Taking Away and Subtracting Numbers in Microsoft Excel

The video guide shows how to subtract two numbers in Excel by using the formula '=<a number or cell reference>-<another number or cell reference>'. If you have an Excel table, the formula may also end up referring to column headings as in '=[@[Original Number]]-[@[Number to Subtract]]'. The common feature is that you enter a minus sign between the two values.

If you need to subtract multiple numbers, Excel obeys standard mathematical rules in interpreting your formulas. '=A1-B1-C1' and '=A1-(B1+C1)' are equivalent because of the use of brackets. Using an Excel function effectively adds a set of brackets, so '=A1-SUM(B1:C1)' will subtract B1 and C1 from A1.

If you are trying to find the difference between two cells then that is different to taking one number from another. The difference between 2 and 3 is 1. This equals 3-2 but not 2-3. As differences are always positive, we can perform a normal subtraction, then use Excel's ABS function to convert any negative results to positive values. If you want cell C1 to display the difference between A1 and B1, you would use the formula '=ABS(A1-B1)'.

Excel subtractions work on a cell's underlying value which may differ from the figures you see. If A1's value is 4.6 and B1's value is 2.2, then A1-B1 will return 2.4. If your cells are formatted to round the underlying values to the nearest integer then the spreadsheet would appear to state that 5-2=2. In the event that you think the rounded figures would cause confusion to other users, you can use the displayed figures in the subtraction by applying the same formatting in your formula. If the text is formatted to remove any decimals then the number format will read '0' so you would use the formula '=TEXT(A1,"0")-TEXT(B1,"0")'. The TEXT function will always work, other functions such as ROUND or INT are more situational.

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