without extra setup.
Maker: Orthogonal · Protocol: MCP · Auth: oauth
Compatible agents: Claude Code, Cursor, Any orth CLI-compatible agent, Any MCP-compatible client
Required runtime: Node >= 18 (for orth CLI), Orthogonal account with credits, Google account connected via OAuth
About Google Sheets
Orthogonal built its Google Sheets integration as one of seven OAuth-based skills, alongside Gmail, Calendar, Slack, GitHub, Notion and Drive, all added to its open-source skills catalog in a single March 2026 commit and later confirmed to run on Composio. The Google Sheets skill itself covers six spreadsheet actions: creating spreadsheets, retrieving sheet names, adding rows, looking up rows by keyword, reading cell ranges, and writing cell values. Orthogonal, founded in 2025 by Christian Pickett (ex-Coinbase payments, ex-Vercel billing) and Bera Sogut (ex-Google reCAPTCHA/Maps, ex-Amazon Robotics), raised a $4.3 million seed round led by Pantera Capital in June 2026, with Y Combinator, Pioneer Fund, Decasonic and other investors also participating; it now runs 88 skills total as a single-key gateway to dozens of integrations.
The skill routes through Orthogonal's REST API to the Google Sheets API v4: agents call orth run google-sheets /action-name --body '{"params"}' via the orth CLI or the Orthogonal MCP server in Claude Desktop and Cursor. A one-time OAuth 2.0 connection at orthogonal.com/dashboard/integrations links the user's Google account; a dropped connection returns HTTP 428 rather than a generic error. Running the orth CLI itself requires Node 18 or later.
Common use cases include writing agent-generated research results into a spreadsheet, reading CRM data from Sheets for lead enrichment, updating inventory or project tracking sheets automatically, and searching large datasets by keyword. The /lookup-row action accepts a text query and an A1-notation range, returning all rows where the query appears. The /get-values action fetches multiple ranges in a single call, reducing round trips when reading headers and data separately. The /update-values action writes 2D arrays of data starting from any cell location, with USER_ENTERED mode for formulas or RAW mode for literal values.
Billing is pay-per-call with no monthly subscription; per-call rates scale with each action's complexity (see the pricing FAQ below for current figures). The instructions themselves stay free to read regardless of billing status, since the source file sits in Orthogonal's public GitHub account.
That catalog's commit history was last touched in June 2026 and spans developer tools, communication, productivity, and data APIs, though its top-level README table does not currently list Google Sheets or the six other OAuth-integration skills added in the same batch, even though each skill file remains live in the repository and the hosted vendor page still resolves.
Key Features
- Create Spreadsheets: Create new Google Sheets spreadsheets with a custom title using a single /create-spreadsheet call that returns the new spreadsheet ID for use in subsequent operations.
- Get and Update Cell Values: The /get-values action fetches data from multiple A1-notation ranges in a single request; /update-values writes 2D arrays starting from any cell, with USER_ENTERED mode for formula interpretation or RAW mode for literal values.
- Lookup Row by Keyword: The /lookup-row action searches a specified range for a text query, with optional case-sensitive matching, returning all matching rows without requiring the agent to fetch and scan all data manually.
- Add Rows: Insert empty rows at a specific index in a sheet using numeric sheet IDs (not names), with optional formatting inheritance from the row above using inherit_from_before.
- List Sheet Names: Retrieve all sheet names and their numeric IDs from a spreadsheet with a single /get-sheet-names call, which is needed before most other operations since update-values uses sheet names while add-row uses numeric IDs.
- A1 Notation Support: All range parameters accept standard A1 notation including open ranges (A:A for full columns, 1:1 for full rows), cross-sheet references (Sheet1!A1:B2), and quoted sheet names for names containing spaces.
How to Invoke
Agent runs `orth run google-sheets /action-name --body '{"params"}'` via the orth CLI or Orthogonal MCP server
Pricing
Pay-per-call through Orthogonal's platform, no subscription tier and no minimum monthly spend. New accounts start with a small free credit balance, $5 as of this review, down from the $10 the platform offered earlier in 2026. Per-call rates for each action are listed at orthogonal.com/pricing and vary by complexity; Orthogonal also accepts stablecoin payment per call via x402 or MPP instead of pre-paid credits.
