AVERAGE, MIN and MAX in Excel, with practice

In short: =AVERAGE(B2:B7) gives the mean, =MIN(B2:B7) the lowest and =MAX(B2:B7) the highest value. All three work like SUM and skip blank cells and text.

Try it now

The sheet shows October sales for six employees. Calculate the average per person. Click the yellow cell and write the formula. Dragging over cells while you type inserts the range.

Task In B9, calculate the average sales per employee for October.

	A	B
1	Employee	October sales $
2	Emma Clark	8400
3	Liam Turner	10250
4	Olivia Hughes	7900
5	Noah Bennett	11600
6	Grace Porter	9350
7	Ethan Ward	8800
8
9	Average:

The three formulas

Function	Returns	In the example
AVERAGE(number1,…)	The total of all numbers divided by how many there are	=AVERAGE(B2:B7) gives about 9,383.33
MIN(number1,…)	The smallest value	=MIN(B2:B7) gives 7,900
MAX(number1,…)	The largest value	=MAX(B2:B7) gives 11,600

Each function accepts one or more ranges, cells or numbers separated by commas, so =MAX(B2:B7,D2:D7) finds the highest value across both columns. AVERAGE often returns a long string of decimals. Cell formatting is enough to display fewer. If later calculations should use the rounded value, wrap it: =ROUND(AVERAGE(B2:B7),2).

One more: price difference with MAX and MIN

Six suppliers quoted the same office chair. How far apart are the most expensive and the cheapest offer? Put both functions into one formula and subtract.

Task In B9, calculate how much more the most expensive offer costs than the cheapest one.

	A	B
1	Supplier	Office chair price $
2	Office Hub	289
3	DeskWorld	245.5
4	Smith Furniture	312
5	SeatWorks	268
6	ErgoPlus	299.9
7	Supply24	259
8
9	Price difference:

Blank cells vs zeros

This is the detail that trips people up most. AVERAGE only counts cells that contain numbers. A blank cell is skipped, but a 0 is a value and pulls the average down. Sales of 8,000, 10,000 and one blank cell average 9,000. Type a 0 into that blank cell and the result drops to 6,000.

So decide what a missing number means. If someone really sold nothing, enter 0. If the figure simply has not come in yet, leave the cell empty. MIN behaves the same way: a 0 in the range immediately becomes the minimum, a blank cell does not.

COUNT, the companion of AVERAGE

=COUNT(B2:B7) tells you how many cells in the range hold a number, which is exactly what AVERAGE divides by. =SUM(B2:B7)/COUNT(B2:B7) always equals =AVERAGE(B2:B7). If COUNT is lower than you expect, some cells are empty or contain numbers stored as text. COUNTA, by contrast, counts every cell that is not empty, text included. All the counting functions, with exercises, are on our COUNT, COUNTA and COUNTBLANK page.

AVERAGEIF for conditional averages

To average only certain rows, such as one department, use AVERAGEIF. It is built like SUMIF: =AVERAGEIF(A2:A20,"Sales",C2:C20) checks the departments in column A and averages the matching values in column C. AVERAGEIFS handles several conditions. Both are covered in depth, with exercises, in our AVERAGEIF and AVERAGEIFS lesson.

Common mistakes

#DIV/0!

AVERAGE found no numbers at all and would have to divide by zero. Usually the range is wrong or every value is stored as text. If an empty range is expected, for example a month with no data yet, catch it: =IFERROR(AVERAGE(B2:B7),"").

A numeric header inside the range

A text header in the range does no harm because text is ignored. A year such as 2026 used as a column header is a number, though, and gets averaged in. Start the range below the header.

MIN returns 0

Either the range contains a 0 somewhere, or it contains no numbers at all. COUNT shows you which one it is.

AVERAGE, MIN and MAX in German Excel

MIN and MAX keep their names in German. AVERAGE becomes MITTELWERT, and arguments are separated by semicolons:

English	German
=AVERAGE(B2:B7)	=MITTELWERT(B2:B7)
=MAX(B2:B7)-MIN(B2:B7)	=MAX(B2:B7)-MIN(B2:B7)
AVERAGEIF	MITTELWERTWENN
COUNT / COUNTA	ANZAHL / ANZAHL2

Our exercises accept both spellings. Pick your Excel language below each exercise.

Which Excel versions have these functions?

AVERAGE, MIN, MAX, COUNT and AVERAGEIF are available in all current versions, including Excel 2016 and 2019, Excel for Mac and Excel for the web. You can also pick them from the small arrow next to the AutoSum button on the Home tab.

Frequently asked questions