NETWORKDAYS in Excel: what it does and how to use it

NETWORKDAYS counts the working days between two dates, leaving out Saturdays and Sundays, and any holidays you hand it.

Syntax

NETWORKDAYS(start_date, end_date, [holidays])

When to use it

Delivery estimates, turnaround times, notice periods, anything measured in working days rather than plain days.

What trips people up

Both the start and end date are counted, so a Monday to Monday span comes back as six, not five. Holidays only drop out if you give the function a range that lists them.

Watch it built, step by step

Count working days between dates — Weekends left out

Questions

Does NETWORKDAYS count the start and end dates?

Yes, both, as long as they fall on working days. Monday to Friday of one week counts as 5.

How do I leave out public holidays?

List the holiday dates in a range and give it as the third argument: =NETWORKDAYS(A2,B2,H2:H12).

What if my weekend is not Saturday and Sunday?

Use NETWORKDAYS.INTL, which takes a weekend code. 7 means Friday and Saturday, 11 means Sunday only.

Related functions

Date subtraction — Excel stores every date as a number, so subtracting one date from another gives the number of days between them.
EDATE — EDATE moves a date forward or back by a whole number of months, and lands on a real date every time.

Formula Steps Watch how Excel formulas are built. Download the sheet.

Settings: separator, Excel version

Argument separator

Set by your computer's language, not by the file. A frequent cause of a correct-looking formula being rejected.

Excel version

XLOOKUP, IFS, TEXTBEFORE and TEXTJOIN need Microsoft 365 or 2021; older versions return #NAME? instead. Choosing the older one switches every walkthrough to a formula that works there.