How to subtract in a spreadsheet
✓ Verified in LibreOffice 25.8.7.3 ✓ Verified in Google Sheets (2026-08-30)Subtract one number or cell from another — there's no SUBTRACT function, and that's by design.
The formula
| App | Formula | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Excel (desktop) | =A2-B2 | Plain minus operator. Subtract a whole range from a value with =A2-SUM(B2:B10). |
| Google Sheets | =A2-B2 | Identical (Sheets also has a MINUS function, but nobody needs it). |
| LibreOffice Calc | =A2-B2 | Identical. |
How it works
Subtraction is just the minus operator: =A2-B2 gives 60. People search for a SUBTRACT function because SUM exists, but arithmetic operators (- * /) are the intended way. To subtract many cells from one starting value, combine with SUM: =A2-SUM(B2:B10). Dates subtract the same way — the result is the number of days between them.
Verified, not just documented
We ran =A2-B2 in LibreOffice 25.8.7.3 (headless, with forced recalculation) and it returned 60 — 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 60 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.