Excel CEILING Function

The Excel CEILING function rounds a given number up to the nearest specified multiple. CEILING works like the MROUND function, but CEILING always rounds up.
- number - The number that should be rounded.
- significance - The multiple to use when rounding.
The Excel CEILING function rounds a number up to a given multiple. The multiple to use for rounding is provided as the significance argument. If the number is already an exact multiple, no rounding occurs and the original number is returned.
CEILING works like the MROUND function, but unlike MROUND, which rounds to the nearest multiple, CEILING always rounds up.
Example #1 - round up to nearest 5
To round a number in A1 up to the nearest multiple of 5, you can use a formula like this:
=CEILING(A1,5)
Example #2 - round pricing up to end with .99
CEILING can be a can be useful to set pricing after currency conversion or discounts are applied. For example, the formula below will round a value in A1 up to the next whole dollar, then subtract 1 cent, to return a price like $2.99, $5.99, $49.99, etc.
=CEILING(A1,1) - 0.01
Example #3 - round time up to nearest 15 minutes
CEILING understands time formats and can be used to round time up to a given multiple. For example, to round a time in A1 up to the nearest 15 minutes, you can use CEILING like this:
=CEILING(A1,"0:15") // round up to nearest 15 min
Rounding functions in Excel
Excel provides a number of functions for rounding:
- To round normally, use the ROUND function.
- To round to the nearest multiple, use the MROUND function.
- To round down to the nearest specified place, use the ROUNDDOWN function.
- To round down to the nearest specified multiple, use the FLOOR function.
- To round up to the nearest specified place, use the ROUNDUP function.
- To round up to the nearest specified multiple, use the CEILING function.
- To round down and return an integer only, use the INT function.
- To truncate decimal places, use the TRUNC function.
Notes
- CEILING works like the MROUND function, but CEILING always rounds up.
- If number is an exact multiple of significance, no rounding occurs.
- If number and significance are both negative, CEILING rounds down, away from zero.
- If number is negative, and significance is positive, CEILING rounds up, towards zero.
- For more control over how CEILING rounds negative numbers, see the CEILING.MATH function.
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