Strengths
- 6 well-defined actions cover the full spreadsheet workflow: create, read (get-values), write (update-values), insert rows, keyword search (lookup-row), and enumerate sheets.
- Multi-range reads in a single /get-values call cut the number of billed requests compared with fetching each range separately, which matters under pay-per-call pricing.
- One Orthogonal API key covers Google Sheets and dozens of other integrations, 88 skills in the catalog as of September 2026, so there is no separate Google Cloud project or OAuth app to configure.
Weaknesses
- No action for deleting rows, columns, or entire sheets; complex sheet restructuring requires falling back to the Google Sheets API directly.
- The /add-row action inserts an empty row (no data); populating it requires a separate /update-values call, which adds latency and extra credits per insert operation.
- Spreadsheet IDs and numeric sheet gids must be retrieved separately before most write operations, which new users find confusing since Google Sheets URLs contain both.
- The skill sits outside the orthogonal-sh/skills README table entirely; that catalog omission covers all seven skills from the March 2026 OAuth batch, not just this one, even though the underlying file and the vendor page both still respond with 200.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are Google Sheets (via Orthogonal)'s pricing plans in 2026?
Orthogonal charges strictly per call: no recurring plan and no monthly floor. Each action, create, get-values, update-values, add-row, lookup-row, and get-sheet-names, draws a small credit amount per call, spanning roughly $0.001 to $1.00 across the platform's Basic, Standard and Premium tiers (full list at orthogonal.com/pricing). Orthogonal also accepts stablecoin payment per call (x402 or MPP) as an alternative to pre-paid credits.
What do you get on Google Sheets (via Orthogonal)'s free tier?
New Orthogonal accounts receive $5 in free starting credits, down from $10 earlier in 2026, enough to cover an initial batch of spreadsheet operations with no card required. There is no ongoing free allotment; once that balance is spent, further calls need purchased credits or a stablecoin payment. Google Sheets itself stays free for any Google account holder, so the only running cost is Orthogonal's per-call fee.
What are the best alternatives to Google Sheets (via Orthogonal)?
The direct Google Sheets API v4 is free within Google's own quota (100 requests per 100 seconds per user) but needs a Google Cloud project and manual OAuth setup. Composio, the same infrastructure Orthogonal's OAuth skills are built on, offers a comparable Google Sheets integration with its own billing. Zapier and Make support no-code Sheets automation for teams that do not need programmatic agent access.
Is Google Sheets (via Orthogonal) better than the direct Google Sheets API?
The direct API is cheaper at real volume since it is free inside Google's quota, but it costs 30-60 minutes to wire up a Cloud project and OAuth credentials versus a roughly 2-minute orth CLI connection. Orthogonal wraps 6 common actions with readable errors (HTTP 428 for a dropped OAuth connection) instead of exposing all 30-plus raw Sheets API methods. Pick the direct API for a single-integration, high-volume agent; pick Orthogonal when the same agent also needs Gmail, Calendar, or Notion under one key.
What does it take to start using Google Sheets (via Orthogonal)?
Sign up at orthogonal.com for the starting free credits, then install the CLI with `npm install -g @orth/cli` on Node 18 or later. Set your key with `export ORTHOGONAL_API_KEY=orth_live_...` (or run `orth login`), then connect Google Sheets at orthogonal.com/dashboard/integrations to complete the OAuth flow. Test it with `orth run google-sheets /create-spreadsheet --body '{"title":"Test Sheet"}'` and confirm a spreadsheet ID comes back before wiring the skill into an agent.
HokAI guides covering Google Sheets
- One Field in Common: Why HokAI Runs Six Page Types, Not One: HokAI files AI products under six page types, not one. Across six live records read on 21 August 2026, exactly one subject field is shared by all of them.