How to Multiply in Excel

Multiply in one cell

Open Excel. The app is green with a white "X".

You'll need to click Blank workbook on PC, or select New and then click Blank Workbook on Mac to continue.

Double-click an existing spreadsheet to open the document in Excel.

Click a cell to select it and enter data into it.

Type a check mark = in the box. Every Excel formula begins with an equal sign.

Enter the first number immediately after the "=" sign, without spaces.

Type the sign *after the first number. The asterisk in the middle shows that you want to multiply the front and back numbers together.

Enter the second number. For example, if you entered the number 6, and wanted to multiply it by 6, the formula would look like this =6*6.

You can repeat this process with as many numbers as you like, as long as there is a "*" between each number you want to multiply.

Press ↵ Enter. The formula runs and the results appear in the selected cell, however, when you click the cell the formula still displays in Excel's address bar.

Multiply multiple separate cells

Open the Excel spreadsheet. Double-click an existing spreadsheet to open the document in Excel.

Click a cell to select it and enter data into it.

Type a check mark =in the box. Every Excel formula begins with an equal sign.

Enter the name of another cell right after the "=" sign, remember not to leave spaces.

For example, type "A1" in the cell to set the value of cell A1 as the first number in the formula.

Type a mark * after the name of the first cell. The asterisk in the middle shows that you want to multiply the front and back numbers together.

Type in another cell name. The value of the second cell will be the second variable in the formula.

For example, if you enter "D5" in a cell, your formula will become: =A1*D5.

We can add more than two cells to the formula, however, you need to put a "*" between the next cells.

Press ↵ Enter. The formula will run and the results appear in the selected cell.

When you click on the result cell, the formula will appear in Excel's address bar.

Multiply multiple cells by range

Open the Excel spreadsheet. Double-click an existing spreadsheet to open the document in Excel.

Click a cell to select and enter data.

Type =PRODUCT(in the box of your choice. This command shows that you want to multiply multiple items together.

Type in the first cell name. This is the first cell in the data series.

For example, you could enter "A1" here.

Type : . The colon (":") tells Excel that you want to multiply all the data from the first cell to the next cell where you'll enter the name.

Type in another cell name. The second cell must be in the same column or row as the first cell in the formula if you want to multiply all the data from the previous cell to the next cell.

In this example, if you enter "A5", the formula will be set to multiply the numbers in cells A1, A2, A3, A4 and A5 together.

Type ), then press ↵ Enter. The last parenthesis will close the formula. After you press enter to execute the command, the data range will be multiplied and the results will be displayed immediately in the selected cell.

If you change the data of a cell in the multiplier series, the value in the resulting cell will also change.

Jessica Tanner

Update 10 November 2023