COUNT

Quirk found

Category: Statistical · Last tested 2026-09-01

Real compatibility results for the COUNT function: executed in Excel for the web, Google Sheets and LibreOffice Calc, with desktop Excel behavior from Microsoft’s official documentation (we do not run desktop Excel — Excel for the web is a different application and is executed separately). Syntax and links to that documentation are below.

Support matrix

Engine	Documented	Live-tested	Verdict
Excel (desktop)	Yes	No — documented only	n/a
Excel for the web	—	Yes (recalc, 2026-09-01)	Supported, behaves as documented
Google Sheets	Yes	Yes (Drive import, 2026-08-29)	Supported, behaves as documented
LibreOffice Calc	Yes	Yes (25.8.7.3, 2026-07-29)	Quirk found

LibreOffice version history

We executed the same test cases under each LibreOffice release to show exactly when COUNT’s support changed — not documentation claims, real results.

LibreOffice version	Verdict	Tested
24.2.0.3	Quirk found	2026-08-29
24.8.7.2	Quirk found	2026-08-29
25.2.0.3	Quirk found	2026-08-29
25.8.7.3	Quirk found	2026-07-29

Why isn't COUNT working in LibreOffice?

COUNT exists in LibreOffice 25.8.7.3, but it is not a drop-in match for Excel — our executed tests found real behavioral differences (detailed in the test results on this page). If a formula that works in Excel or Google Sheets misbehaves in LibreOffice, compare your usage against the failing cases above before assuming your data is wrong.

Discovered quirks

=COUNT(A1:A6) on LibreOffice Calc returned 3, but the documented/expected result is 2.
Provenance
A3 and A6 are blank, A2 is text, A4 is a boolean cell; only A1=10 and A5=20 are counted; MISMATCH vs expected: expected 2, got 3
=COUNT(A1:A1) on LibreOffice Calc returned 1, but the documented/expected result is 0.
Provenance
Per Microsoft's COUNT documentation, booleans in a referenced range are excluded from COUNT, unlike booleans typed directly as literal arguments; MISMATCH vs expected: expected 0, got 1

Executed test cases

Excel for the web (executed 2026-09-01 via OneDrive recalculation)

These values come from Excel for the web, not from desktop Excel. They are two different implementations of the calculation engine, and this run measured only the web one: the corpus was uploaded to OneDrive as .xlsx, recalculated by Excel for the web on open, and downloaded again for readback. Excel for the web is a rolling service with no pinnable version, so the run is identified by its date. Where a value here disagrees with the Expected column — which is Microsoft’s documentation of the desktop product — we cannot tell you whether the web engine diverges from the desktop one or the documentation is wrong about both, because we do not run desktop Excel.

Formula	Description	Result	Expected	Verdict
=COUNT(A1:A6)	COUNT only counts numeric cells in a range; text, blanks, and booleans (when referenced via a range) are all excluded	2	2 Provenance A3 and A6 are blank, A2 is text, A4 is a boolean cell; only A1=10 and A5=20 are counted	Matched
=COUNT(A1:A1)	A boolean value referenced through a cell range is NOT counted by COUNT	0	0 Provenance Per Microsoft's COUNT documentation, booleans in a referenced range are excluded from COUNT, unlike booleans typed directly as literal arguments	Matched
=COUNT(1,TRUE)	Contrast with COUNT_boolean_in_range_excluded: a logical value typed directly into the argument list IS counted	2	2 Provenance Microsoft's COUNT docs: "Logical values and text representations of numbers that you type directly into the list of arguments are counted" - this differs from the same boolean sitting in a cell reference	Matched
=COUNT(A1:A5)	A range with no values at all counts as 0	0	0	Matched

Google Sheets (executed 2026-08-29 via Drive import)

Google Sheets is a rolling service with no pinnable version, so this run is identified by its date. The corpus was imported to Drive as .xlsx, recalculated by Sheets, and exported back for readback.

Formula	Description	Result	Expected	Verdict
=COUNT(A1:A6)	COUNT only counts numeric cells in a range; text, blanks, and booleans (when referenced via a range) are all excluded	2	2 Provenance A3 and A6 are blank, A2 is text, A4 is a boolean cell; only A1=10 and A5=20 are counted	Matched
=COUNT(A1:A1)	A boolean value referenced through a cell range is NOT counted by COUNT	0	0 Provenance Per Microsoft's COUNT documentation, booleans in a referenced range are excluded from COUNT, unlike booleans typed directly as literal arguments	Matched
=COUNT(1,TRUE)	Contrast with COUNT_boolean_in_range_excluded: a logical value typed directly into the argument list IS counted	2	2 Provenance Microsoft's COUNT docs: "Logical values and text representations of numbers that you type directly into the list of arguments are counted" - this differs from the same boolean sitting in a cell reference	Matched
=COUNT(A1:A5)	A range with no values at all counts as 0	0	0	Matched

LibreOffice Calc 25.8.7.3 (tested 2026-07-29)

Formula	Description	Result	Expected	Verdict
=COUNT(A1:A6)	COUNT only counts numeric cells in a range; text, blanks, and booleans (when referenced via a range) are all excluded	3	2 Provenance A3 and A6 are blank, A2 is text, A4 is a boolean cell; only A1=10 and A5=20 are counted	Mismatch
=COUNT(A1:A1)	A boolean value referenced through a cell range is NOT counted by COUNT	1	0 Provenance Per Microsoft's COUNT documentation, booleans in a referenced range are excluded from COUNT, unlike booleans typed directly as literal arguments	Mismatch
=COUNT(1,TRUE)	Contrast with COUNT_boolean_in_range_excluded: a logical value typed directly into the argument list IS counted	2	2 Provenance Microsoft's COUNT docs: "Logical values and text representations of numbers that you type directly into the list of arguments are counted" - this differs from the same boolean sitting in a cell reference	Matched
=COUNT(A1:A5)	A range with no values at all counts as 0	0	0	Matched

Docs & syntax

Excel (desktop): official documentation
Google Sheets: official documentation
LibreOffice Calc: official documentation

Related how-to recipes

How to average the last N values in a growing column

Where COUNT behaves differently

COUNT counts booleans differently in LibreOffice vs Excel
The same =COUNT(range) returns a larger number in LibreOffice than in Excel when the range holds a TRUE/FALSE cell. Executed Google Sheets agrees with Excel. Why, and how to migrate safely.