COMBIN Function in Excel: How Many Groups Are Possible

COMBIN Function in Excel: How Many Groups Are Possible featured illustration

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⏱ 2 min readUpdated 28 September 2026

MathLevel: IntermediateAvailable in: Excel 2007+

In this article
  1. Syntax
  2. Examples
  3. Example 1
  4. COMBIN in practice
  5. Where you will use it
  6. Worked example
  7. Mistakes people make
  8. Related functions
  9. Continue learning

COMBIN counts the ways to choose items when order doesn’t matter — teams from a class, lottery tickets, product bundles.

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Syntax

=COMBIN(number, number_chosen)
Argument What it means
number Total items.
number_chosen Items in each group.

Examples

Example 1

=COMBIN(11, 5)

462 different five-a-side teams from 11 players.

COMBIN in practice

Where you will use it

  • How many 3-person committees from 10 people
  • Lottery and probability examples
  • Possible pairs for a round-robin

Worked example

ItemsChosenFormulaResult
103=COMBIN(A2,B2)120
62=COMBIN(A3,B3)15
496=COMBIN(A4,B4)13983816

Results calculated in Excel.

Mistakes people make

MistakeWhat to do instead
Using COMBIN when order mattersUse PERMUT when ABC and CBA are different
DecimalsInputs are truncated to whole numbers

PERMUT · FACT

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📎 Practice files for this article

  • 📗
    Practice workbook: Math & rounding24 tasks on realistic sales data — type your formula, the Check column turns green when it is right. Answers sheet included.
    ⬇ XLSX · 35 KB

Free to use for learning. Files with macros (.bas) are plain text — import them with Alt+F11 → File → Import File, and always test on a copy.

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