COUNTIF & COUNTIFS
Counting cells that meet a condition — or many conditions — with COUNTIF and COUNTIFS. Every recipe and fix collected here.
8 pages · 2 reference, 4 how-to, 2 error fix
Reference
How-to guides
COUNTIF vs COUNTIFS: how they differ in Excel and Sheets
Learn the difference between COUNTIF (single condition) and COUNTIFS (multiple conditions) for counting in Excel and Google Sheets.
How to count cells not equal to a value
Use COUNTIF with the <> operator to count all cells that do not match a specific value.
How to use COUNTIF with a wildcard
Count cells that contain, start with, or end with specific text using COUNTIF with * and ? wildcard characters.
How to use COUNTIFS with OR logic
COUNTIFS applies AND logic by default; use summed COUNTIFs or SUMPRODUCT to achieve OR logic across multiple criteria.
Error fixes
Fix COUNTIF
COUNTIF not working in Excel and Google Sheets — fix criteria syntax, data-type mismatches, wildcard errors, and case-sensitivity misunderstandings.
Fix Wrong count
COUNTIF returns the wrong count in Excel and Google Sheets — fix wildcard over-matching, duplicate rows, hidden rows, blank cell handling, and date format issues.