Home » How to Add Months to Date in Excel (With Examples)

How to Add Months to Date in Excel (With Examples)

by Tutor Aspire

You can use the EDATE() function in Excel to quickly add a certain number of months to a date.

This formula uses the following basic syntax:

EDATE(start_date, months)

where:

  • start_date: The starting date
  • months: The number of months to add to the starting date

For example, we can use the following syntax to add 10 months to the date in cell A1:

=EDATE(A1, 10)

The following example shows how to use this function in practice.

Example: Add Months to Date in Excel

Suppose we have the following list of dates in Excel:

We can type the following formula into cell B2 to add three months to the date in cell A2:

=EDATE(A2, 3)

We can then drag and fill this formula down to each remaining cell in column B:

By default, Excel will display the dates in a numerical format.

To display the dates in a recognizable date format, highlight the cells in the range B2:B11, then click the Number format dropdown arrow and choose Short Date:

The dates will then be formatted correctly:

Excel add months to date

Notice that each of the values in column B show the value of the date in column A plus three months.

Note that you can also use negative numbers to subtract months from a date.

For example, we could type the following formula into cell B2 to subtract three months from the date in cell A2:

=EDATE(A2, -3)

Excel subtract months from date

Now each of the values in column B shows the value of the date in column A minus three months.

Note: You can find the complete documentation for the EDATE() function here.

Additional Resources

The following tutorials explain how to perform other common tasks in Excel:

How to Convert Days to Months in Excel
How to Calculate Average by Month in Excel
How to Calculate the Number of Months Between Dates in Excel

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