NOMINAL Function in Excel: Effective Rate Back to Nominal

NOMINAL Function in Excel: Effective Rate Back to Nominal featured illustration

📎 This article includes 1 downloadable practice file ↓

⏱ 2 min readUpdated 28 September 2026

FinancialLevel: ExpertAvailable in: Excel 2007+

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

NOMINAL reverses EFFECT: it tells you the quoted annual rate behind an effective yield.

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Syntax

=NOMINAL(effect_rate, npery)
Argument What it means
npery Compounding periods per year.

Examples

Example 1

=NOMINAL(8.3%, 12)

About 8.0% compounded monthly.

NOMINAL in practice

Where you will use it

  • Quoted rate from an effective rate
  • Compare with bank quotes
  • Credit card rate checks

Worked example

EffectivePeriods/yearFormulaResult
0.07194=TEXT(NOMINAL(A2,B2),"0.00%")7.00%
0.425812=TEXT(NOMINAL(A3,B3),"0.00%")36.00%
0.12=TEXT(NOMINAL(A4,B4),"0.00%")9.76%

Results calculated in Excel.

Mistakes people make

MistakeWhat to do instead
Reverse of EFFECTNOMINAL undoes EFFECT
PeriodsMust be at least 1

EFFECT · RATE

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📎 Practice files for this article

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    Practice workbook: Financial: EMI, SIP, NPV, IRR, depreciation23 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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