Ping Hosts in Google Sheets & Excel

What this pulls

Check whether a host is up by the row. Pings each domain or IP and returns up or down — Sheets or Excel.

It's one of 250+ live sources you reach with a single =VERVE() function — served from APIVerve's production data engine, billed at 1 credit per resolved cell, and refreshed on whatever cadence you set. No API keys to wrangle, no scripts, no exports.

See it in a cell

A real example — the input you type, and the values you can pull from it. Click any cell to see the formula behind it.

pinger.xlsxsample data

B2fx=VERVE("pinger", A2, "field", "alive")

Host

Alive

Round Trips

Numeric Host

Packet Loss

google.com

TRUE

2607:f8b0:4001:c6e::8a

click any cell to see its formula1 credit / cell

Ways to use it

Resolve a column of hosts

Fill =VERVE("pinger", "google.com", "field", "alive") down your list of hosts or IPs and land the answer for each in its own row — no terminal, no scripts.

Enrich logs or inventories

Add Ping Hosts's lookup beside an existing table to turn bare identifiers into readable, structured detail.

Compose checks

Combine the result with IF and conditional formatting to surface the rows that need attention.

Use it in your sheet

The same function works in both apps — install once, sign in with your key, and type it into any cell.

Google SheetsAdd-on

Install from the Workspace Marketplace, then drop the formula into a cell. Autocomplete suggests the source and its fields.

=VERVE("pinger", "google.com", "field", "alive")

Microsoft ExcelAdd-in

Same source, same arguments, same key — in Excel on desktop, the web, or mobile. Excel namespaces it as VERVE.CALL. Drag to fill a whole column.

=VERVE.CALL("pinger", "google.com", "field", "alive")

Optional inputs

Tune the result by adding name=value before the field argument — in any order. Leave one out and its default applies.

timeoutPremium
The timeout for the ping request in milliseconds
=VERVE("pinger", "google.com", "timeout", "1000")
roundTrips
How many pings to send before averaging the round-trip time
=VERVE("pinger", "google.com", "roundTrips", "1")

Fields you can pull

Add a field name as the last argument to land just that value in the cell.

Numeric HostPremium
=VERVE("pinger", "google.com", "field", "numericHost")
Alive
=VERVE("pinger", "google.com", "field", "alive")
Packet LossPremium
=VERVE("pinger", "google.com", "field", "packetLoss")
Min MSPremium
=VERVE("pinger", "google.com", "field", "minMS")
Avg MSPremium
=VERVE("pinger", "google.com", "field", "avgMS")
Max MSPremium
=VERVE("pinger", "google.com", "field", "maxMS")
Std DevPremium
=VERVE("pinger", "google.com", "field", "stdDev")
TimesPremium
=VERVE("pinger", "google.com", "field", "times")
Host
=VERVE("pinger", "google.com", "field", "host")
Round Trips
=VERVE("pinger", "google.com", "field", "roundTrips")

Premium marks data included on paid plans. On the Free plan a marked field is withheld and a marked input is ignored — either way the cell reads #PREMIUM(name) instead of a value, so a gated answer can never be mistaken for a real one. Everything unmarked works on every plan. Compare plans

Ping Hosts, answered

Everything you need to wire it into a sheet.

How do I pull Ping Hosts into Google Sheets?

Install the VerveSheets add-on, sign in once with your key, and type =VERVE("pinger", "google.com", "field", "alive") into any cell. The "field" argument names the value you want back, so the cell resolves to a single number or string you can chart, sort, or feed into another formula.

What data can I pull from Ping Hosts?

Ping Hosts returns alive, host and roundTrips — name any one of them as the "field" argument and that value lands in the cell. Leave the field out and the whole record spills into a two-column table instead.

Can I narrow what Ping Hosts returns?

Yes — Ping Hosts takes "timeout" and "roundTrips" as optional inputs. They go in as "name", value pairs after the required ones, in any order, so =VERVE("pinger", "google.com", "timeout", "1000") shapes the result without changing anything else.

Which Ping Hosts fields need a paid plan?

numericHost, packetLoss, minMS and avgMS, plus 3 more are included from the Starter plan up. On the Free plan the cell returns #PREMIUM(field) rather than a wrong or empty value, so it's always obvious which one to upgrade for. Every other field works on Free.

Can I fill a whole column of Ping Hosts at once?

Yes. Put your host values down a column and point the formula at the range — A2:A50 instead of A2 — and one call returns a value for every row. Dragging the formula down works too, but the range form is a single billed call per column rather than one per cell.

How many credits does each Ping Hosts cell cost?

Each resolved cell costs 1 credit. A cell only re-bills when it actually refreshes, so a sheet you aren't touching doesn't keep charging.

Does Ping Hosts work in Excel as well as Google Sheets?

Yes — same arguments, same key, same fields. Excel namespaces custom functions, so the call is =VERVE.CALL() there and =VERVE() in Google Sheets; nothing else about it changes.

Ping Hosts

Resolve a column of hosts

Enrich logs or inventories

Compose checks

Ping Hosts, answered

Put Ping Hosts in your next spreadsheet. Add the extension, paste the formula, and the cell keeps itself current.

Scaling up?