SLOPE Function in Excel: How Fast a Trend Rises

SLOPE Function in Excel: How Fast a Trend Rises featured illustration

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⏱ 2 min readUpdated 5 October 2026

StatisticsLevel: ExpertAvailable in: Excel 2007+

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

SLOPE returns the slope of the best-fit straight line — “sales grow by about ₹42,000 a month”.

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Syntax

=SLOPE(known_ys, known_xs)
Argument What it means
known_ys The values to explain.
known_xs Usually month numbers or dates.

Examples

Example 1

=SLOPE(C2:C25, A2:A25)

Average monthly change over two years.

SLOPE in practice

Where you will use it

  • Sales growth per month
  • Cost per extra unit
  • Trend direction

Worked example

CaseFormulaResult
1=ROUND(SLOPE(INDEX($H$1:$L$3,A2,0),{1,2,3,4,5}),4)2
2=ROUND(SLOPE(INDEX($H$1:$L$3,A3,0),{1,2,3,4,5}),4)5
3=ROUND(SLOPE(INDEX($H$1:$L$3,A4,0),{1,2,3,4,5}),4)-10

Results calculated in Excel.

Mistakes people make

MistakeWhat to do instead
Argument orderknown_y's first
OutliersOne point can tilt the slope

INTERCEPT · RSQ · TREND · FORECAST.LINEAR

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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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