How to Round Numbers in Excel: ROUND, ROUNDUP and ROUNDDOWN

ROUND changes a number to a set number of digits: prices to the cent, averages to one decimal place, big totals to the nearest thousand. Its two siblings always go one way: ROUNDUP rounds away from zero (handy for "how many boxes do I need?") and ROUNDDOWN rounds toward zero ("how many tickets can I afford?"). Unlike the decimal buttons on the ribbon, these functions change the value itself, so every later calculation uses the rounded number.

The syntax

=ROUND(number, num_digits)

ROUNDUP and ROUNDDOWN take exactly the same two arguments:

=ROUNDUP(number, num_digits)

=ROUNDDOWN(number, num_digits)

number (required) is the value to round: a cell such as B2, a typed number, or a whole calculation such as B2/C2 or AVERAGE(B2:D2).
num_digits (required) says where to round. 2 keeps two decimal places, 0 rounds to a whole number, and a negative number rounds to the left of the decimal point: -1 to tens, -2 to hundreds, -3 to thousands. There is no default: leave it out and Excel refuses the formula.

Reading a ROUND formula

=ROUND(B2¹/C2²,2³)

B2The pack price, divided by
C2the number of units. Together, B2/C2 is the number to round
2num_digits: keep two decimal places

Round a price to the cent

A shop sells supplies in packs, and you want the price of a single unit. Dividing gives long decimals; ROUND trims them to cents.

Divide to see the raw result
Click D2 and type =B2/C2, then press Enter. A pack of 3 pens for 12.50 costs 4.166666667 per pen. Excel stores even more digits than it shows.
A B C D
1 Item Pack price Units Unit price
2 Pens 12.5 3 4.166666667
3 Notebooks 20 6
4 Markers 9.99 4
5 Folders 7 8
Dividing the pack price by the units gives a long decimal: 4.166666667.
Wrap the calculation in ROUND
Press F2 to edit D2, and change the formula so the division sits inside ROUND, followed by a comma and 2:
=ROUND(B2/C2,2)
A B C D
1 Item Pack price Units Unit price
2 Pens 12.5 3 4.17
3 Notebooks 20 6
4 Markers 9.99 4
5 Folders 7 8
ROUND takes the result of B2/C2 and keeps two decimal places: 4.17.
Press Enter. D2 now holds 4.17, not 4.1666…: the third decimal, 6, is 5 or more, so the cents round up.
Fill the formula down
Drag the fill handle in the bottom-right corner of D2 down to D5, or select D2:D5 and press Ctrl+D. Each row divides its own pack price by its own units.
A B C D
1 Item Pack price Units Unit price
2 Pens 12.5 3 4.17
3 Notebooks 20 6 3.33
4 Markers 9.99 4 2.5
5 Folders 7 8 0.88
Unit prices rounded to the cent: 4.17, 3.33, 2.5 and 0.88.

	A	B	C	D
1	Item	Pack price	Units	Unit price
2	Pens	12.5	3	4.166666667
3	Notebooks	20	6
4	Markers	9.99	4
5	Folders	7	8

	A	B	C	D
1	Item	Pack price	Units	Unit price
2	Pens	12.5	3	4.17
3	Notebooks	20	6
4	Markers	9.99	4
5	Folders	7	8

	A	B	C	D
1	Item	Pack price	Units	Unit price
2	Pens	12.5	3	4.17
3	Notebooks	20	6	3.33
4	Markers	9.99	4	2.5
5	Folders	7	8	0.88

Look at the results row by row:

Notebooks: 20 ÷ 6 = 3.3333…, and the third decimal is 3, so it rounds down to 3.33.
Markers: 9.99 ÷ 4 = 2.4975, which rounds up to 2.50. Excel shows it as 2.5 in a General cell; format the column with two decimals if you want to see the trailing zero.
Folders: 7 ÷ 8 = 0.875. The digit after the cents is exactly 5, and ROUND rounds a 5 up (away from zero), so the result is 0.88.

