Get 32GB if you're serious about big spreadsheets.

Yes, 32GB is worth it for heavy Excel work with millions of rows.

The thing with millions of rows is that Excel’s row limit is about 1 million per sheet, so you’re probably in Power Pivot territory or handling multiple sheets. Both of those eat RAM like candy. With 16GB, you’ll start seeing the “not enough memory” error right when you need to refresh a model or run a complex formula. 32GB gives you room to breathe—faster pivots, smoother scrolling, fewer crashes.

If you’re just looking up values or doing simple sums on a few hundred thousand rows, 16GB is fine. But “heavy” and “millions of rows” means you’re pushing Excel’s limits. That’s where RAM becomes the bottleneck, not the CPU or SSD.

Don’t save $100 on RAM and lose an hour a week waiting for Excel to unfreeze. Future You will thank Present You for spending the extra.