Quick answer
Count or add business days in Google Sheets using NETWORKDAYS and WORKDAY.
=NETWORKDAYS(A2,B2,holidays)=WORKDAY(A2,10,holidays)
When to use this formula
Use it when you need a repeatable spreadsheet calculation for invoice due dates, project plans, payroll checks, support SLAs, or other weekday-based deadlines. Google Sheets handles these calculations identically to Excel for NETWORKDAYS and WORKDAY, so the same logic applies.
NETWORKDAYS: counting working days between dates
The NETWORKDAYS function counts weekdays between a start and end date. It automatically skips Saturdays and Sundays. Add a third argument — a range of holiday dates — to exclude those as well.
Example: count working days in June 2026.
=NETWORKDAYS(DATE(2026,6,1), DATE(2026,6,30), D2:D10)
This returns 22 working days (30 calendar days minus 4 weekends, with no UK bank holidays in June).
WORKDAY: adding business days to a date
WORKDAY is the opposite calculation. Give it a start date and a number of business days, and it returns the resulting date after skipping weekends and holidays.
=WORKDAY(A2, 5, D2:D10)
If A2 contains Monday 1 June 2026, the result is Monday 8 June 2026 — five working days later, with the weekend of 6–7 June skipped.
Google Sheets vs Excel: what is different?
The NETWORKDAYS and WORKDAY functions work identically in both applications. The key difference is that Google Sheets also offers NETWORKDAYS.INTL and WORKDAY.INTL, which let you specify which days of the week are weekends. This is useful if your working week is not Monday–Friday, such as a Sunday–Thursday pattern.
Common checks
- Make sure your date cells are real dates, not text. Use Ctrl+; to insert today’s date.
- Keep public holidays in a separate sheet or named range for reuse across formulas.
- Confirm whether the start date should count. NETWORKDAYS includes both start and end dates if they fall on weekdays.
- If sharing the sheet with Excel users, avoid Google-Sheets-only features like ARRAYFORMULA inside NETWORKDAYS.
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FAQs
Does Google Sheets support NETWORKDAYS?
Yes. NETWORKDAYS works in Google Sheets.
Can Google Sheets exclude holidays?
Yes, provide a holiday date range as an extra argument.
Which formula adds business days?
Use WORKDAY to add business days to a date.