YEAR
Pulls the year out of a date as a number: to break down sales or contracts by year.
YEAR(serial_number)- serial_number
- A cell with a date, for example A2, or a formula that returns a date.
Return value
A number: the year of the date, for example 2026.
Examples
Order year
fx
A
B
C
D
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Order date
Amount, $
Year
18.11.2025
12400
29.12.2025
8900
14.01.2026
15300
03.06.2026
7600
21.09.2026
11200
Sheet1
Details
YEAR returns a plain number like 2026. You work with it like any number: compare it, use it in SUMIFS or a pivot table.
The cell must hold a real date, not text that looks like a date. It's easy to check: a real date sits on the right edge of the cell.
Common mistakes
- The result cell has a date format and shows 7/18/1905 instead of 2026. Set the format to General.
- The cell holds text that Excel didn't recognize as a date, for example from another program's export. YEAR returns #VALUE!.