COUNTIF / COUNTIFS Formula Generator
Describe what you want to count and under what conditions, in plain English, and get a ready-to-use COUNTIF or COUNTIFS formula for Excel or Google Sheets.
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COUNTIF and COUNTIFS syntax
=COUNTIF(range, criteria) =COUNTIFS(criteria_range1, criteria1, [criteria_range2, criteria2, ...])Use COUNTIF for a single condition, COUNTIFS when two or more conditions all need to be true. Unlike SUMIF/SUMIFS, there's no separate sum_range — you're just counting matching rows. Formulon figures out which one you need and builds the criteria for you.
Examples
Count how many orders are "Shipped"
=COUNTIF(C:C,"Shipped")Checks every cell in column C and counts how many equal exactly "Shipped".
Count orders shipped to the West region in January
=COUNTIFS(B:B,"West",C:C,"Jan")Counts rows where column B equals "West" AND column C equals "Jan" — both conditions must be true for a row to be counted.
Frequently asked questions
What's the difference between COUNTIF and COUNTIFS?
COUNTIF counts cells in a range that match a single condition. COUNTIFS counts cells that match two or more conditions at once (an AND) — you list each range/criteria pair as its own pair of arguments.
Can I count with "greater than" or a date range?
Yes — criteria supports comparison operators as text, e.g. =COUNTIF(B:B,">100") or, for a date range with COUNTIFS, two criteria on the same date column like ">="&D1 and "<="&D2.
Does COUNTIF work the same in Google Sheets?
Yes, both COUNTIF and COUNTIFS have identical syntax and behavior in Excel and Google Sheets.
Why is my COUNTIF returning 0 or the wrong count?
The most common causes are extra whitespace in the cells being compared, criteria text not matching exactly (including case of punctuation), or comparing numbers that are actually stored as text.
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