How to calculate percentage in Excel - formula examples

In this tutorial, you will lean a quick way to calculate percentages in Excel, find the basic percentage formula and a few more formulas for calculating percentage increase, percent of total and more.

Calculating percentage is useful in many areas of life, whether it is restaurant tipping, reseller commission, your income tax or interest rate. Say, you've been lucky enough to get a 25% off promotion code on a new plasma TV. Is this a good deal? And how much will you eventually have to pay?

In this tutorial, we are going to explore a few techniques that will help you efficiently calculate percent in Excel and learn the basic percentage formulas that will take the guesswork out of your calculations.

Percentage basics

The term "per cent" is derived from the Latin per centum, meaning "by the hundred". As you probably remember from high school math class, a percentage is a fraction of 100 that is calculated by dividing the numerator by the denominator and multiplying the result by 100.

The basic percentage formula is as follows:

(Part/Whole)*100 = Percentage

For example, if you had 20 apples and you gave 5 to your friends, how much did you give, percentage wise? By performing a simple calculation =5/20*100 you get the answer - 25%.

This is how you normally calculate percentages in school and everyday life. Computing percentage in Microsoft Excel is even easier since Excel performs some operations for you automatically, in the background.

Regrettably, there is no universal Excel formula for percentage that would cover all possible scenarios. If you ask someone "Which percent formula do I use to get the result I want?", most likely, you will get an answer like "Well, that depends on what exactly result you want to achieve."

So, let me show you a few simple formulas for calculating a percent in Excel such as a percentage increase formula, a formula to get percentages of a total and more.

Basic Excel percentage formula

The basic formula to calculate percentage in Excel is this:

Part/Total = Percentage

If you compare it to the basic math formula for percentage, you will notice that Excel's percentage formula lacks the *100 part. When calculating a percent in Excel, you do not have to multiply the resulting fraction by 100 since Excel does this automatically when the Percentage format is applied to a cell.

And now, let's see how you can use the Excel percentage formula on real-life data. Suppose, you have the number of "Ordered items" in column B and "Delivered items" in column C. To find out the percentage of delivered products, perform the following steps:

  • Enter the formula =C2/B2 in cell D2, and copy it down to as many rows as you need.
  • Click the Percent Style button (Home tab > Number group) to display the resulting decimal fractions as percentages.
  • Remember to increase the number of decimal places if needed, as explained in Percentage tips.
  • Done! : )

The same sequence of steps shall be performed when using any other percentage formula in Excel.

In the following example, column D displays a rounded percent of delivered items, without any decimal places showing. Using the basic Excel percentage formula

Calculating percentage of total in Excel

In fact, the above example is a particular case of calculating percentages of a total. Now, let's investigate a few more examples that will help you make quick work of calculating a percent of a total in Excel on different data sets.

Example 1. The total is at the end of the table in a certain cell

A very common scenario is when you have a total in a single cell at the end of a table. In this case, the percentage formula will be similar to the one we've just discussed with the only difference that a cell reference in the denominator is an absolute reference (with $).The dollar sign fixes the reference to a given cell, so that it never changes no matter where the formula is copied.

For example, if you have some values in column B and their total in cell B10, you'd use the following formula to calculate percentages of the total:

=B2/$B$10

You use a relative cell reference to cell B2 because you want it to get changed when you copy the formula to other cells of column B. But you enter $B$10 as an absolute cell reference because you want to leave the denominator fixed on B10 when auto-filling the formula down to row 9.

Tip. To make the denominator an absolute reference, either type the dollar sign ($) manually or click the cell reference in the formula bar and press F4.

The screenshot below demonstrates the results returned by the formula, the Percentages of Total column is formatted as percentage with 2 decimal places showing. Calculating percentage of a total in Excel

Example 2. Parts of the total are in multiple rows

In the above example, suppose you have several rows for the same product and you want to know what part of the total is made by all orders of that particular product.

