How to use VLOOKUP with SUM or SUMIF functions in Excel

In this tutorial, you will find a handful of advanced formula examples that demonstrate how to use Excel's VLOOKUP and SUM or SUMIF functions to look up and sum values based on one or several criteria.

Are you trying to create a summary file in Excel that will identify all instances of one particular value, and then sum other values that are associated with those instances? Or, do you need to find all values in an array that meet the condition you specify and then sum the related values from another worksheet? Or maybe you are faced with a more concrete challenge, like looking through a table of your company invoices, identifying all invoices of a particular vendor, and then summing all the invoice values?

The tasks may vary, but the essence is the same - you want to look up and sum values with one or several criteria in Excel. What kind of values? Any numeric values. What sort of criteria? Any : ) Starting from a number or reference to a cell containing the right value, and ending with logical operators and results returned by Excel formulas.

So, does Microsoft Excel have any functionality that can help with the above tasks? Of course, it does! You can work out a solution by combining Excel's VLOOKUP or LOOKUP with SUM or SUMIF functions. The formula examples that follow below will help you understand how these Excel functions work and how to apply them to real data.

Please note, these are advanced examples that imply you are familiar with the general principles and syntax of the VLOOKUP function. If not, the first part of our VLOOKUP tutorial for beginners is certainly worth your attention - Excel VLOOKUP syntax and general usages.

Excel VLOOKUP and SUM - find the sum of matching values

If you work with numerical data in Excel, quite often you have not just to extract associated values from another table but also sum numbers in several columns or rows. To do this, you can use a combination of the SUM and VLOOKUP functions as demonstrated below.

Source data:

Suppose, you have a product list with sales figures for several months, a column per each month. The source data is on the sheet named Monthly Sales:
Source data to look up and sum matching values

Now, you want to make a summary table with the total sales for each product.

The solution is to use an array in the 3rd parameter (col_index_num) of the Excel VLOOKUP function. Here is a generic formula:

SUM(VLOOKUP(lookup value, lookup range, {2,3,...,n}, FALSE))

As you see, we use an array constant in the third argument to perform several lookups within the same VLOOKUP formula in order to get the sum of values in columns 2,3 and 4.

And now, let's adjust this combination of VLOOKUP and SUM functions for our data to find the total of sales in columns B - M in the above table:

=SUM(VLOOKUP(B2, 'Monthly sales'! $A$2:$M$9, {2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13}, FALSE))

Important! Since you are building an array formula, be sure to hit Ctrl + Shift + Enter instead of a simple Enter keystroke when you finished typing. When you do this, Microsoft Excel encloses your formula in curly braces like this:

{=SUM(VLOOKUP(B2, 'Monthly sales'!$A$2:$M$9, {2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13}, FALSE))}

If you press the Enter key as usual, only the first value in the array will get processed, which will produce incorrect results.
The SUM and VLOOKUP formula returns the sum of values in columns B - M in 'Monthly sales' sheet.

Tip. You may be curious why the formula displays [@Product] as the lookup value in the screenshot above. This is because I converted my data to table (Insert tab > Table). I find it very convenient to work with fully-functional Excel tables and their structured references. For example, when you type a formula into one cell, Excel automatically copies it across the entire column and in this way saves you a few precious seconds :)

As you see, using the VLOOKUP and SUM functions in Excel is easy. However, this is not the ideal solution, especially if you are working with big tables. The point is that using array formulas may adversely affect the workbook's performance since each value in the array makes a separate call of the VLOOKUP function. So, the more values you have in the array and the more array formulas you have in your workbook, the slower Excel works.

You can bypass this problem by using a combination of the INDEX and MATCH functions instead of SUM and VLOOKUP, and I will show you a few formula examples in the next article.

