Excel SUM function — add up numbers

SUM adds the numbers in the cells you choose. It is Excel's most used function: totals of sales, costs or scores.

In other languages: TOPLA (Türkçe), СУММ (Русский)

Syntax

SUM(number1, [number2], …)

Arguments

number1: The number, cell or range to add (e.g. B2:B5).
number2: Optional further numbers or ranges (up to 255).

Example

Find the total sales of all employees.

AB

1EmployeeSales

2Aysel120

3Murad80

4Leyla150

5Orxan50

Type the formula in B6

The formula in your Excel

English Excel=SUM(B2:B5)
Türkçe Excel=TOPLA(B2:B5)
Русский Excel=СУММ(B2:B5)

The result is 400 (120 + 80 + 150 + 50).

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Useful tips

Alt + = writes the SUM function for you (AutoSum).
SUM ignores text and empty cells instead of failing.

Common errors

If the result is 0, the numbers are stored as text (green triangle in the cell corner): convert them with Data → Text to Columns → Finish.