The 11 Best Excel Books in 2026 (Beginner to Advanced)

Before you buy, check these 5 things. They matter more than the number of stars on Amazon.

1. Buy a book for the Excel you actually use

If you have Microsoft 365, get a book written for Microsoft 365. Older books for Excel 2016 or 2019 miss XLOOKUP, dynamic array functions like FILTER and UNIQUE, LET and LAMBDA, Python in Excel and Copilot. Those are exactly the features that save the most time today.

2. Match the book to your level

A 1,000-page reference is great if you already know your way around a spreadsheet. If you’re brand new, a shorter, friendlier book gets you productive faster. That’s why I’ve grouped the books by level.

3. Decide: read-through, reference or tips?

Some books are made to read from start to finish (the For Dummies books). Some are references you dip into when you’re stuck (the Bible, the DAX guide). And some are collections of tips you can read 5 minutes at a time (MrExcel).

4. Look for practice files

You learn Excel by doing, not by reading. Wiley lists book resources on its product pages, Microsoft Press books point you to sample files on the web, and the VBA book below comes with 50 example workbooks.

5. Check the author and publisher

Search Amazon for “Excel book” and you’ll see lots of generic titles with “2026” on the cover. I’ve stuck to established publishers (Wiley, Microsoft Press, Holy Macro! Books) and authors with a long track record in the Excel community, many of them Microsoft MVPs.

Start here if you’re new to Excel, or if you’ve been getting by with the basics and want a proper foundation.

Best for: complete beginners

If you are a total stranger to Excel, start here.

Microsoft 365 Excel For Dummies is the newest beginner title in the For Dummies series, published by Wiley in May 2025. It’s written by David H. Ringstrom, a CPA who has trained thousands of people in Excel.

It walks you through:

• Creating your first spreadsheet and entering data
• Importing data, sorting tables and organizing information
• Basic calculations, and then functions
• Charts, graphs and formatting

At 464 pages it’s a manageable size for a beginner. Wiley’s list price is $29.99.

Best for: beginners who want one book that lasts

This is the new version of the All-in-One book that used to be on this list.

Microsoft 365 Excel All-in-One For Dummies (Wiley, September 2025) bundles 8 mini-books in one. It collects content from several For Dummies authors, including Michael Alexander, Dick Kusleika and Paul McFedries.

You start with the basics and work your way up to:

• Advanced formulas and functions, including financial analysis
• Data visualizations and summaries
• Dashboards and reports
• Automation with basic VBA programming
• A first look at how AI tools can help your work

It runs to 816 pages, with a Wiley list price of $44.99. If you want one beginner book that you’ll still use a year from now, get this one instead of the regular For Dummies.

You know your way around a spreadsheet. These books fill the gaps and teach you the modern way to work in Excel.

My top pick: best Excel book overall

This is the book I recommend most.

The Excel Bible series was started by John Walkenbach years ago, and it’s still the most complete single book on Excel. The 2nd Edition of the Microsoft Excel 365 Bible came out in April 2025, and Wiley says it covers the many updates to Excel 365 since the previous edition in 2022.

Michael Alexander is a Microsoft Excel MVP and the author of more than a dozen books on business analysis with Excel. Dick Kusleika was a Microsoft MVP for 12 years in a row.

They cover almost everything:

• Entering and editing data, dates and times
• Formulas with Excel tables, fixing common formula errors and formula variables
• Visualizing data with charts and conditional formatting
• Building Excel dashboards
• Loading data from other sources and transforming it (Power Query)
• Data analysis with pivot tables
• Creating your own custom functions

It’s a big book (1,088 pages, Wiley list price $55.00), written for everyone from new users to experienced pros.

If you get ANY book on this list, make it the “Excel 365 Bible”!

Best for: quick tips you can use today

Bill Jelen (MrExcel) has been teaching Excel for decades, and his yearly tips book is the fastest way to catch up on what’s new.