In this case, you can use the SUMIF function to add up all numbers relating to a given product first, and then divide that number by the total, like this:

=SUMIF(range, criteria, sum_range) / total

Given that column A contains all product names, column B lists corresponding quantities, cell E1 is the name of the product you are interested in, and the total is in cell B10, your real-life formula may look similar to this:

=SUMIF(A2:A9 ,E1, B2:B9) / $B$10 A formula to calculate a percentage of the total when items are in multiple rows

Naturally, you can put the product name directly in the formula, like this:

=SUMIF(A2:A9, "cherries", B2:B9) / $B$10

If you want to find out what part of the total a few different products make, add up the results returned by several SUMIF functions, and then divide that number by the total. For example, the following formula calculates the percent of cherries and apples:

=(SUMIF(A2:A9, "cherries", B2:B9) + SUMIF(A2:A9, "apples", B2:B9)) / $B$10

For more information about the SUM function, please check out the following tutorials:

How to calculate percent difference in Excel

Of all formulas for calculating percentage in Excel, a percent change formula is probably the one you would use most often.

Excel formula for percent increase / decrease

To calculate the percentage of difference between two values A and B, the generic formula is:

Percent Change = (B - A) / A

When applying this formula to real data, it is important that you correctly determine which value is A and which is B. For example, yesterday you had 80 apples and how you have 100, meaning that now you have 20 apples more than before, which is 25% increase. If you had 100 apples and now you have 80, your number of apples has reduced by 20, which is 20% decrease.

Considering the above, our Excel formula for percentage change takes the following shape:

(New Value - Old Value) / Old Value

And now, let's see how you can use this formula for calculating percent difference in your spreadsheets.

Example 1. Calculating percent difference between 2 columns

Suppose you have the last month prices in column B and this month prices in column C. Then your percent change formula takes this form:

=(C2-B2)/B2

To calculate the percent difference between two numbers correctly, carry out these steps.

  1. Enter the formula in any blank cell in row 2, say D2. This will output the result as a decimal number.
  2. Select the formula cell and click the Percent Style button on the Home tab to convert the decimal number to percentage.
  3. Drag the formula down to copy it to the below cells.

As the result, the formula calculates the percentage of change in this month (column C) comparted to last month (column B). Positive percentages that show percentage increase are formatted in usual black, while negative percentages (percent decrease) are formatted in red. To have this done automatically, set up a custom format for negative percentages as explained in this tip. Excel formula to calculate percent change between 2 columns

Example 2. Calculating percentage difference between two numbers

In case you have one column of numbers, say column C that lists weekly or monthly sales, you can calculate the percentage change between the previous week/month and the current one using this formula:

=(C3-C2)/C2

Where C2 and C3 are the numbers you are comparing.

Note. Please pay attention that you should skip the first row with data and put your percent difference formula in the 2nd cell, which is D3 in this example.

To display decimals as percentages, apply the percent format to the cells containing your formula, and you will get the following result: Excel formula to calculate percent change between rows

To calculate the percentage of change between a certain number and all other numbers, fix the address of that cell by using the $ sign, e.g. $C$2.

For instance, to calculates the percent increase / decrease for each month compared to January (C2), the formula in D3 is:

=(C3-$C$2)/$C$2

When copying the formula to the below cells, the absolute reference ($C$2) will remain the same, while the relative reference (C3) will change to C4, C5, and so on based on a relative position of the row where the formula is copied. Calculating a percentage change compared to January

For more formula examples, please see How to calculate percentage change in Excel.

Calculating amount and total by percentage

As you've just seen, calculating percentages in Excel is easy, and so is calculating amounts and totals if you know the percentage.

Example 1. Calculate amount by total and percentage

Suppose you are buying a new laptop for $950 and they charge 11% VAT on this purchase. The question is - how much do you have to pay on top of the net price? In other words, what is 11% of $950?

