NETWORKDAYS Function in Excel: Working Days Between Two Dates

📎 This article includes 2 downloadable practice files ↓

Date & TimeLevel: IntermediateAvailable in: Excel 2007+

In this article

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

NETWORKDAYS counts Monday–Friday working days between two dates, optionally excluding a holiday list. NETWORKDAYS.INTL lets you choose the weekend.

Syntax

=NETWORKDAYS(start_date, end_date, [holidays])

Argument	What it means
start_date, end_date	Both are counted.
holidays	A range of holiday dates.

Examples

Example 1

=NETWORKDAYS(A2, B2, Holidays)

Working days to complete a task.

Example 2

=NETWORKDAYS.INTL(A2, B2, 11, Holidays)

Sunday-only weekend (code 11), common for Indian offices working Saturdays.

NETWORKDAYS in practice

Where you will use it

• Working days in a month
• Days to pay excluding weekends
• SLA days

Worked example

Start	End	Formula	Result
01-Oct-2026	31-Oct-2026	=NETWORKDAYS(A2,B2)	22
05-Oct-2026	09-Oct-2026	=NETWORKDAYS(A3,B3)	5
24-Dec-2026	02-Jan-2027	=NETWORKDAYS(A4,B4)	7

Results calculated in Excel.

Mistakes people make

Mistake	What to do instead
Forgetting holidays	Add a holiday list as the third argument
Non-standard weekends	Use NETWORKDAYS.INTL

Related functions

WORKDAY · EOMONTH · TODAY

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📎 Practice files for this article

⬇ Download all 2 files (ZIP · 37 KB)

• 📗
  Date scenarios workbookMonth maths, financial-year start, working days with holidays — with PASS/FAIL checks and the 2 most common date mistakes.
  ⬇ XLSX · 8 KB
• 📗
  Practice workbook: Dates & times22 tasks on realistic sales data — type your formula, the Check column turns green when it is right. Answers sheet included.
  ⬇ XLSX · 34 KB

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