Excel vs Google Sheets formulas: what actually translates?

Most everyday formulas — SUM, IF, VLOOKUP, COUNTIFS — work identically in both tools. The differences show up at the edges: functions unique to one tool, and formulas that calculate correctly but display differently once a file crosses over.

Where the two are practically identical

SUM, AVERAGE, IF, IFS, COUNTIF(S), SUMIF(S), VLOOKUP, INDEX, MATCH, and most text and date functions behave the same way with the same arguments in both tools. A workbook built from these travels between Excel and Sheets with no surprises.

XLOOKUP is the one exception worth flagging: it exists in both, but Sheets added it years after Excel did, so older shared files built for compatibility often still use INDEX/MATCH instead.

Functions that only exist in Google Sheets

• QUERY — runs a SQL-like query over a range, filtering, sorting, and aggregating in one formula. Excel has no direct equivalent; the closest is combining FILTER, SORT, and Power Query.
• IMPORTRANGE — pulls live data from a different spreadsheet by URL. Excel requires Power Query or external links, which behave differently and don’t update the same way.
• ARRAYFORMULA — forces a formula to apply across a whole range without copying it down. Excel’s dynamic arrays (spilling formulas) achieve a similar result natively, without needing a wrapper function.
• GOOGLEFINANCE, GOOGLETRANSLATE — built-in calls to Google services with no Excel equivalent unless you use Power Query or an add-in.

Functions that only exist in Excel

• LET and LAMBDA — name intermediate values and build custom functions inside a formula. Sheets has no equivalent as of this writing.
• TAKE, DROP, VSTACK, HSTACK — array-reshaping functions for combining or trimming spilled ranges. Sheets covers some of this with ARRAY_CONSTRAIN and manual concatenation, but not with matching syntax.
• Excel’s full Power Query and Power Pivot layer has no direct Sheets counterpart; Sheets’ equivalent data tools (Connected Sheets, Apps Script) work differently and require more setup.

What actually breaks when you move a file

The formulas above aside, the most common real-world breakage isn’t a missing function — it’s regional formatting. A file built with European date or decimal formatting can recalculate differently once opened by a collaborator whose Sheets locale is set to something else, especially around date parsing. Array formulas that spill in Excel also don’t spill the same way once converted, since Sheets treats dynamic arrays and ARRAYFORMULA as separate mechanisms.

The practical answer

If a shared workbook needs to open cleanly in both tools, stick to the identical core: SUM, IF, COUNTIFS, VLOOKUP/XLOOKUP, INDEX/MATCH. Reach for QUERY or IMPORTRANGE only when the file will live permanently in Sheets, and reach for LET, LAMBDA, or the array-reshaping functions only when it will live permanently in Excel.