Excel NOW Function — How to Use It (with 3 Examples)

Contents

What does NOW do?

NOW returns the current date and time as a single value. It takes no arguments and updates automatically on every recalculation.

Use it whenever the time portion matters — TODAY alone only gives you the date.

=NOW()

Argument	Description

Example 1

Current date and time

=NOW()

Returns both, formatted according to the cell's number format.

Example 2

Timestamp when a sheet was last opened

=NOW()

Often used in a header cell as a simple "last refreshed" indicator, though it updates on every recalculation, not just on open.

Example 3

Calculate hours elapsed

=(NOW()-A2)*24

Subtracting two date-time values gives a result in days; multiplying by 24 converts it to hours.

⚠️ Expecting NOW to behave like a true timestamp

Because it recalculates constantly, NOW is not suitable for logging "when did this actually happen" — paste it as a value if you need a fixed record.

How is NOW different from TODAY?

TODAY returns only the date. NOW returns the date and the time of day together.

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TODAY