Download this VLOOKUP and SUM sample

How to perform other calculations with Excel VLOOKUP function

A moment ago we discussed an example of how you can extract values from several columns in the lookup table and calculate the sum of those values. In the same fashion, you can perform other mathematical calculations with the results returned by the VLOOKUP function. Here are a few formula examples:

Operation Formula example Description
Calculate average {=AVERAGE(VLOOKUP(A2, 'Lookup Table'$A$2:$D$10, {2,3,4}, FALSE))} The formula searches for the value of cell A2 in 'Lookup table' and calculates the average of values in columns B,C and D in the same row.
Find maximum value {=MAX(VLOOKUP(A2, 'Lookup Table'$A$2:$D$10, {2,3,4}, FALSE))} The formula searches for the value of cell A2 in 'Lookup table' and finds the max value in columns B,C and D in the same row.
Find minimum value {=MIN(VLOOKUP(A2, 'Lookup Table'$A$2:$D$10, {2,3,4}, FALSE))} The formula searches for the value of cell A2 in 'Lookup table' and finds the min value in columns B,C and D in the same row.
Calculate % of sum {=0.3*SUM(VLOOKUP(A2, 'Lookup Table'$A$2:$D$10, {2,3,4}, FALSE))} The formula searches for the value of cell A2 in 'Lookup table', sums values in columns B,C and D in the same row, and then calculates 30% of the sum.

Note. Since all of the above formulas are array formulas, remember to press Ctrl+Shift+Enter to enter them correctly in a cell.

If we add the above formulas to the 'Summary Sales' table from the previous example, the result will look similar to this:
Use VLOOKUP with other Excel functions to sum all matching values in an array and find the average, min or max value.

Download this VLOOKUP calculations sample

LOOKUP AND SUM - look up in array and sum matching values

In case your lookup parameter is an array rather than a single value, the VLOOKUP function is of no avail because it cannot look up in data arrays. In this case, you can use Excel's LOOKUP function that is analogues to VLOOKUP but works with arrays as well as with individual values.

Let's consider the following example, so that you can better understand what I'm talking about. Suppose, you have a table that lists customer names, purchased products and quantity (Main table). You also have a second table containing the product prices (Lookup table). Your task is to make a formula that finds the total of all orders made by a given customer.
Need a formula to find the total value of all products purchased by a given customer.

As you remember, you cannot utilize the Excel VLOOKUP function since you have multiple instances of the lookup value (array of data). Instead, you use a combination of SUM and LOOKUP functions like this:

=SUM(LOOKUP($C$2:$C$10,'Lookup table'!$A$2:$A$16,'Lookup table'!$B$2:$B$16)*$D$2:$D$10*($B$2:$B$10=$G$1))

Since this is an array formula, remember to press Ctrl + Shift + Enter to complete it.
A combination of SUM and LOOKUP functions that finds the total value of all products purchased by a given customer

And now, let's analyses the formula's ingredients so that you understand how each of the functions works and can to tweak it for your own data.

We'll put aside the SUM function for a while, because its purpose is obvious, and focus on the 3 components that are multiplied:

  1. LOOKUP($C$2:$C$10,'Lookup table'!$A$2:$A$16,'Lookup table'!$B$2:$B$16)

    This LOOKUP function looks up the goods listed in column C in the main table, and returns the corresponding price from column B in the lookup table.

  2. $D$2:$D$10

    This component returns quantity of each product purchased by each customer, which is listed in column D in the main table. Multiplied by the price, which is returned by the LOOKUP function above, it gives you the cost of each purchased product.

  3. $B$2:$B$10=$G$1

    This formula compares the customers' names in column B with the name in cell G1. If a match is found, it returns "1", otherwise "0". You use it simply to "cut off" customers' names other than the name in cell G1, since all of us know that any number multiplied by zero is zero.

Because our formula is an array formula it iterates the process described above for each value in the lookup array. And finally, the SUM function sums the products of all multiplications. Nothing difficult at all, it is?

Note. For the LOOKUP formula to work correctly you need to sort the lookup column in your Lookup table in ascending order (from A to Z). If sorting is not acceptable on your data, check out an awesome SUM / TRANSPOSE formula suggested by Leo.

Download this LOOKUP and SUM sample

VLOOKUP and SUMIF - look up & sum values with criteria

Excel's SUMIF function is similar to SUM we've just discussed in the way that it also sums values. The difference is that the SUMIF function sums only those values that meet the criteria you specify. For example, the simplest SUMIF formula =SUMIF(A2:A10,">10") adds the values in cells A2 to A10 that are larger than 10.

This is very easy, right? And now let's consider a bit more complex scenario. Suppose you have a table that lists the sales persons' names and ID numbers (Lookup_table). You have another table that contains the same IDs and associated sales figures (Main_table). Your task is to find the total of sales made by a given person by their ID. At that, there are 2 complicating factors:

  • The mail table contains multiple entries for the same ID in a random order.
  • You cannot add the "Sales person names" column to the main table.

