Percentage Change Calculator

The numbers stay in your browser. Nothing is uploaded. The default example is revenue moving from 48,200 to 55,430, a 15% increase.

Quick answer: percentage change is always (new − original) ÷ original. In Excel or Google Sheets, with the original value in B2 and the new value in C2:

=(C2-B2)/B2

Format that cell as a percentage. For a 15% result you should see 15.00%, not 0.15. If you want the change as a decimal instead, leave the cell formatted as a number.

A worked example: 48,200 to 55,430

A shop’s April revenue is 48,200. May comes in at 55,430. The increase is 7,230. Divide that by the starting figure:

=(55430-48200)/48200

That returns exactly 0.15, which is a 15% increase. I checked this in Google Sheets on 12 November 2026, and the calculator above uses the same arithmetic. 48,200 × 1.15 is 55,430, so the multiplier is 1.15.

The sign of the result tells you the direction. 80 down to 60 is (60-80)/80, which is −25%. A value that does not move, such as 50 to 50, is 0%.

The same formula in a sheet

Put the original value in B2, the new value in C2, and the formula in D2. Drag D2 down the column if you have a list of pairs. To show “up 15%” or “down 25%” without doing the wording by hand:

=IF(B2=0,"Can't divide by 0",IF(C2=B2,"No change",IF(C2>B2,"Up ","Down ")&TEXT(ABS((C2-B2)/B2),"0.00%")))

That still uses (C2-B2)/B2 underneath. TEXT only changes how the number is written. Google Sheets and Excel accept the same formula; if your spreadsheet uses semicolons as argument separators, replace the commas with semicolons.

Where this goes wrong

The most common slip is dividing by the new number: (C2-B2)/C2. On the 48,200 → 55,430 example that gives about 13.0%, which is a different question (how much of the new figure is the increase). If you meant percentage change from the start, that answer is simply wrong.

Two other traps show up a lot in weekly reports:

Starting at zero. (40-0)/0 is undefined. The calculator will refuse it, and a sheet will show #DIV/0!. If a product had no sales last month and 40 this month, say “up 40 units,” or choose a longer baseline that is not zero.
Percentage points vs percentage change. A win rate that moves from 8% to 10% has risen by 2 percentage points. The percentage change is (0.10-0.08)/0.08 = 25%. Mixing those two up makes a small move look huge, or a large move look small, depending on which number someone quotes.

Negative originals are mathematically fine and easy to misread. Going from −20 to −10 is a 50% increase in the signed value (you moved 10 toward zero), and (-10-(-20))/-20 returns −50%. If you are talking about a loss getting smaller, write that in words rather than leaning on the signed percent alone.

To go the other way — apply a percent to a starting number — use =B2*(1+E2), with the percentage in E2 (0.15 or 15%, depending on how the cell is formatted). A 10% discount is =B2*(1-0.10).

If you need a constant growth rate over several years, that is a compound annual growth rate, not a one-step percentage change. Use the CAGR calculator for that.

Questions that come up

What is the formula for percentage change in Excel or Google Sheets?

With the original value in B2 and the new value in C2, use =(C2-B2)/B2 and format the cell as a percentage. That is (new − original) ÷ original.

Why can I not calculate a percentage change from zero?

You would be dividing by zero. A move from 0 to 40 is an increase of 40, not a percentage of the original amount. Report the amount, or pick a different baseline.

Is percentage change the same as percentage points?

No. If a rate goes from 8% to 10%, the change is 2 percentage points, but the percentage change is 25% because (0.10−0.08)/0.08 = 0.25.