How to Use SUMIF in Excel

SUMIF adds up all values in a range where a corresponding cell meets one condition. It's the go-to formula for "sum all sales from the West region" or "total all invoices over $500" — any time you need a conditional total from a single column.

The syntax

• range — the column you're checking the condition against
• criteria — the condition (a value, text, cell reference, or comparison like ">500")
• [sum_range] — the column to add up. If omitted, Excel sums the range column itself

Step-by-step example

You have sales data: Column A = Region, Column B = Revenue. You want total revenue from the "West" region.

Step 1. Click the cell where you want the total.

Step 2. Write the formula:

Step 3. To make it dynamic — pulling the region from a cell instead of hardcoding it:

Now change E2 to any region and the total updates automatically.

Using comparison operators

Criteria can include operators wrapped in quotes:

SUMIF vs SUMIFS

SUMIF handles one condition. The moment you need two — West region and revenue over $500 — use SUMIFS:

SUMIFS also puts the sum range first, unlike SUMIF. It's a common source of confusion when switching between the two.

The Griddy way

SUMIF is straightforward until you need partial text matches, date conditions, or OR logic — at which point the formula gets messy fast. Just describe what you need:

"Sum all revenue where the customer name contains 'Corp' and the deal closed after January 1st"

Griddy writes the right formula for your exact column names and data structure.

When SUMIF is the right tool

SUMIF is a good fit when one condition defines the total: one region, one owner, one status, or one threshold. Keep the criteria range and sum range aligned row-for-row. If you omit sum_range, Excel adds the cells in range, which is useful only when the condition and values live in the same column.

Use a cell reference for a changing criterion, such as =SUMIF(B:B,H2,D:D), rather than embedding a label in every formula. For comparisons, put the operator inside a quoted string or concatenate it with a cell: ">="&H2. Move to SUMIFS when the total needs two or more conditions. Before publishing the result, test a small known subset manually; a plausible total can still be wrong when categories contain trailing spaces or inconsistent labels.

Sources

• Microsoft Support: SUMIF function
• Microsoft Support: Sum values based on one condition