Rounding in Excel using ROUND, ROUNDUP, ROUNDDOWN

The video guide shows how to round numbers in Excel to a number of decimal places using formulas of the form '=ROUND(A1,<number of decimal places>). The <number of decimal places> is really the number of places to the right of the decimal point so you can enter -1 to round to the nearest 10, -2 to round to the nearest 100, and -3 to round to the nearest 1,000.

Instead of having to work out the appropriate number of decimal places, recent versions of Microsoft Excel include the MROUND function. '=MROUND(A1, 1000)' will round to the nearest thousand and '=MROUND(A1, 0.1)' will round A1 to the nearest tenth. The disadvantage of MROUND is that there is currently no MROUNDUP or MROUNDDOWN so, if you want to work out how many packs of 100 screws you need to purchase to complete a construction job, you will need to use a formula of the form '=ROUNDUP(A1, 2)'.

Before using a rounding function, you should consider the alternative of letting Excel calculate the true figure and simply display the result to fewer decimal places. On the Home ribbon, you can quickly reduce the number of decimal places displayed in the Number section. You can also enter or select your own number format using the dropdown list. Sometimes you want to display a value to a number of significant figures as opposed to a number of tens or tenths. You can then use scientific notation. Excel lets you choose the number of decimal places to display which will always be one fewer than the number of significant figures you're interested in. When formatting cells, the underlying value does not change so the rounding is always to the nearest number (where halves round up) and you do not get the option of rounding up or down.

By Ed Bolton, founder of Excel4Business Ltd. Last reviewed November 2026.