The following formula will help:

Total * Percentage = Amount

Assuming that the total value is in cell A2 and percent in B2, the above formula turns into a simple =A2*B2 and returns 104.50. Calculating amount by total and percentage

Remember, when you type a number followed by the percent sign (%) in Excel, the number is interpreted as a hundredth of its value. For example, 11% is actually stored as 0.11 and Excel uses this underlying value in all formulas and calculations.

In other words, the formula =A2*11% is equivalent to =A2*0.11. Naturally, you are free to use the decimal number corresponding to the percentage directly in a formula if this works better for your worksheets.

Example 2. Calculating total by amount and percentage

For example, you friend offered you his old computer for $400, which is 30% off the original price. You want to know what the original price was.

Since 30% is the discount, you deduct it from 100% first to know what percentage you actually have to pay (100% - 30% = 70%). Now you need the formula to calculate the original price, i.e. to find the number whose 70% equals 400.

The formula goes as follows:

Amount / Percentage = Total

Applied to real data, it may take any of the following shapes:

=A2/B2

or

=A2/0.7

or

=A2/70% Calculating the total by amount and percentage

Tip. To get an answer to a more difficult question - how to calculate the interest amount of a loan payment knowing an interest rate - check out the IPMT function.

How to increase / decrease a number by percentage

The holiday season is upon us and this indicates a change in your usual weekly spendings. You may want to consider different options to find out your optimum weekly allowance.

To increase an amount by a percentage, use this formula:

= Amount * (1 + %)

For example, to increase the value in cell A1 by 20%, the formula is:

=A1*(1+20%)

To decrease an amount by a percentage:

= Amount * (1 - %)

For instance, to reduce the value in cell A1 by 20%, the formula is:

=A1*(1-20%)

In our example, if A2 is your current expenditures and B2 is the percentage you want to increase or reduce that amount by, here are the formulas you'd enter in cell C2:

Increase by percentage:

=A2*(1+B2)

Reduce by percentage:

=A2*(1-B2) Excel formula to increase a number by percentage

How to increase / reduce an entire column by a percentage

Suppose, you have a column of numbers that you want to increase or reduce by a certain percent, and you want to have the updated numbers in the same column rather than add a new column with the formula.

Here are 5 quick steps to handle this task:

  1. Enter all the numbers you want to increase or decrease in some column, column B in this example.
  2. In an empty cell, enter one of the below formulas:

    Increase by percentage:

    =1+20%

    Reduce by percentage:

    =1-20% A formula to increase an entire column of numbers by a certain percentage

    Naturally, you are free to replace 20% in the above formulas with the percentage you want.

  3. Select the cell with the formula (C2 in our case) and copy it by pressing Ctrl + C.
  4. Select the range of cells you want to change, right click the selection and then click Paste Special… Use Paste Special to increase an entire column of numbers by percentage
  5. In the Paste Special dialog window, select Values under Paste, Multiply under Operation and click OK. In the Paste Special dialog window, select Values under Paste, Multiply under Operation.

And here's the result - all the numbers in column B are increased by 20%: All the numbers in column B are increased by 20%.

In the same fashion, you can multiply or divide a column of numbers by a certain percentage. Simply enter the desired percentage in an empty cell and follow the steps above.

This is how you calculate percentage in Excel. And even if working with percentages has never been your favorite kind of math, by using these basic percentage formulas you can get Excel to do the work for you. That's all for today, thank you for reading!

713 comments

  1. Hi
    I want you to please work 750,000 less 5%, less 500,000 multiply by 15%.
    I have tried over but i could get the correct answer.

    thanks

  2. hi how can I find the percentage of a shirt which the marked price was 500 shillings the shopkeeper offered a discount and sold it at 480 shillings

  3. I need to know how many days a person must attend school to increase their percentage from 88 to 90
    There are 42 days remaining

  4. Hi,

    I want to now the, if more than 100% calculation it should be only 100%.