Look up and sum the values that meet your criteria

And now, let's make a formula that, firstly, finds all sales made by a given person, and secondly, sums the found values.

Before we start on the formula, let me remind you the syntax of the SUMIF function:

SUMIF(range, criteria, [sum_range])
  • range - this parameter is self-explanatory, simply a range of cells that you want to evaluate by the specified criteria.
  • criteria - the condition that tells the formula what values to sum. It can be supplied in the form of a number, cell reference, expression, or another Excel function.
  • sum_range - this parameter is optional, but very important to us. It defines the range where the corresponding cells' values shall be added. If omitted, Excel sums the values of cells that are specified in the range argument (1st parameter).

Keeping the above info in mind, let's define the 3 parameters for our SUMIF function. As you remember, we want to sum all the sales made by a given person whose name is entered in cell F2 in the main table (please see the image above).

  1. Range - since we are searching by sales person ID, the range parameter for our SUMIF function is column B in the main table. So, you can enter the range B:B, or if you convert you data to a table, you can use the column's name instead: Main_table[ID]
  2. Criteria - because we have sales persons' names in another table (lookup table), we have to use the VLOOKUP formula to find the ID corresponding to a given person. The person's name is written in cell F2 in the main table, so we look it up using this formula: VLOOKUP($F$2,Lookup_table,2,FALSE)

    Of course, you could enter the name in the lookup criteria of your VLOOKUP function, but using an absolute cell reference is a better approach because this creates a universal formula that works for any name input in a given cell.

  3. Sum range - this is the easiest part. Since our sales numbers are in column C named "Sales", we simply put Main_table[Sales].

    Now, all you need is to assemble the formula's parts and your SUMIF + VLOOKUP formula is ready:

    =SUMIF(Main_table[ID], VLOOKUP($F$2, Lookup_table, 2, FALSE), Main_table[Sales])

    SUMIF + VLOOKUP formula that looks up and sums values that meet the criteria you specify

Download this VLOOKUP and SUMIF sample

Formula-free way to do vlookup in Excel

Finally, let me introduce you to the tool that can look up, match and merge your tables without any functions or formulas. The Merge Tables tool included with our Ultimate Suite for Excel was designed and develop as a time-saving and easy-to-use alternative to Excel's VLOOKUP and LOOKUP functions, and it can be very helpful both to beginners and advanced users.

Instead of figuring out formulas, you simply specify your main and lookup tables, define a common column or columns, and tell the wizard what data you want to fetch.
Merge Tables Wizard - a formula-free way to do vlookup in Excel

Then you allow the wizard a few seconds to look up, match and deliver you the results. If you think this add-in may prove helpful in your work, you are most welcome to download a trial version by using the below link.

Available downloads

VLOOKUP with SUM and SUMIF - formula examples (.xlsx file)
Ultimate Suite - trial version (.exe file)

Table of contents

433 comments

  1. hai,
    please help me
    I want to know the formula for taking a price list like this, based on the valid date from - valid to,
    id(a) valid from(b) valid to(c) price(d)
    8481 1/25/2024 5/31/2024 104,727
    8481 6/3/2024 10/16/2024 109,968
    8481 10/17/2024 121,730

    2/25/2024 8481
    6/30/2024 8481
    10/23/2024 8481

  2. I need a formula that will select specific numbers from cells in column A that add up to a number that I put into cell C2. I would like excel to return an X in column b next to the selected cells in column A

  3. How to use SUMIF and VLOOKUP in multiple excel files ?

  4. How to Find Over all Total Value in Single Name - Vlookup

    • Hi! Have you tried any of the methods described in this blog post? If they don't work for you, please describe your problem in detail and I'll have a look at a possible solution.

  5. Hi! I am gathering scores from about 100 football matches. There are 5 columns. Date, Home, Score 1, Away, Score 2. Some teams played multiple matches and I want to get the total accumulated scores of all teams that played.

    • Hi! Since your columns do not include the team name, your question is not entirely clear. On the basis of your information, I think you can calculate the sum scores by condition with the help of the SUMIFS function. If this does not help, explain the problem in detail.

      • There is a team name, on the 2nd and 3rd column.

        =SUM(VLOOKUP(H3,$B$3:$E$14, 2, FALSE))

        I actually used this formula but for some reason, it only shows the score on the first game and not the accumulated scores of different matches.

