Systems and methods and methods for providing real-time data to a spreadsheet applications (SSAPPs) are disclosed. In an example, a spreadsheet application (SSAPP) obtains subscribed data from a server through the persistent connection between the SSAPP and the server via a TCP socket. The subscribed data can be propagated to the server from a data source. The SSAPP can perform an action on the subscribed data, such as presenting a representation based on the subscribed data to a user. When the data source propagates updated data to the server, the server can send the updates to the SSAPP in real time over the TCP socket. The SSAPP can also send data do the server over the TCP socked by, for example, extracting contents from a set of cells, processing the contents to produce a result, and transmitting the result to the server via the persistent connection.