TODAY and NOW functions in Excel

TODAY returns the current date and NOW returns the current date and time, both updating whenever the sheet recalculates.

TODAY and NOW bring the computer's clock into the sheet. With them a workbook can show how many days are left before a deadline, how old an invoice is, or simply today's date in a heading, without anyone typing it.

Syntax

=TODAY()

=NOW()

Examples

Each result below is what Excel itself showed for the formula on the sample sheet.

Sample sheet: Staff with their date of birth and date of joining, and a short list of holidays.

	A	B	C	D
1	Name	Born	Joined	Holiday
2	Anita	19-Jul-1988	01-Apr-2019	26-Jan-2026
3	Rohit	30-Nov-1992	15-Jun-2020	04-Mar-2026
4	Deepa	29-Feb-1996	01-Sep-2021	15-Aug-2026
5	Manoj	05-Dec-1999	10-Jan-2022	02-Oct-2026

=TODAY()
Result: changes every time the sheet recalculates
Today's date. It has no arguments, but the empty brackets are required.
=NOW()
Result: changes every time the sheet recalculates
The current date and time.
=TODAY()-C2
Result: changes every time the sheet recalculates
Days since Anita joined: one date minus another gives a number of days.
=D5-TODAY()
Result: changes every time the sheet recalculates
Days left until the holiday in D5. Negative once the date has passed.
=DATE(2026,11,12)-C2
Result: 2782
The same subtraction with a fixed date in place of TODAY, so that the result here stays the same.
=IF(D5<DATE(2026,11,12),"Past","Coming")
Result: Past
A status that compares a date with "today".
=DATE(2026,11,12)+30
Result: 12-Dec-2026
Adding a number to a date moves it forward by that many days.
=TEXT(DATE(2026,11,12),"dddd, d mmmm yyyy")
Result: Thursday, 12 November 2026
A readable date for a heading.

How they work

Neither takes an argument. You still type the brackets: =TODAY().

TODAY returns the date, as a whole number of days.
NOW returns the date and the time, as a number with a fraction for the time of day.

If the cell shows a number such as 46338 instead of a date, the cell is formatted as General or Number. Change its format to Date.

They change by themselves

Both functions are volatile. They are worked out again every time the workbook recalculates: when you open it, when you edit any cell, when you press F9. The date you see today will be different tomorrow.

That is exactly what you want for "days remaining". It is exactly what you do not want for a record of when something happened. An invoice date, a date of entry or a date of payment written as =TODAY() will silently become the next day's date tomorrow.

For a date that must stay fixed, type it, or use the shortcuts:

Ctrl and semicolon enters today's date as a fixed value;
Ctrl, Shift and semicolon enters the current time.

The examples on this page that use TODAY and NOW show no result for the same reason: any figure printed here would be out of date the day after it was written. The examples with a fixed date show the pattern with a steady answer.

Arithmetic with dates

Excel stores a date as a count of days, so ordinary arithmetic works.

Formula	Gives
`=TODAY()+7`	the date a week from today
`=A2-TODAY()`	days from today until the date in A2
`=TODAY()-A2`	days since the date in A2
`=A2<TODAY()`	TRUE if the date in A2 has passed
`=TODAY()-WEEKDAY(TODAY(),2)+1`	Monday of the current week

For months and years, plain addition is not safe, because months differ in length. Use EDATE to move by months and DATEDIF for ages and completed years.

Overdue and due soon

A typical status column: =IF(B2<TODAY(),"Overdue",IF(B2-TODAY()<=7,"Due this week","Later")). The same tests work as Conditional Formatting rules to colour the rows: =$B2<TODAY() for red, =$B2-TODAY()<=7 for amber.

Parts of now

=NOW()-TODAY() leaves just the time. =HOUR(NOW()) gives the hour. =INT(NOW()) is the same as TODAY.

Slowing down the workbook

Because volatile functions recalculate constantly, thousands of them make a large workbook sluggish. Put =TODAY() in one cell, perhaps with the label "As on", and let every other formula refer to that cell. The sheet is faster, and you can type a date into that one cell to see how the report would look on another day.

Common mistakes

Using TODAY for a date that should be permanent.
Forgetting the brackets: =TODAY gives #NAME?.
A result formatted as a number, or a number of days formatted as a date. If "days remaining" shows as a date in 1900, change the cell format to General.
Comparing a date-and-time with TODAY. A cell holding today at 3 pm is greater than TODAY, which is midnight.

In Google Sheets

TODAY and NOW exist in Google Sheets. A setting under File, Settings, Calculation controls how often they update.

Related functions

Every result on this page was calculated in Microsoft Excel (version 16.0, build 20326) on 12 November 2026, not typed by hand.

This is an independent help site. It is not connected with or approved by Microsoft. Excel and Microsoft 365 are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation, named here only to say which program a formula is for. The people and figures in the sample sheets are made up.