Rounding is not the same as formatting

The Decrease Decimal button (Home then Number then Decrease Decimal) and the number formats in Format Cells (Ctrl+1) only change how many digits a cell shows. The full value is still stored and used in every calculation. ROUND changes the stored value.

That difference matters when you add up amounts. Below, 7.5% tax is worked out for three items. Column C uses =B2*0.075 with the cells formatted to two decimals; column D uses =ROUND(B2*0.075,2).

	A	B	C	D
1	Item	Price	Tax (formatted)	Tax (ROUND)
2	Coffee	4.99	0.37	0.37
3	Muffin	2.99	0.22	0.22
4	Juice	1.99	0.15	0.15
5	Total		0.75	0.74

Column C only looks rounded: its total shows 0.75, but the amounts above it add up to 0.74. Column D is rounded with ROUND, and its total matches.

Column C shows 0.37, 0.22 and 0.15, which add up to 0.74, yet its total says 0.75. The cells really hold 0.37425, 0.22425 and 0.14925, and their sum, 0.74775, is displayed as 0.75. Column D holds exactly 0.37, 0.22 and 0.15, so its total is 0.74. On an invoice, a receipt or a payroll sheet, round each line with ROUND so the printed lines and the total agree.

Choose how many digits to keep

The second argument counts from the decimal point: positive numbers move right, negative numbers move left. Here is 1234.567 rounded with each setting:

Formula	Result	Rounds to
`=ROUND(1234.567,2)`	1234.57	Hundredths (cents)
`=ROUND(1234.567,1)`	1234.6	Tenths
`=ROUND(1234.567,0)`	1235	Whole number
`=ROUND(1234.567,-1)`	1230	Tens
`=ROUND(1234.567,-2)`	1200	Hundreds
`=ROUND(1234.567,-3)`	1000	Thousands

A negative num_digits is how you get report-friendly figures such as 1,287,000 instead of 1,287,450. It still returns a real number, so you can add and chart the rounded values.

Real-world scenarios

Sales

Sales report in round thousands

A regional sales summary for a slide doesn't need every last unit. Round each region's sales to the nearest thousand in column C.

	A	B	C
1	Region	Sales	Rounded
2	North	1,287,450	1,287,000
3	South	954,610	955,000
4	East	2,031,500	2,032,000
5	West	408,299	408,000

Sales rounded to the nearest thousand with num_digits set to -3.

=ROUND(B2,-3)

North's 1,287,450 becomes 1,287,000, because the hundreds digit (4) is below 5. East's 2,031,500 becomes 2,032,000: the hundreds digit is exactly 5, so it rounds up.

School

Report-card averages as whole numbers

A teacher wants each student's average across three tests as a whole number. Put AVERAGE inside ROUND, so the average is calculated first and then rounded.

	A	B	C	D	E
1	Student	Test 1	Test 2	Test 3	Average
2	Ana	88	93	79	87
3	Ben	72	85	90	82
4	Chloe	95	89	92	92

AVERAGE works out the mean of B2:D2, and ROUND turns it into a whole number.

=ROUND(AVERAGE(B2:D2),0)

Ana's scores add up to 260, so her average is 86.666…, which rounds to 87. Ben's 82.333… rounds to 82, and Chloe's 92 stays 92.

Inventory

How many boxes to ship

A warehouse packs mugs 24 to a box. 250 mugs is 10.42 boxes, but you can't ship part of a box, and 10 boxes would leave mugs behind. Round up.

	A	B	C	D
1	Product	Units	Per box	Boxes needed
2	Mugs	250	24	11
3	Plates	180	12	15
4	Bowls	95	16	6

ROUNDUP turns any fraction of a box into one more full box.

=ROUNDUP(B2/C2,0)

The mugs need 11 boxes and the bowls (95 ÷ 16 = 5.94) need 6. The plates divide exactly (180 ÷ 12 = 15), and ROUNDUP leaves a whole number alone, so they need 15.

