XelPlus · Artificial Intelligence · Productivity · Online Education · Austria
Vienna-area Excel instructor, Microsoft MVP and YouTuber who founded XelPlus, which sells self-paced courses on Excel, Power BI, Python in Excel and ChatGPT.
Leila Gharani is an economist turned software instructor based in Austria. She runs XelPlus, an online education brand focused on Microsoft Excel, Power BI, Google Sheets, financial analysis and, more recently, AI tools such as ChatGPT and Copilot applied to spreadsheet work. According to a 2024 Microsoft Tech Community profile, she holds a master's degree in economics from the University of Toronto; her own site says she began her career as an economist in Canada and later worked in Austria in business consulting, finance and IT, including SAP and Oracle projects. The same Microsoft profile says she has taught at the University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria and delivered Excel seminars to large corporations.
XelPlus is operated by Bold Option GmbH, registered in the Austrian commercial register under FN 510569 m (Regional Court of Wiener Neustadt), with an address in Mödling, according to the site's legal notice. Her site describes her as a ten-time Microsoft MVP, while her LinkedIn headline reads nine; the exact count was not independently confirmed.
She publishes free tutorials on the YouTube channel @LeilaGharani, which showed 3.08 million subscribers when read on September 13, 2026, and is also active on LinkedIn and Instagram (@lgharani). A July 2021 CNBC article by Jordan Novet on Microsoft's YouTube creators described her as a software instructor in Vienna who started the channel in 2016 and said the channel drew students to the premium courses her company sells.
What she sells: self-paced video courses hosted at courses.xelplus.com, with published prices in US dollars as of September 13, 2026. Single courses range from $59 (practice exercise packs) to $379 (Python in Excel For the Real World); "Quick Wins with ChatGPT" costs $99. Bundles cost $379 (Excel Essentials Bundle), $389 (Power Excel Bundle) and $997 (Black Belt Excel Package, eight courses). Course pages list lifetime access, a certificate of completion and a 14-day refund guarantee. Team and department licenses are quoted on request through a contact form, with no public price. She has also published courses on Udemy under her own name.
Reputation: her site says more than 500,000 professionals have enrolled in XelPlus courses and that she has been featured by Forbes, Nasdaq, CNBC, Microsoft and the BBC; the enrollment figure is her company's own claim with no independent source. The independent coverage located for this profile is the CNBC article (July 10, 2021) and Microsoft's Insider Spotlight post. Among the sources reviewed for this profile on September 13, 2026, none reports a court case or regulatory action involving her or Bold Option GmbH.
Not confirmed: her year of birth, the exact number of MVP awards, and the Udemy course catalog and student count (Udemy blocked automated reading).
Objective facts about their offer, taken from public sources. We don't rate the quality of the programs or the results you may get.
One without a public price
6 official channels
Massive audience
Facts checked on Sep 14, 2026.
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| Program | Type | Published price | Link |
|---|---|---|---|
| Black Belt Excel Package Bundle of eight XelPlus Excel courses with a 14-day refund guarantee. | Course | $997 Checked Sep 14, 2026 | View |
| Power Excel Bundle Bundle of Power Query and Power Pivot & DAX courses. | Course | $389 Checked Sep 14, 2026 | View |
| Excel Essentials Bundle Bundle built around Excel Essentials for the Real World with companion courses. | Course | $379 Checked Sep 14, 2026 | View |
| Python in Excel For the Real World About 10 hours of video on using Python inside Excel, with 60+ practice files, a ChatGPT/Copilot prompt pack and CPD-accredited certificate. | Course | $379 Checked Sep 14, 2026 | View |
| Quick Wins with ChatGPT Two-hour course on using ChatGPT for Excel formulas, documentation and everyday office work. | Course | $99 Checked Sep 14, 2026 | View |
| Excel Essentials for the Real World About 11 hours of video covering core Excel skills for business users. | Course | $149 Checked Sep 14, 2026 | View |
| Master Excel Power Query – Beginner to Pro Course on importing, cleaning and transforming data with Power Query. | Course | $299 Checked Sep 14, 2026 | View |
| Fast Track to Power BI Introductory-to-intermediate course on building reports in Power BI. | Course | $299 Checked Sep 14, 2026 | View |
| Excel Data Modeling with Power Pivot & DAX Course on data models, relationships and DAX measures in Excel. | Course | $299 Checked Sep 14, 2026 | View |
| Automate Excel: Power Query & Power Automate Recipes Case-based course on automating recurring Excel tasks. | Course | $249 Checked Sep 14, 2026 | View |
| Fundamentals of Financial Analysis Course on financial statement analysis in Excel. | Course | $249 Checked Sep 14, 2026 | View |
| Business Charts in Excel Course on building business charts in Excel. | Course | $249 Checked Sep 14, 2026 | View |
| Excel Pivot Table Mastery: Basics to Dashboards Course on pivot tables from basics to dashboards. | Course | $199 Checked Sep 14, 2026 | View |
| Unlock Excel VBA & Excel Macros Course on writing VBA code and macros in Excel. | Course | $199 Checked Sep 14, 2026 | View |
| Master Excel's Essential Modern Functions Course on dynamic array and newer Excel functions. | Course | $199 Checked Sep 14, 2026 | View |
| Google Sheets – The Comprehensive Masterclass Course covering Google Sheets from basics to advanced features. | Course | $179 Checked Sep 14, 2026 | View |
| Visually Effective Excel Dashboards Course on designing dashboards in Excel. | Course | $149 Checked Sep 14, 2026 | View |
| Python in Excel Foundations Shorter introductory course on Python in Excel. | Course | $99 Checked Sep 14, 2026 | View |
| XelPlus team licenses Course licenses for teams and departments, quoted on request. | Other | Not published Checked Sep 14, 2026 | View |
Prices are those published by the mentor on the date checked and may change. “Not published” means we couldn't find a public price.
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An economist and Excel instructor based in Austria who founded XelPlus. She holds a master's in economics from the University of Toronto (per Microsoft's 2024 Insider Spotlight), is a Microsoft MVP and runs the YouTube channel @LeilaGharani, with 3.08 million subscribers on September 13, 2026.
On September 13, 2026, XelPlus listed single courses from $59 to $379, such as Excel Essentials for the Real World at $149 and Python in Excel For the Real World at $379. The Black Belt Excel Package, an eight-course bundle, costs $997. Team licenses are priced on request.
Yes. "Quick Wins with ChatGPT" is a two-hour course priced at $99 covering prompting, building Excel formulas with ChatGPT and documentation. Python in Excel For the Real World ($379) also includes a ChatGPT and Copilot prompt pack as a bonus.
What can be checked: XelPlus is run by Bold Option GmbH, listed in the Austrian commercial register under FN 510569 m; CNBC profiled her channel in July 2021; Microsoft featured her in its Insider Spotlight series; and course pages publish prices and a 14-day refund policy. None of the sources reviewed on September 13, 2026 reports a court case or regulatory action involving her.
The 500,000+ enrollment figure on XelPlus is the company's own claim; independent coverage found consists of a 2021 CNBC article and a Microsoft Tech Community profile.
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