RSQ Function in Excel: How Well a Line Fits

RSQ Function in Excel: How Well a Line Fits featured illustration

📎 This article includes 1 downloadable practice file ↓

⏱ 2 min readUpdated 5 October 2026

StatisticsLevel: ExpertAvailable in: Excel 2007+

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

RSQ returns R², between 0 and 1. Near 1 means a straight line explains the data well; near 0 means your trend forecast is mostly a guess.

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Syntax

=RSQ(known_ys, known_xs)
Argument What it means
known_ys Values.

Examples

Example 1

=RSQ(C2:C25, A2:A25)

Check this before trusting a linear forecast.

RSQ in practice

Where you will use it

  • How well a trend line fits
  • Explain variation in sales
  • Model quality

Worked example

CaseFormulaResult
1=ROUND(RSQ(INDEX($H$1:$L$3,A2,0),{1,2,3,4,5}),4)1
2=ROUND(RSQ(INDEX($H$1:$L$3,A3,0),{1,2,3,4,5}),4)0.9968
3=ROUND(RSQ(INDEX($H$1:$L$3,A4,0),{1,2,3,4,5}),4)0.1552

Results calculated in Excel.

Mistakes people make

MistakeWhat to do instead
R² near 1 isn't proofCheck the chart
Argument orderknown_y's first

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📎 Practice files for this article

  • 📗
    Practice workbook: Statistics advanced33 tasks on realistic sales data — type your formula, the Check column turns green when it is right. Answers sheet included.
    ⬇ XLSX · 36 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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