How To Create A Countdown In Excel

Login
Cart

Training
Videos
Functions
Formulas
Shortcuts
Blog

Calculate days remaining

Excel formula: Calculate days remaining

Summary

To calculate the days remaining from one date to another, you can use a simple formula that subtracts the earlier date from the later date. In the example shown, the formula in D5 is:

Explanation

Dates in Excel are just serial numbers that begin on January 1, 1900. If you enter 1/1/1900 in Excel, and format the result with the "General" number format, you'll see the number 1. This means that you can easily calculate the days between two dates by subtracting the earlier date from the later date.

In the example shown, the formula is solved like this:

Days remaining from today

If you need to calculate days remaining from today, use the TODAY function like so:

The TODAY function will always return the current date. Note that after the end_date has passed, you'll start to see negative results, because the value returned by TODAY will be greater than the end date.

You can use this version of the formula to count down days to an important event or milestone, count down days until a membership expires, etc.

Remaining workdays

To count remaining workdays, see the NETWORKDAYS function and the example here.

Related formulas

Excel formula: Get days between dates

Dates in Excel are serial numbers that start on 1/1/1900, which is 1. In the example, the formula in cell D6 simply subtracts the numeric value of 1/1/1999 (36161) from the numeric value of 1/1/2000 (36526) to get a result of 365. The steps look...

Excel formula: Get workdays between dates

The Excel NETWORKDAYS function calculates the number of working days between two dates. NETWORKDAYS automatically excludes weekends (Saturday and Sunday) and can optionally exclude a list of holidays supplied as dates. For example, in the screenshot...

Excel formula: Calculate days open

In this example, the goal is to calculate the number of days a ticket/case/issue has been open. We start counting on the date a ticket was opened, and stop counting on the date a ticket was closed. If there is no closed date, the ticket is still...

Related functions

Excel TODAY function

The Excel TODAY function returns the current date, updated continuously when a worksheet is changed or opened. The TODAY function takes no arguments. You can format the value returned by TODAY with a date number...

Excel Formula Training

Formulas are the key to getting things done in Excel. In this accelerated training, you'll learn how to use formulas to manipulate text, work with dates and times, lookup values with VLOOKUP and INDEX & MATCH, count and sum with criteria, dynamically rank values, and create dynamic ranges. You'll also learn how to troubleshoot, trace errors, and fix problems. Instant access. See details here.

Download 100+ Important Excel Functions

Get over 100 Excel Functions you should know in one handy PDF.

Excel video training

Quick, clean, and to the point.

Learn more