TODAY

Supported, behaves as documented

Category: Date and time · Last tested 2026-09-01

Real compatibility results for the TODAY 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)	Supported, behaves as documented

LibreOffice version history

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

LibreOffice version	Verdict	Tested
24.2.0.3	Supported, behaves as documented	2026-08-29
24.8.7.2	Supported, behaves as documented	2026-08-29
25.2.0.3	Supported, behaves as documented	2026-08-29
25.8.7.3	Supported, behaves as documented	2026-07-29

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
=TODAY()	Existence probe only: TODAY() is non-deterministic (changes daily), so there is no fixed 'expected' value	46266	Provenance Non-deterministic by design; harness/human should only check the engine recognizes the function (not #NAME?/#VALUE!) and returns a plausible large positive integer serial	Ran OK
=YEAR(TODAY())	Wrapping TODAY() in YEAR() gives a coarser but still non-deterministic probe	2026	Provenance Non-deterministic; harness/human should only check the result is a plausible 4-digit year (>= 2026 as of this test's authoring)	Ran OK
=TODAY()-TODAY()	Even though TODAY() itself is volatile, two calls within the SAME recalculation pass must return the identical value, so their difference is always exactly 0 -- a genuinely deterministic assertion about a volatile function	0	0 Provenance Both TODAY() calls are evaluated as part of one recalculation of one cell, so they cannot differ	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
=TODAY()	Existence probe only: TODAY() is non-deterministic (changes daily), so there is no fixed 'expected' value	46263.0	Provenance Non-deterministic by design; harness/human should only check the engine recognizes the function (not #NAME?/#VALUE!) and returns a plausible large positive integer serial	Ran OK
=YEAR(TODAY())	Wrapping TODAY() in YEAR() gives a coarser but still non-deterministic probe	2026	Provenance Non-deterministic; harness/human should only check the result is a plausible 4-digit year (>= 2026 as of this test's authoring)	Ran OK
=TODAY()-TODAY()	Even though TODAY() itself is volatile, two calls within the SAME recalculation pass must return the identical value, so their difference is always exactly 0 -- a genuinely deterministic assertion about a volatile function	0	0 Provenance Both TODAY() calls are evaluated as part of one recalculation of one cell, so they cannot differ	Matched

LibreOffice Calc 25.8.7.3 (tested 2026-07-29)

Formula	Description	Result	Expected	Verdict
=TODAY()	Existence probe only: TODAY() is non-deterministic (changes daily), so there is no fixed 'expected' value	46232.0	Provenance Non-deterministic by design; harness/human should only check the engine recognizes the function (not #NAME?/#VALUE!) and returns a plausible large positive integer serial	Ran OK
=YEAR(TODAY())	Wrapping TODAY() in YEAR() gives a coarser but still non-deterministic probe	2026	Provenance Non-deterministic; harness/human should only check the result is a plausible 4-digit year (>= 2026 as of this test's authoring)	Ran OK
=TODAY()-TODAY()	Even though TODAY() itself is volatile, two calls within the SAME recalculation pass must return the identical value, so their difference is always exactly 0 -- a genuinely deterministic assertion about a volatile function	0	0 Provenance Both TODAY() calls are evaluated as part of one recalculation of one cell, so they cannot differ	Matched