How to Sum a Column in Excel

You have a column of amounts and need the total at the bottom. The SUM function does it, and AutoSum writes the formula for you.

Click the cell for the total

Select the empty cell directly below the numbers, for example B101 if the amounts run from B2 to B100. Putting the total right under the data lets AutoSum guess the range correctly.

Type the SUM formula

Enter the formula and press Enter:

=SUM(B2:B100)

B2:B100 is the range to add. Blank cells and text are ignored. If B2:B100 holds 250, 175 and 80, the cell shows 505.

Or use AutoSum

Instead of typing, click Home, AutoSum in the Editing group (the same button is on the Formulas tab). Excel selects the block of numbers directly above the active cell and shows the formula. Press Enter to accept it, or drag over a different range first if the guess is wrong.

The keyboard shortcut is Alt + = (Mac: Cmd + Shift + T).

Sum an entire column

To include everything in the column, including rows added later, reference the whole column:

=SUM(B:B)

Put this formula in a different column, otherwise it refers to itself and Excel reports a circular reference. A text header in B1 is ignored.

Check a total without a formula

Select any cells and look at the status bar at the bottom of the window. It shows Sum, along with Average and Count, for the selection. Right-click the status bar to turn these on if they are missing. Nothing is written to the sheet.

To total only some rows. SUMIF adds the values that meet a condition: =SUMIF(A2:A100, "Paid", B2:B100) sums column B only where column A says Paid. The arguments are the range to test, the condition, and the range to add.

If the total looks too small. Some numbers may be stored as text, usually marked with a small green triangle in the top-left corner of the cell. SUM skips them. Select the cells, click the warning icon that appears next to them, and choose Convert to Number.