  5. please how can convert a number to any percentage of my choice using excel worksheet
    for example, i want to convert 15 to 20%

  6. I want to calculate the relative percentage between columns

    • Hi Themba,
      if you still need our help, we will need to know more details. Please, email us at support@ablebits.com with your Excel workbook attached (workbook with the data you're trying to calculate). Also, link this article and indicate the number of your comment. We will get back in touch.

  7. Hi I want to raise precentage between in two address like coulum a has a long sentence & coulm b has a small sentence then I want result in cell c that how many percentage do match coulum b address with coulum a.

    Please help for getting my result

  8. Name Tamil English Maths Science
    All 55 98 65 65
    Ball 65 58 25 89
    Cat 100 100 100 100

    In this scenario I need Mr. ball marks in maths . is there any formula?

  9. I am sorry if this has been covered above, please do let me know if this is the case....

    What I'd like to know is how can I generate various plus and minus percentages for a number? for instance, if I have to find out the values above and below the ranges of 1,5 and 10 percent? in one column I have the numbers I would like to work with and in the next columns I have plus 10%, minus 10%, plus 5%, minus 5%, plus 1% and minus 1%... Is there a way I can make excel work out the percentage values for the number in that column? Surely there's a quicker way than the old calculator method. Any help or tips would be greatly appreciated. thank you!

  10. Hi,

    I want to calculate the percentage of calls made per people in the room. For example there are 16 people in the room and I've made 50 calls between them. What is the percentage?

    • Hi, Phillip,

      To begin with, you need to calculate the number of calls per person.
      If A1 – 16 people, B1 – 50 calls, then C1:
      =B1/A1
      And then in D1 you can count the percentage:
      =C1/B1
      Make sure to convert your number to percentage (Home tab > Number group > Percentage).

  11. Hi I want to calculate the PayPal fee on a spreadsheet.

    So this is how my chart is looking
    A B C D
    4 nights accommodation without breakfast @ 200 800
    Deposit 250 550
    Paypal fee 4%
    Total due

    So how do I calculate the Paypal fee and the total due

  12. suppose i have a product and i want to sell it to rs 3750 instead of 6300 but i want to know how much i gave discount percentage to a customer

  13. Hi guys i was a little bit confused how to calculate % in salary issues. your explanation is highly appreciated.Thanks.

    for example;
    1) 15% of 100 is
    15*100/100 = 15 <--- I think this is Mathematically correct
    Remaining = 85
    --------------------------------------------------------
    2) In other calculation <--- Most of the time i observe it in salary
    100/1.15 = 13.043
    Remaining = 86.956

    So, my question is which is wright & why?

  14. Bassic Amount 450.00 (A1 - 450)
    + 8% (C1 - 8%)
    + 1.25% (D1 - 1.25%)
    = 41.625
    + 5.00 (E1 - 5)
    + 65.00 (F1 - 65)
    = 111.625
    + 15% (G1 - 15%)
    = 128.36875
    + 27.00 {=A1*(1+B1) [B1 - 6%]}
    = 155.36875 ( What will be formula for this in excel )

  15. Hello

    Can someone help.. 1000 filled excel column and 5 rows, in first column A1-A1000 is filled with 20 person names (repeated names) and i want system to calculate 10 % of each person a display in F1:--(column) from column B or C (Which is filled with some unique number).... Do we have any formula for these.

  16. HOW TO GET PERCENT OF ANY TOTAL

  17. Hi

    I have 3 members of staff and I have found out how many calls come through my service desk as a percentage, however now I want to display as a percentage how many tickets they respond to based on their 33% allocation.

    in essence

    I want to change 33% to 100 percent is this possible ?

  18. What I'm trying to figure out is what percentage is a word in a column. For example, if the column is colors, I want to put in a formula that tells me what percentage is the color blue in the column.

    Thanks!

