How to use ROUND (and ROUNDUP, ROUNDDOWN)
✓ Verified in LibreOffice 25.8.7.3 ✓ Verified in Google Sheets (2026-08-30)Round a number to a set number of decimal places — cents, whole numbers, nearest hundred.
The formula
| App | Formula | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Excel (desktop) | =ROUND(A2,2) | ROUND(number, digits). ROUNDUP/ROUNDDOWN force the direction; negative digits round left of the decimal. |
| Google Sheets | =ROUND(A2,2) | Identical. |
| LibreOffice Calc | =ROUND(A2,2) | Identical. |
How it works
ROUND takes a number and how many decimal places to keep: ROUND(3.14159,2) = 3.14. The digits argument is the key — 2 for cents, 0 for whole numbers, and NEGATIVE values round to the left of the decimal (ROUND(1234,-2) = 1200, to the nearest hundred). ROUNDUP and ROUNDDOWN take the same arguments but always force the direction regardless of the digit (ROUNDUP(3.14159,2) = 3.15). Crucially, ROUND changes the actual value, unlike formatting a cell to show 2 decimals — which only hides digits and can make totals look off by a cent. Round in the formula whenever downstream math must match what's displayed.
Verified, not just documented
We ran =ROUND(A2,2) in LibreOffice 25.8.7.3 (headless, with forced recalculation) and it returned 3.14 — exactly the expected result. We then ran the same formulas in Google Sheets, executed 2026-08-30: a formula-only workbook goes into Google Drive, which converts it to a Sheet and recalculates every formula with Google’s own engine, and comes back out as .xlsx carrying the values Google computed. It returned 3.14 for the worked example, the same value LibreOffice produced. Both engines’ numbers on this page are executed results. The Excel formula follows Microsoft’s official documented syntax — we do not run desktop Excel.
Functions used
ROUND — see full Excel, Google Sheets & LibreOffice compatibility for each.
Related recipes
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- How to calculate a monthly loan payment
- How to calculate compound interest
- How to prorate a monthly amount by days
- How to round line items before summing (and why totals look 'off by a cent')