Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Excel in Office 365. If you are using an earlier version (Excel 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Excel, click here: Notation for Thousands and Millions.
Jim wonders how he can get Excel to automatically display numbers using "k" for thousands and "m" for millions. As an example, if a cell contains the value $470,000 he would like it displayed as $470k; if it contains the value $1,107,432 he would like it displayed as $1.1m.
One obvious method is to create a formula that will display the information as desired. The following formula will take into account the magnitude of the number in cell B2 and then provide a formatted text string appropriate to that magnitude:
=IF(B2 < 1000,B2,IF(B2 < 1000000, "$" & ROUND(B2/1000,1) & "k", "$" & ROUND(B2/1000000,1) & "m"))
Remember that this is a single formula and should be entered entirely on one line. The drawback with such an approach, of course, is that the formula takes up space within your worksheet. To get around this you could, instead, create a custom format that will simply affect the display of the number in the cell.
To create a custom format, display the Home tab of the ribbon and click the small icon at the lower-right corner of the Number group. In the resulting dialog box, click Custom at the left side. Here's the custom format you should create in the dialog box:
[>1000000]$#.0,,"m";[>1000]$#,"k";$#,##0
This format will display both millions and thousands using the desired notation. If the number is below a thousand then it will be displayed without any special notation. As appropriate, values are rounded to one decimal place.
ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (6146) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Excel in Office 365. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Notation for Thousands and Millions.
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2021-01-14 10:45:01
David Bonin
To have 23 appear as 23,000 but still actually be 23, use a format like this:
#,##0",000"
This will append the literal string of ",000" to whatever number is displayed.
2021-01-13 10:28:44
Liz
How do you do the opposite? I am lazy and want to enter 23 and have it appear as 23,000; 7 as 7,000, 1234 as 1,234,000 etc. I have never been able to get an answer to this. Thank you.
2021-01-12 11:09:26
David Bonin
I strongly recommend using the formatting approach rather than modifying the values using a formula.
If the base unit is dollars, keep all values in dollars and just change the appearance as appropriate.
Why?
It is far simpler and you are much less likely to make an error.
Some of my work has workbooks with both small and large dollar values, such as a proposal to sell many thousands of units of an inexpensive item.
Keeping all values in base units of single dollars helps avoid errors when values are copied and pasted from your current workbook to a new one, or when they get uploaded to some other system. It's even more important when the people who are moving the data don't understand the data, such perhaps an intern doing some clerical work.
2021-01-12 03:36:11
Leslie
"m" represents "milli. Use "M" for million!
2016-01-10 09:09:48
Paul
Also, can you use this complexity with the TEXT function?
2016-01-10 09:07:30
Paul
hi,
Useful tip, thanks.
But how do you deal with minus numbers in the same way?
e.g. it displays -£500,000, instead I'd like -£500k
Tried tweaking format but no success.
thanks
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Please Note:
This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Excel in Office 365. If you are using an earlier version (Excel 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Excel, click here: 
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