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Excel guide · 3 min read

How to add days to a date in Excel

Quick answerAdd the number straight to the date: =A2+30 gives the date 30 days later. Excel stores dates as day counts, so plain addition and subtraction work. For business days that skip weekends, use =WORKDAY(A2,10). For whole months, use =EDATE(A2,1) instead of adding 30.

Sample data

Every result on this page was calculated from this sheet by the same spreadsheet engine the Cellwise app uses.

ABC
1OrderOrder dateLead time (days)
2PO-5512Nov 2, 202630
3PO-5513Nov 4, 202614
4PO-5514Nov 9, 202645
5PO-5515Nov 16, 202621

Add a fixed number of days

Behind the scenes a date is a whole number: the count of days since January 1, 1900. November 2, 2026 is day 46328. Adding 14 just moves 14 days forward, across month and year ends automatically.

=B2+14

Result: Nov 16, 2026

Nov 16, 2026: two weeks after the order date.

Add days from another cell

Usually the number of days lives in its own column, like the supplier lead times here. The formula is the same: =B2+C2. Excel normally formats the result as a date because B2 is a date.

If you see a plain number, the cell is formatted as General. The value is right; only the display is off. Choose Home > Number Format > Short Date. To build a readable label in one step, wrap the sum in TEXT.

=TEXT(B2+C2,"ddd, mmm d, yyyy")

Result: Wed, Dec 2, 2026

Wed, Dec 2, 2026: the order date plus its 30-day lead time.

Subtract days

Subtracting works the same way. Here: when must you place an order so it ships 21 days before a December 15 deadline? Use DATE for a typed date so Excel does not misread it as text.

=DATE(2026,12,15)-21

Result: Nov 24, 2026

Nov 24, 2026 is the last day to order.

Add months or years with EDATE

Months are not all the same length, so adding 30 drifts. EDATE moves by calendar months and keeps the day number. If that day does not exist (January 31 plus one month), it returns the last day of the shorter month.

For years, add 12 months per year: =EDATE(B2,12) is the same day next year, and it handles February 29 properly.

=EDATE(B3,3)

Result: Feb 4, 2027

Feb 4, 2027: exactly three calendar months after November 4.

Add business days with WORKDAY

To skip Saturdays and Sundays, use WORKDAY(start, days, [holidays]). =WORKDAY(B2,10) returns the date 10 working days after B2. Add a range of public holiday dates as the third argument to skip those too. If your weekend is not Saturday and Sunday, WORKDAY.INTL lets you choose which days are off (for example Friday and Saturday).

To check a WORKDAY answer, or to go the other way and count working days between two dates, use NETWORKDAYS. It counts both the start and end date if they are weekdays.

=NETWORKDAYS(B2,B2+14)

Result: 11

11 working days from November 2 to November 16, 2026, counting both ends.

Add days to a whole column in place

If you want to shift existing dates without a helper column (for example, pushing a schedule back a week), Paste Special can add a number to every cell at once.

  1. Type the number of days (for example 7) in an empty cell and copy it.
  2. Select the dates.
  3. Right-click > Paste Special, choose Add under Operation, and click OK.
  4. Delete the helper number. If the dates turned into numbers, reapply a date format.

Common mistakes

The answer shows as 46358

That is the right date, shown as its serial number. Format the cell as a date with Home > Number Format > Short Date.

#VALUE! when adding to a date

The date is text, for example "02.11.2026" from an export. Convert the column to real dates first (Data > Text to Columns, choose the matching date order in step 3).

Adding 30 for "one month"

November 2 plus 30 is December 2, but January 31 plus 30 is March 2. Use EDATE for calendar months.

Typing a date as text inside the formula

="11/2/2026"+30 depends on regional settings and breaks for readers in other countries. Use DATE(2026,11,2)+30.

FAQ

How do I add 30 days to a date in Excel?

Type =A2+30, where A2 holds the date. Format the result as a date if it shows a number.

How do I add business days to a date in Excel?

Use =WORKDAY(A2,10) for 10 working days after A2, skipping weekends. Add a holiday range as the third argument to skip public holidays.

How do I add months to a date in Excel?

Use =EDATE(A2,3) for three months later. It keeps the day number and handles months of different lengths.

How do I subtract days from a date in Excel?

Use a minus sign: =A2-7 is one week earlier. To find the number of days between two dates, subtract one date from the other.

Functions used

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