MONTH
Pulls the month number from 1 to 12 out of a date: to group sales or expenses by month.
MONTH(serial_number)- serial_number
- A cell with a date, for example A2, or a formula that returns a date.
Return value
A number from 1 to 12: the month of the date.
Examples
Purchase month
fx
A
B
C
D
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Date
Expense, $
Month
12.01.2026
3200
27.01.2026
1450
05.02.2026
2800
19.03.2026
990
30.03.2026
4100
Sheet1
Details
MONTH returns a number: January gives 1, December 12. The function doesn't return the month name.
The month number is the same in different years: March 2025 and March 2026 both give 3. If the data covers several years, add a column with YEAR next to it and count by both.
Common mistakes
- Data for several years was totaled by month number only, and the Januaries of different years merged into one total.
- The result cell has a date format and shows a date like 1/1/1900 instead of the month number. Set the format to General.
- The cell holds text that Excel didn't recognize as a date. The function returns #VALUE!.