File size query

No, a workbook doesn't have any record of what workbooks link to it. What file type is it?

I just used this code to create a sample workbook:

Option Explicit

Sub CreateTestWorkbook()

With Range(Cells(1, 1), Cells(500, 1000))
    .Formula = "=Row()& "" "" & column()"
    .Value = .Value
End With

Dim i As Long
For i = 1 To 14
    Sheet1.Copy after:=Sheets(Sheets.Count)
Next 'i

End Sub

It simply puts the row and column number for each cell into 500x1000 cells using a formula, converts the formula to values and copies the sheet.

15 sheets is 38.6Mb
16 sheets is 41.1Mb

No formulae, no formatting, no Conditional Formatting

The 16 sheet workbook had the code in it so maybe a tiny bit for that, but negligible.

As I just created the workbooks from scratch, I know there is no bloating. The content of the cells ranges from "1 1" to "500 1000", so, not complex.