Rounding Numbers in Google Sheets [2023 Update]

Before we get into rounding in google sheets it's important to remember the following rules:

1. If a number ends in a value less than 5, round the number down.
2. If a number ends in 5 or above, round the number up.

This applies to both whole numbers and decimals. Fortunately, Google Sheets includes a set of functions to do this job for us: the ROUND, ROUNDUP, and ROUNDDOWN functions. This tutorial will teach you how to use them.

It's also important to know the definition of the following:

1. A Whole Number is a number without fractions. 1, 2, 10, 140 etc. Numbers with decimal places are not whole numbers.
2. An Integer is just like a whole number but also includes negative values like -1, -2, -10, -140 etc.

How to Round Numbers in Google Sheets with the ROUND Function

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The Google Sheets ROUND function is used to round a numerical value to a specified number of decimal places.

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The Syntax for Google Sheets ROUND Function is:

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ROUND(value,places)

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Value can either be a numerical value or a cell reference.

Places is the number of decimal places you would like the number to have.

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How to Round in Google Sheets to the Nearest Integer

The ROUND function automatically rounds a given number to the nearest integer. You can use the formula above to include a cell reference that contains a numerical value or you can enter a numerical value directly into the ROUND function.

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ROUND Function using a cell reference:

=ROUND(A3)

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ROUND function using a specific number in the formula:

=ROUND(1124.562314)

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Google Sheets ROUND to 2 Decimal Places:

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If you would like to round to 2 decimal place the formula is the same as above just specify the number of decimal places. In this case it would be:

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=ROUND(A3,2)

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Using Google Sheet ROUND with Negative Values

You can also the ROUND function with negative values to to round values to the left of the decimal place.

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-1 will move the decimal place one space to the left and round to the nearest ten

-2 will move the decimal place two space to the left a round to the nearest hundred

-3 will move the decimal place 3 places to the left and round to the nearest thousand

How to Round up in Google Sheets using the ROUNDUP function

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The google sheet round up function works just like the round function except it always rounds up to a specified number of decimal places or to the nearest integer.

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The Syntax for the Google Sheets Round Up Function is:

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ROUNDUP(value,places)

Value can either be a numerical value or a cell reference.

Places is the number of decimal places you would like the number to have.

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How to Round up to the Nearest Integer:

There are certain cases where you have to always round up. This can be done using the ROUNDUP function. Just like the ROUND function, you can either include the reference cell containing the original number or add it to the function itself, and it will return the result. For our example, we have the following formula:

=ROUNDUP(A8)

And the result is as follows:

How to use Google Sheets ROUNDUP with Decimal Places

In this case we are rounding up to 3 decimal places

=ROUNDUP(A9,3)

How to Round up Google Sheets Numbers with Negative Values:

-1 will move the decimal place one space to the left and round up to the nearest ten

-2 will move the decimal place two space to the left a round up to the nearest hundred

-3 will move the decimal place 3 places to the left and round up to the nearest thousand

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For example if we want to round the number 1124.362314 to the nearest 100 we would use the formula below:

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=ROUNDUP(A10,-2)

And we will get the following result:

How to Round Down in Google Sheets using the ROUNDDOWN function

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The google sheets round down function works similarly to the other ROUND function except it always rounds the value down to a specified number of decimal places or to the nearest integer.

The Syntax for the ROUNDOWN Google Sheets Function is:

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ROUNDDOWN(value,places)

Value can either be a numerical value or a cell reference.

Places is the number of decimal places you would like the number to have.

How to Round Down to the Nearest Integer

There are certain cases where you have to always round down. This can be done using the ROUNDDOWN function. Just like the ROUND function, you can either include the reference cell containing the original number or add it to the function itself, and it will give the result. For our example, we have the following formula:

=ROUNDDOWN(A11)

And the result is as follows:

How to use the Google Sheet Round Down Function With Decimal Places

Like in the ROUND function, the ROUNDDOWN function also includes functionality to allow preserving a certain number of decimal places or even round up beyond the decimal point.

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If we wanted to use ROUNDDOWN to preserve 3 decimal places we would use the the following formula:

=ROUNDDOWN(A12,3)

And we will get the following result:

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Using Google Sheets ROUNDDOWN with negative values:

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-1 will move the decimal place one space to the left and round down to the nearest ten

-2 will move the decimal place two space to the left a round down to the nearest hundred

-3 will move the decimal place 3 places to the left and round down to the nearest thousand

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For example if we want to round down the number 1124.362314 to the nearest 100 we would use the formula below:

=ROUNDDOWN(A13,-2)

And we will get the following result:

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A Summary of ROUND, ROUNDUP AND ROUNDDOWN in Google Sheets

To summarize google sheets rounding, you can check the following image as the summary of the use of the rounding off functions in Google Sheets. You can also access the sample sheet containing the same summary here: Rounding Off Sample Sheet 

If you enjoyed this article, you might also like our article on how to subtract in Google Sheets or our article on how to use standard deviation in Google Sheets.

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If you want to learn how to import CSV from email to Google Sheets , we also suggest checking out our detailed guide.