MrExcel 2025: Navigating Excel has over 256 bite-sized tips. According to the publisher, it’s updated for Excel features through June 2025, including:

• Copilot for writing formulas
• Python in Excel for cleaning, analyzing and visualizing data
• GROUPBY, LAMBDA, dynamic arrays and the new regex functions
• Building better pivot tables
• More than 40 tips for charts, dashboards and slicers
• VBA, Office Scripts and the improved macro recorder

This is the book for people who already use Excel every day and want to get faster. Holy Macro! Books also sells a full-color edition on its own store ($39.95).

Bill publishes a new edition most years, so check for a newer one before you buy.

Best for: getting really good at formulas

Formulas are where most people hit a wall. Paul McFedries has written dozens of Excel books, and this one is all about formulas.

Microsoft Excel Formulas and Functions (Office 2021 and Microsoft 365) covers modern Excel, including dynamic arrays, XLOOKUP and LET. It teaches through step-by-step business projects like building timesheets, projecting cash flow and aging receivables.

One thing to know: it was published in April 2022 (Microsoft Press, 512 pages, $44.99 list). It’s still the current edition, but it doesn’t cover functions Microsoft added later, like GROUPBY and PIVOTBY. For those, the MrExcel book above is the better source.

For analysts, accountants and anyone who builds models for a living.

Best for: data analysis with real business problems

Award-winning educator Wayne Winston has updated this book through 7 editions.

Microsoft Excel Data Analysis and Business Modeling is scenario-based: each chapter starts with a real business question and shows you how to answer it in Excel. The 7th Edition covers Office 2021 and Microsoft 365, including one-click data analysis, STOCKHISTORY, dynamic arrays and Power Query, with six new chapters.

It includes more than 900 practice problems, many based on real challenges analysts face. At 1,168 pages (Microsoft Press, December 2021, $59.99 list) it’s a serious book, but it’s still the current edition and the best all-round data analysis book for Excel.

Best for: modern financial modeling

If you build financial models, this is the book that shows you how to do it the Microsoft 365 way.

In Financial Modelling using Dynamic Arrays: Let Lambdas Extend Your Range, financial modeler Liam Bastick shows how dynamic arrays, LET and LAMBDA change the way you build models. He compares the old methods with the new ones through examples and case studies, with best-practice tips throughout.

It was published by Holy Macro! Books in 2025 and runs to 592 pages. It’s written in British English (hence “Modelling”), and it assumes you already know your way around a model.

New to financial modeling? Start with the Bible or Winston above, then come back to this one.

When you’re ready to automate Excel with code.

Best for: learning VBA properly

This is the new edition of the VBA book that used to be on this list, and it’s still the one I’d pick.

Microsoft Excel VBA and Macros (Microsoft Press, September 2025) is written by Tracy Syrstad and Bill Jelen (MrExcel). It starts with a solid foundation in VBA and moves on to advanced techniques like in-memory processing and custom object programming.

You’ll learn to:

• Automate complex tasks and import and export data
• Create and update charts and pivot tables with code
• Turn raw data into finished reports with one click
• Control Word, Outlook and other Office programs from Excel
• Share your work as add-ins (XLAM and Office.js) and Office Scripts

It comes with 50 example workbooks and runs to 704 pages ($54.99 list).

Power Query cleans and combines your data. Power Pivot and DAX turn it into a data model. These two books cover both.

Best for: Power Query

If you clean the same messy data every week, Power Query will change your life. And this is the book to learn it from.

Master Your Data with Power Query in Excel and Power BI is the 2nd edition of the book formerly known as “M is for (Data) Monkey”. Ken Puls and Miguel Escobar take you step by step through:

• Power Query fundamentals and managing queries
• Importing data from files, workbooks, the web and databases
• Filtering, splitting, appending and merging data
• The M language, parameters and custom functions
• Performance and automatic refresh, in both Excel and Power BI

It’s published by Holy Macro! Books, which also sells a full-color edition ($42.95) on its own store.

Best for: Power Pivot and DAX

Once your data is in a Power Pivot data model, DAX is the formula language you use to calculate with it. Alberto Ferrari and Marco Russo are two of the best-known DAX experts around, and this is their main reference.

The Definitive Guide to DAX (3rd Edition, Microsoft Press, December 2025) covers DAX for Power BI, Fabric, Analysis Services and Excel. The new edition adds user-defined functions and the new calendars for time intelligence.