Budget

Tickets on a fixed budget

You have 100 to spend on movie tickets at 15 each. 100 ÷ 15 is 6.67, but two-thirds of a ticket is no use, and rounding to 7 would go over budget. Round down.

	A	B
1	Budget	100
2	Ticket price	15
3	Tickets you can buy	6
4	Left over	10

ROUNDDOWN keeps only the whole tickets the budget covers.

=ROUNDDOWN(B1/B2,0)

The result is 6 tickets. B4 uses =B1-B3*B2 to show what's left: 100 − 6 × 15 = 10.

ROUND vs ROUNDUP vs ROUNDDOWN

All three take the same arguments; only the direction differs. ROUNDUP always moves away from zero and ROUNDDOWN always moves toward zero, so with negative numbers "up" and "down" refer to the size of the number, not its position on a number line.

Number	`ROUND(x,0)`	`ROUNDUP(x,0)`	`ROUNDDOWN(x,0)`
3.2	3	4	3
3.5	4	4	3
3.7	4	4	3
-3.2	-3	-4	-3
-3.5	-4	-4	-3
-3.7	-4	-4	-3

Notice that ROUND sends an exact half away from zero: 3.5 becomes 4 and -3.5 becomes -4.

Other rounding functions

When you need a different kind of rounding, reach for one of these:

Function	What it does	Example
`MROUND(number, multiple)`	Rounds to the nearest multiple	`=MROUND(17,5)` returns 15; `=MROUND(4.12,0.05)` returns 4.1
`CEILING.MATH(number, significance)`	Rounds up to a multiple	`=CEILING.MATH(17,5)` returns 20
`FLOOR.MATH(number, significance)`	Rounds down to a multiple	`=FLOOR.MATH(17,5)` returns 15
`INT(number)`	Rounds down to a whole number, toward the lower value	`=INT(-3.2)` returns -4
`TRUNC(number, [num_digits])`	Cuts off digits without rounding	`=TRUNC(-3.2)` returns -3; `=TRUNC(3.14159,2)` returns 3.14

For positive numbers, INT, TRUNC and ROUNDDOWN(x,0) give the same answer. They only disagree on negative numbers.

Common mistakes

Formatting instead of rounding. Decrease Decimal makes 0.37425 look like 0.37, but totals and later formulas still use 0.37425, so a column can appear not to add up by a cent. Use ROUND when the rounded value is what should be used.
Leaving out num_digits. =ROUND(B2) isn't accepted: Excel says you've entered too few arguments for this function. Add ,0 to round to a whole number.
Rounding too early. =ROUND(B2,0)*C2 rounds the price before multiplying, so 2.49 × 100 comes out as 200 instead of 249. Round the final result instead: =ROUND(B2*C2,0).
Expecting ROUNDDOWN to lower a negative number. =ROUNDDOWN(-3.7,0) returns -3, not -4, because it rounds toward zero. Use INT or FLOOR.MATH when you need the lower value.
Trying to round to 0.05 or 0.25 with ROUND. num_digits counts decimal places, so it can't round to a step like 0.05. Use =MROUND(B2,0.05), or CEILING.MATH and FLOOR.MATH to force the direction.

Practice

Round four ways

Use the sheet below. Click a highlighted cell, type the formula in the bar above the sheet and press Enter. For each row, decide first whether the situation calls for ROUND, ROUNDUP or ROUNDDOWN. Then try it in Excel: list a few prices, add 8% tax to each with and without ROUND, format both columns to two decimals and compare the totals.

Try it0 of 4 done

In C2, round the average rating in B2 to one decimal place.
In C3, round the population in B3 to the nearest hundred.
In C4, work out how many tables the guests in B4 need if each table seats 6.
In C5, split the budget in B5 between 7 people, rounded down to 2 decimal places so the total never goes over.

Click a dashed cell, type a formula in the bar and press Enter.

	A	B	C
1	What	Value	Rounded
2	Average rating	4.29
3	Town population	48,615
4	Guests (6 per table)	50
5	Budget split 7 ways	500