  6. Actually .i have a concern that telecom company there is so many account number,

    Account Number Amount
    1.324567777 300
    1.324567777 300
    1.345677890 -40
    1.345677890 20 I want to want the account duplicate and same time i want to get the total amount in one account in one column by using formulae ,can you please me regarding this concern using sumif

    Like this format

    Account Number Amount
    1.324567777 600
    1.324567777 0
    1.345677890 20
    1.345677890 0

    Thankyou
    Chithra

  7. Thanks for the info,
    can you help me, i have a question. for a big data how do i make a dynamic refereance for {2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13}.

    created a manual serie. {8;9;10;11;12;13;14;15;16;17;18;19;20;21;22;23;24;25;26;27;28;29;30;31;32;33;34;35;36;37;38;39;40;41;42;43;44;45;46;47;48;49;50;51;52;53;54;55;56;57;58;59}
    but it is so hard to keep the formula updated all the weeks
    ıt should start with H (8th) colulmn and finish at the end of the year.

  8. Hello, I have 3 columns

    Name ID Amounts I want to get sum of amounts in a cell where I write Names , some rows might be exactly same in the worksheet
    AA 22 200
    AA 22 200
    AA 33 100
    BB 11 300

    so when I type AA in a cell, I want to get 100+200=300 value not 200+200+100=500 , so I want excel to sum only different amounts of the same name
    I have cell where names are written for example AA and I want to put sum of amounts next to The Name cell

  9. I have a delivery record for 10 years for more than 1000 items.
    I need to know each item last delivery year. What is the formula that I can use to identify each item last delivery year?

  10. im trying to apply this to my sheet, but am getting stuck, i have unique ids instead of names, the ids are in 2 seperate tables, i need to subtract table 1 from table 2 based on id number..

    could this be done using this method or am i looking for another way?

    table 1

    id, games lost, total value

    1 5 100
    2 12 1500
    3 3 1200

    table 2

    id, games won, total value

    1 7 1100
    2 1 2500
    3 9 800

    table 3

    id, total games played, total value

    1 7
    2 13
    3 12

    table 3 will be the total profit/ loss

    if this make sense

  11. Hello,

    I have an excel sheet with client names in Column A and the corresponding revenue for the last 24 months. I want to organise the the customers based on the highest revenue for each month. How can i do this in excel.

  12. Hi Alex,
    I have a list of projects (column a) and man hours (column b). I want to total the man hours for the projects that contain “PI17” anywhere in their project name.
    What would you suggest?
    Thank you

  13. I have an issue, I have a data validation list (Product Name) in sheet A, in sheet B i have the same data but in a simple list but with a second value in column B (Commission Rate that applies to Product) . I want to return the value in column B based on what I select in drop down on Sheet A

    • Hi! You can search for the Product Name, that is selected in the drop-down list, in the list on worksheet B. To extract the corresponding Commission Rate value from column B on worksheet B, use the VLOOKUP formula as described in this manual: How to Vlookup from another sheet in Excel. I hope I answered your question. If something is still unclear, please feel free to ask.

  14. 01-Aug-23 Ahmed RK 10000
    01-Aug-23 Akash RK 20000
    01-Aug-23 Ahmed KH 30000
    01-Aug-23 Akash KH 40000
    02-Aug-23 Ahmed RK 50000
    02-Aug-23 Akash RK 60000
    02-Aug-23 Ahmed KH 70000
    02-Aug-23 Akash KH 80000

    Dear Friend

    i need google sheets SUM formula of
    01-Aug-23 RK 30000 (SUM : 10000+20000)
    01-Aug-23 KH 70000
    02-Aug-23 RK 110000

  15. Hi.
    Although I can use the VLOOK function OK, I do have a problem I cant resolve.
    So, VLOOKUP returns a number (In this case an amount of money)
    I want to multiply this with another column value that is a qunatity to get a total
    All I get back is #NAME?

    Thanks - in advance.
    Andrew

    • SIGH ... ignore this question. Blame it on a senor moment...!

    • Hi. I can't guess which formula you are using. However, you are incorrectly writing the name of the Excel function. This is indicated by the error #NAME?