Fair warning: this is an advanced book (848 pages, $59.99 list), and it covers much more than Excel (Power BI, Fabric and Analysis Services too). The DAX language itself is the one you use in Excel’s Power Pivot. Also note that Power Pivot is only available in Excel for Windows, not Excel for Mac.

The newest corner of Excel, and the one older books can’t help you with.

Best for: Python in Excel and Copilot

Python in Excel lets you run Python code right inside a cell. It’s powerful, but it’s a new skill for most Excel users.

Python in Excel: Unlocking powerful data analysis and automation solutions (Microsoft Press, December 2025) maps what you already know in Excel to Python. It covers:

• Python syntax and data structures
• Data analysis with pandas, and visualization
• Forecasting and predictive models without leaving Excel
• Three chapters on Copilot, including using Copilot and Power Query together with Python

It’s 368 pages ($54.99 list). There’s no dedicated Copilot-in-Excel book I’d recommend yet, so this one (plus the MrExcel book above) is the best way to learn Copilot from a book right now.

Prefer a slower start? Python in Excel Step-by-Step by Excel MVP David Langer (Wiley, 2026) is a good alternative.

What is the best Excel book for beginners?

For complete beginners, I recommend Microsoft 365 Excel For Dummies (2025). If you’d rather buy one book that also covers intermediate topics, get the Microsoft 365 Excel All-in-One For Dummies (2025).

What is the best Excel book overall?

The Microsoft Excel 365 Bible, 2nd Edition. It goes from the basics to Power Query and custom functions, and it’s useful whether you’re a beginner or an experienced user.

Is there an Excel Bible for 2026?

The current edition is the Microsoft Excel 365 Bible, 2nd Edition by Michael Alexander and Dick Kusleika, published by Wiley in April 2025. It’s written for Microsoft 365, so it isn’t tied to a single version year like the older Excel 2016 or 2019 Bibles.

Are Excel 2016 or Excel 2019 books still worth buying?

Only if you’re stuck on that version. Books for Excel 2016 and 2019 don’t cover XLOOKUP, dynamic arrays, LET, LAMBDA, Python in Excel or Copilot. If you have Microsoft 365, buy a Microsoft 365 edition.

What is the best book for advanced Excel users?

For data analysis, Wayne Winston’s Microsoft Excel Data Analysis and Business Modeling. For modern formulas and modeling, Financial Modelling using Dynamic Arrays by Liam Bastick.

What is the best Excel book for accountants and finance?

For financial modeling, Financial Modelling using Dynamic Arrays. For cleaning up exports from your accounting system, Master Your Data with Power Query saves the most time. Beginners in accounting can start with Microsoft 365 Excel For Dummies, which is written by a CPA.

What is the best Excel VBA book?

Microsoft Excel VBA and Macros (Microsoft 365 and Excel 2024) by Tracy Syrstad and Bill Jelen, published in September 2025.

What is the best Excel book for data analysis?

Wayne Winston’s Data Analysis and Business Modeling for classic analysis, Master Your Data with Power Query for getting and cleaning data, and Python in Excel if you want to use pandas and Python charts inside Excel.

Can I get these Excel books as a PDF or eBook?

Yes, legally. Most of these books are also sold as eBooks by their publishers (Microsoft Press eBooks come as EPUB and PDF). Many public libraries also lend Excel books digitally, so check your library’s apps before you buy. Skip “free PDF” download sites: they’re usually pirated copies, often of outdated editions.

Should I learn Excel from a book or an online course?

Both work. A book is great as a reference you keep on your desk. A video course is usually faster for beginners because you can watch every click and follow along. Many people use both.

There are thousands of Excel books out there, and many of them are outdated or written for a version of Excel you don’t use.

Pick the book that matches your level and your Excel version, keep Excel open while you read, and practice on your own data.

If you’re up for something different than a book, consider learning Excel through an online course.

Our flagship course is “Zero to Hero” where you go from beginner to Excel-superuser in 14 hours.

In the course, you learn all the essential and advanced Excel features you will need in the real world, without any fluff.

Learn all about Zero to Hero here!

Or, try my free Excel training right below 😊