Summary

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.

Purpose 

Round a number up to nearest multiple

Return value 

A rounded number.

Syntax

=CEILING(number,significance)
  • number - The number that should be rounded.
  • significance - The multiple to use when rounding.

How to use 

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.

The CEILING function takes two arguments, number, and significance. Number is the numeric value to round up. The significance argument is the multiple to which number should be rounded. In most cases, significance is provided as a numeric value, but CEILING can also understand time entered as text like "0:15". See the example below.

CEILING works like the MROUND function, which also rounds to a given multiple. However, unlike MROUND, which rounds to the nearest multiple, the CEILING function rounds up to the next multiple.

Note: the CEILING function is officially listed as a compatibility function, replaced by CEILING.MATH and CEILING.PRECISE.

Examples

The formulas below show how CEILING rounds up values to a given multiple:

=CEILING(10,3) // returns 12
=CEILING(36,7) // returns 42
=CEILING(309,25) // returns 325
=CEILING(610,100) // returns 700
=CEILING(-5.4,1) // returns -5

To round a number in A1 up to the nearest multiple of 5, you can use a formula like this:

=CEILING(A1,5)

Round pricing up to end with .99

CEILING 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

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

Other rounding functions

Excel provides a number of functions for rounding:

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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Dave Bruns

Hi - I'm Dave Bruns, and I run Exceljet with my wife, Lisa. Our goal is to help you work faster in Excel. We create short videos, and clear examples of formulas, functions, pivot tables, conditional formatting, and charts.