How to Run Anthropic Claude on Every Excel or CSV Line (Bulk Processing Guide)
If you’ve ever had to work with a large list of data, you know how time-consuming it can be to process each row individually. When that process involves advanced tasks like generating text, summarizing info, or analyzing data, it can feel like a real grind. That’s where Anthropic’s Claude AI comes in.
But here’s the catch: Claude is built for interactive use, not bulk processing. Running it row by row or manually setting up API calls is not only slow but also complicated. You’d need to deal with API keys, rate limits, error handling, and more – a lot of technical work for something that should be simple.
That’s where Datablist steps in. With Datablist, you can easily connect Claude to your Excel or CSV files and let the AI handle the heavy lifting. All you need to do is write one prompt and use variables to pull data directly from your file. Datablist will automatically run the prompt for each row, handle API calls to Claude, and manage all the technical details – including retries if something goes wrong.
It’s like having Claude work for you in bulk, without all the headaches. Whether you’re cleaning data, generating summaries, or doing something more complex, Datablist makes it easy to use Claude AI across your entire dataset.
Leverage Claude's Strengths: Claude is known for its large context window, strong reasoning capabilities. This makes it particularly effective for tasks requiring nuanced understanding, detailed generation based on multiple data points per row, or adherence to complex instructions.
Step-by-step guide
Step 1: Load your CSV or Excel file on Datablist
First, create a free account and import your data file. Datablist is a powerful CSV editor. Perfect for opening large CSV files or Excel files with lists of items.
Create a new collection and import your file.
Step 2: Select the "Ask Claude AI" enrichment
Click on the "Enrich" button in the header, and search for "Ask Anthropic/Claude AI".
Step 3: Write your prompt with variables
After selecting the enrichment, a drawer opens. Write your prompt and use the characters {{ to add a variable. All your text-compatible properties (=fields) can be used as variables.
You can add a System Prompt to help Claude understand its role or format its response consistently. Claude responds well to system-level guidance.
Step 4: Define where to store the results
Claude can returns text or structured outputs for each item.
If you want to get multiple information from your prompt, enable "Define outputs format" is the setting.
Then, define where this result will be stored. You can create new properties or map with existing ones.
Step 5: Check the results on 10 items and run on all your data
To avoid mistakes and to let you experiment with different prompts, Datablist runs the prompts on 10 items first. You can see the results in real time. When the results match your expectations, click "Run" to process your remaining items.
FAQ
How much does it cost?
This enrichment feature in Datablist is free to use. But you need to use your own Anthropic API Key and you will be charged directly by Anthropic based on your Claude API usage.
Warning
You must have an active Anthropic account with billing enabled. This enrichment won't work without a valid API key linked to an account set up for billing.
How to create an Anthropic API Key
Create an account or log in to the Anthropic Console. Then go to the API Keys section in your Account Settings and click "Create Key". Copy the key securely.
Can I run Claude on a large CSV?
Yes. Datablist opens large CSV files without breaking a sweat. Datablist is the perfect tool to run Claude prompts on large CSV or Excel files efficiently.
Which Claude model will be used?
Datablist typically connects to standard Claude API models (like the Claude 3 family - Haiku, Sonnet). Check the enrichment settings within Datablist for specific model options if available. Different models have varying costs, speeds, and capabilities.
Use cases
Running an Anthropic Claude prompt on a list of items can be beneficial in various scenarios where sophisticated language processing is required at scale:
Email intro for cold emailing
Generate initial drafts for emails. Use personal info (like {{Company}}, {{Job Title}}) from each contact profile to write a personalized email intro leveraging Claude's nuanced writing style.
Language Translation
Claude is proficient at translating text. Use it to translate content from one column to another language in a new column.
Data Cleaning & Standardization
Use Claude to clean your Excel or CSV files. It can correct text cases, fix grammar and typos, standardize formats (like addresses or names), or extract structured information from messy text.
Social Media Posts
Draft targeted social media posts based on product details or event information listed row by row in your spreadsheet.
Product Catalog processing
Generate summaries from long product descriptions, create compelling descriptions from technical specs ({{Feature 1}}, {{Feature 2}}), or classify products based on their attributes using Claude's understanding.
Advanced Text Analysis
Perform sentiment analysis on customer feedback ({{Feedback Text}}), categorize user comments, or extract key themes from unstructured text fields across your dataset. Claude's large context window helps with understanding complex inputs.