Excel Days Between Dates: subtract, or count working days only

Excel stores every date as a number of days, so the days between two dates is just one minus the other.

Steps

1. Earlier date in B1, later date in B2.
2. Click B3. Type =B2-B1. Enter.
3. If the result looks like a date (e.g. 11-Jan-1900), press Ctrl + Shift + ~ to switch the cell to General.

Result: 11.

Working days only (skip weekends)

=NETWORKDAYS(B1, B2)

Counts Monday to Friday, including both dates.

Skip holidays too

List your holidays in F1:F10, then:

=NETWORKDAYS(B1, B2, F1:F10)

Days from today

=B1-TODAY()

Positive = still to come. Negative = already passed.

Add days to a date

30 days after B1: =B1+30. 30 working days after: =WORKDAY(B1, 30).

Check it worked

1 Sep to 12 Sep is 11 days. Monday to the next Monday is 7. If your answer is off by tens of thousands, the cell format is wrong — see step 3.

Common mistake

#VALUE! means one cell holds text, not a date. Retype it, or use =DATEVALUE(B1).