  19. I need to get 20% of column M to on in column N for the whole spreadsheet

  20. I currently receive a monthly amount that will increase by 3% in March of every year over a 40 year term. Can you please help with the formula

  21. Hi,
    How do I calculate 15% of a total figure.

  22. I am currently using this formula to determine if 100% has been claimed in INV 01 to show on INV 02. However if INV 01 is 70% how to i change the formula to read the difference of 30%?

    Current Formula used - =IF('INV 01'!C1=100%,100%,"")

  23. I want to calculate 3% discount from the given total.So what formula should i use.???Can u help me..???

  24. thanks it's very helpful for me ....

  25. very helpfull

  26. 650=100%
    430=?

    • 430 is variable

  27. Hi,
    Example in rows heading have cost value is 100 & discount value is 10percent, like that if I change heading discount value is 15percent there should change discount value also, plz reply for this formula

  28. what should do to get 108 man hours for a month in excel

  29. 62.23x10% excel formula please

  30. 2012 National Employment Matrix Total 2012 Total 2022 (Projected) Change 2012-2022 (#) Change 2012-2022 (%) % Distribution 2012 % Distribution 2022 Number Rate
    Total, ALL OCCUPATIONS (00-0000) 145,356.00 160,983.90 15,627.90 10.8% 100.0% 100.0% 23.37%
    Management Occupations (11-0000) 8,861.50 9,498.00 636.50 7.2% 6.1% 5.9% 19.87%

    In column H, create calculations to determine the number of jobs available based on the need to replace existing workers who have left the field (e.g., due to retirement or moving to a different job field).

    Column I displays the percentage of replacement needs in each major category. Use these percentages in your calculations.

  31. I need a formula that will tell me what percent to put on a number that I can take 5% back off of and get the same number. example $1.00 x what percent = a number that when 5% is taken off of will equal $1.00

  32. how to add 5% and 15% discount in one excel sheet.two product have different discount .thank you

  33. i love it really
    thank you
    i understand easily excel function

  34. i love it really
    thank you

  35. Hi... i need help.. how to split amount according to item size..
    Ex: the cost price is $30.00 and the item is a box set of 10, what is the easiest formula in excel to split the box from biggest to smallest (set of 10) with the same total of $30.00.. thank you..

  36. Hi I'm looking for the function to calculate the % of the total budget spent monthly. Example the budget is one category is 4498.00 and we have spent 1148.49 as of the end of October. What percentage have we spent?

  37. Alternative for F4

  38. Dear Team I have one query, kindly help me regarding that,
    Same cell I am using for heading and formula in percentage, but it's not working
    example,
    ="Total: "SUM(A2:A10)=> this result should be show in percentage

  39. Hi!

    Good morning
    How to get mean % increase for three years?
    Ex. 2013-2014 2014-2015 2015-2016
    647,342 355,726.65 276,253.35

    I hope you can help me regarding this query.
    Thank you and more power!

    Merly

  40. Using absolute cell references as necessary so that you can copy the formula, in cell F4, construct a formula to calculate the percent of total sales for the first product. Copy the formula down for the remaining products.

    I don't understand this question at all. If someone could explain it that would be awesome. Thanks!

  41. I am very satisfied the way to explain with snapshot.
    i have a question. i want to count 100% above value. please guide
    for exapmle

    12 67 558%
    375 120 32%
    171 72 42%
    180 87 48%
    188 238 127%
    298 19 6%
    80 83 104%
    538 109 20%
    42 17 40%
    69 24 35%
    85 89 105%
    98 19 19%
    72 40 55%
    144 10 7%
    21 24 113%
    76 77 102%
    12 19 158%
    69 47 68%
    12 2 17%
    26 26 102%
    43 6 14%
    22 10 45%
    12 30 250%
    17 23 138%
    12 6 50%
    12 3 25%
    12 1 8%
    21 10 47%
    21 8 38%
    12 1 8%
    12 7 58%
    11 6 54%
    11 6 54%
    28 4 14%
    13 7 52%
    12 8 67%
    13 19 142%
    18 19 107%
    12 1 8%
    26 4 16%
    22 5 22%
    12 19 158%
    12 17 142%
    16 5 32%
    11 2 18%
    17 8 48%
    38 5 13%
    17 5 30%
    12 6 50%
    12 16 133%
    24 8 33%
    12 7 58%
    12 8 67%
    12 5 42%
    12 16 133%
    12 17 142%
    30 15 50%
    18 8 45%
    16 5 32%
    12 18 150%
    11 5 45%
    26 2 8%

