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MONTH

MONTH function in Excel with formula usage examples
Function categoryDate and time functions
VolatilityNon-volatile
Similar functionsDAY — returns day of month
YEAR — returns year
WEEKDAY — returns day of week number
TEXT — can return month name as text

What does this function do?

The MONTH function returns the month number from a given date. The result will be a number from 1 to 12.

Examples:

  • June 17, 2025 → 6
  • 01/01/2024 → 1

The function is used to extract the month from a full date for subsequent grouping, filtering, comparison, and sorting.

Syntax

=MONTH(date)

Formatting

The function returns a regular integer. If necessary, you can configure the cell’s number format (for example, remove decimal places), but usually this is not required.

If you want to get the month name (for example, “January”), use the TEXT function:

=TEXT(A2, "mmmm")

Argument:

  • date — required argument. This can be:
    • reference to a cell containing a date
    • date returned by another function (for example, TODAY())
    • text string that Excel can convert to a date (for example, “2025-12-31”)

Examples

=MONTH(A2)
=MONTH(TODAY())
DateFormulaResult
02/15/2025=MONTH(A2)2
=TODAY()=MONTH(TODAY())(current month)
=MONTH("2025-12-31")12

Features

  • If the date is entered as text, Excel must be able to recognize it. Otherwise, an error will occur.
  • The function does not return the month name, only its number.
  • If no date is specified or the cell is empty, the result will be 0.

Other Date and Time functions in Excel

TIMEVALUE, TIME, YEAR, DATE, DATEVALUE, EDATE, DAY, WEEKDAY, YEARFRAC, EOMONTH, MINUTE, WEEKNUM and WEEKNUM.ISO, WORKDAY, DATEDIF, TODAY, SECOND, NOW, HOUR, NETWORKDAYS

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