  16. Hi
    please help me
    I have two columns which are headers Month & Revenue
    line January, February, March etc and the second col 1000, 2000, 3000
    I need a formula to add upto the month i.e. when i need upto february sum of above month January and February (1000+2000=3000)
    and similarly march shoud results 1000+2000+3000

    thanks in advance

  17. Hi there I wonder if you can help me with a single question I have for a book of really simple data but the requirement is killing me

    Sheet 1 col A= list of kids' names, col B=their birth date and col C=their age (calculated using DATEDIF so it stays updated)
    Sheet 2 col A= list of days (eg "FRI AM" "MON PM", col B=the name of each kid attending a nursery on that day
    - of course, each day and each kid appears more than once, but never more than once together (a kid can't attend more than once for the same session right?)
    Sheet 3 has cols for each of the days, and each of those cols is a list of kids that attend on that day, extracted from Sheet 2, by matching the title of the column (eg "MON AM") with the each instance of it in rows in Sheet 2 and reading the list of names found against a matching day name [ =IFERROR(INDEX(SESSIONS!$B$1:$B$300, MATCH(0, COUNTIF(A$7:A7, IF(SESSIONS!$A$1:$A$300=A$7,SESSIONS!$B$1:$B$300,A$7)), 0)),"") ]

    So what I need, is a total of each age range attending on each day.

    I can share the sheet if you like.
    Thanks for all you do.

      • Thanks a lot. That function is what I was looking for. I was fighting with long formulas which do the same but this is much easier.

  18. I know this thread is old but just shooting it out there... I have a multi sheet spread sheet keeping track of job hours. I have used VLOOKUP in succession to sum all the hours on multiple sheets and it works great... Until it gets to a sheet that does not contain the lookup value. I have searched all over for my issue, and VLOOKUP may be the incorrect solution. I was wondering if I could rattle anyone's brain to make this work. I.E. I have 1 excel document with 52 tabs. Each tab is a work week starting from January so WW1 is all the hours on sed jobs I did for that week. "joes house 2 hours ; mikes house 3 hours" etc... WW2, WW3 etc... Until WW52. This is the function I made to add hours together... =SUM(VLOOKUP(O30,'WW29'!$A$7:$M$110,{13},FALSE),VLOOKUP(O30,'WW30'!$A$7:$M$110,{13},FALSE),VLOOKUP(O30,'WW31'!$A$7:$M$110,{13},FALSE)) And it works great. But when that job is finished it is not on (for example WW32 tab). Hence I get the #N/A error. so for example, as the previous one works great when I expand the formula to cover all 52 sheets... =SUM(VLOOKUP(O30,'WW29'!$A$7:$M$110,{13},FALSE),VLOOKUP(O30,'WW30'!$A$7:$M$110,{13},FALSE),VLOOKUP(O30,'WW31'!$A$7:$M$110,{13},FALSE),VLOOKUP(O30,'WW32'!$A$7:$M$110,{13},FALSE)) I get the #N/A error because the job is not listed on WW32. But I may add hours to that on WW45. Is there a way to make VLOOKUP skip a sheet that does not have the referenced value and continue summing it till the end? I apologize, this may be as clear as mud but I will clarify anything if need be...

      • Alex, thank you,

        I have read that article before, but it does not seem to cover the summing part of my equation. you can set iferror to return text or even blanks, but the article does not cover summing. I'm looking for how to SUM multiple sheets when some of the sheets do not contain the lookup value. Instead of #N/A it just returns "you've ENTERERED TOO MANY ARGUMENTS FOR THIS FUNCTION"...

        =IFERROR(VLOOKUP(O30,'WW29'!$A$7:$M$110,{13},FALSE),VLOOKUP(O30,'WW30'!$A$7:$M$110,{13},FALSE),VLOOKUP(O30,'WW31'!$A$7:$M$110,{13},FALSE),VLOOKUP(O30,'WW32'!$A$7:$M$110,{13},FALSE),"")

        And that's just 3 sheets

        • Hello!
          If you want to sum values, use the SUM function. Apply the IFERROR function to each VLOOKUP. In the value_if_error argument, use not the empty value "", but 0.
          For example,

          =SUM(IFERROR(VLOOKUP(O30,'WW29'!$A$7:$M$110,13,FALSE),0), IFERROR(VLOOKUP(O30,'WW30'!$A$7:$M$110,13,FALSE),0))

          I hope I answered your question.

          • You sir, are a genius! I cannot thank you enough! That works perfectly! I really appreciate your time in helping me with this calculation!

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