How to Merge Cells in Google Sheets

You want a title to stretch across the top of a table, or one label to cover several rows. Merging joins the selected cells into a single larger cell.

Select the cells to merge

Click the first cell and drag across the block, for example A1:D1 for a title row. The cells must form a rectangle.

Open the Merge cells menu

Click Format, Merge cells. The same options are behind the merge icon in the toolbar, which looks like two arrows pointing into a box. Pick one:

• Merge all joins the whole selection into one cell.
• Merge horizontally merges each row of the selection separately, so A1:D1 becomes one cell and A2:D2 becomes another.
• Merge vertically merges each column separately.

Confirm the warning if more than one cell has content

Only the value in the top-left cell survives a merge. If any other selected cell has content, Sheets shows a warning that merging will keep only the top-left value. Click OK to continue or Cancel to move the data first.

Center the content

With the merged cell selected, click the horizontal align icon in the toolbar and choose Center. For a merged block spanning several rows, use the vertical align icon and choose Middle.

Unmerge when needed

Select the merged cell, then click Format, Merge cells, Unmerge. The cell splits back into its original cells, and the content stays in the top-left one. The toolbar merge icon also toggles a merged cell back apart.

If you need to sort or filter the data. Merged cells inside a data range block sorting and filtering, and Sheets refuses the action with an error. Keep merges to title rows above the table, or skip merging altogether: select the header cells, click Format, Alignment, and center the text across the cells without joining them.