How it works.
NETWORKDAYS calculates the number of working days (Monday through Friday) between a start date and end date. It automatically filters out weekends, and you can provide an optional list of custom holiday dates to exclude from the calculation.
💡 In simple terms.
Counts the number of working days between two dates, automatically skipping weekends (Saturdays & Sundays) and holidays.
Analogy
"Think of this like counting school days. It counts the days you have school, automatically skipping weekends and holidays."
Syntax guide.
=NETWORKDAYS(start_date, end_date, [holidays])
Parameters
start_dateRequired
The starting date of the period.
end_dateRequired
The ending date of the period.
holidaysOptional
A range containing holiday dates to exclude.
Interactive formula builder.
Fill in the input arguments below to construct your custom formula string. Copy it directly to paste into your Excel spreadsheets.
Generated Output
Best Practices
- To calculate working days with custom weekend schedules (like Saturdays only or Friday/Saturdays), use the advanced `=NETWORKDAYS.INTL()` function instead.
Common Gotchas
- Ensure your date values are real Excel serial dates or formatted text cells, rather than plain text that Excel fails to parse.