  42. how we get percentage with percentage in a cell
    Exp. 100 (100*80%)+(80*12%)= 89.6 in a one cell

  43. Hi Svetlana.

    I want to follow % calc as you wrote above for entire column, but not able because of excel 2016 paste special appears different way. Could you explain please? thank you

    • Hi Jey,

      In my Excel 2016, Paste Special seems to be the same as in the screenshots. Anyway, you can use the Paste Special shortcut that works in all Excel versions since 2007. So, here are the steps:

      1. Input your percentage formula (like =1+20%) in an empty cell, select it and press Crtl+C to copy the cell.

      2. Select the column (or a range of cells) that you want to increase/reduce by %, and press Ctrl+Alt+V to open the Paste Special dialog.

      3. Select "Multiply" or press M, and hit Enter. Done!

  44. Having difficulty figuring my "IF" out.
    Example:
    Cell N5 through N16 has basic numbers identified as how many days. The day numbers should no exceed 15. If, in the case I am going to use N16 as an example, exceeds 15 by 5 so it would become 20. What is the percentage of days that ran on time? How do I create that formula?

  45. I know it must be me but I have spent literally hours trying to find the answer to my percentage problem and have all but given up. It can't be that difficult.
    i have a register of students with for example 111101110 showing an individual's attendance and absence. What is the formula I need to use to show the % he/she attended - this is just so frustrating. Let's assume the register shows the marks in row D.

    • Hello Derek,

      Is my understanding correct that for each student you have 1's and 0's in separate cells in the same row? If so, you can use the following formula to calculate the percentage of 1's in row 2, columns B to E:
      =COUNTIF(B2:E2, 1)/COUNTIF(B2:E2, "<>"&"")

      If your register is organized differently, please provide the details.

  46. You are the owner of the on‐line computer and accessories store called Super Star. Daily you get
    details of transactions for that day in the evenings. You have a discount policy that all orders above
    Rs.5,000 get 5% discount and those that are above Rs.10,000 get 10% discount. The Super Star Club
    Members get 15% discount on all orders plus standard discount if their orders are above Rs5,000 or
    Rs10,00

  47. Hey,

    Can anybody help me to calculate below formula in excel.

    =100-(10*5)*10%

    Please answer me
    Thanks

  48. The fees is $1750,$1750,$1900,$1900,$2050 so please help me how to get the building donation using formula 10% of fees

  49. hello, i have vehicles on my site for any given time but i must have them completed and returned within 8 hours ( 480 minutes )

    i want the 480 minutes to be 100% and need to calculate how long one is on site.

    ie,
    one is here 480 mintues =100%
    one is here 240 minutes =50%
    one is here 720 minutes =150%

    Do you know how i would do the formular?

    Thanks

  50. The projected revenue for Jan, Feb and Mar are $1000, $2000, and $2500 respectively. The projected expenses as a percentage of revenue for each month are: Rent = 25%, Operating Expenses = 35%, Administrative expenses = 10% and Miscellaneous expenses = 8.5%. Create a projected Income Statement and formatted it so it looks good

    Month Rev Rent Operating Expense Admin Expenses Misc. Expenses Total Expenses Net Income
    Jan $1,000.00
    Feb $2,000.00
    Mar $2,500.00

    Rent Operating Expense Admin Expenses Misc. Expenses
    25.00% 35.00% 10.00% 8.50%

    • how do I find a formula for the pecentage

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