How to Add Commas to Numbers in Excel (Many Examples)

Try reading this number here 569000000000 😲

Failed? Or even if you managed to read it out aloud, it took you a good deal of time to parse the number?

That’s alright – you are not to be blamed for it.

Try reading this number now – 569,000,000,000 (P.S: Any number with 9 digits ahead of it makes a billion).

You’d have parsed this number in less than a second. That’s 569 billion 💰

Surprisingly, the only difference between these numbers is commas (also known as thousand separators). Commas make this big of a difference in the readability of numbers.

Since Excel is known for its number crunching and data storing abilities, how to add commas to numbers in Excel?

To learn this, read this tutorial until the end. And before you scroll down, do not forget to get your free practice workbook for this guide here.

Table of Contents

Different ways to add Commas to Numbers in Excel

There are multiple ways how you can add commas to a set of numbers in Excel.

(P.S: Obviously, we are not talking about writing them in between numbers manually 😜).

Pro Tip!

There are three number formats that add commas (or thousand separators) to numbers:

  1. Accounting Format (preferable)
  2. Currency Format
  3. Number Format (with thousands separator on)

The currency format as the name suggests is primarily used to denote currencies with a specific currency symbol. Although it will add comma-style formatting, but also has a currency symbol which might not be desired.

From the Home Tab

Adding the comma style formatting to a set of numbers in Excel is as easy as pressing a button.

See here. Below are some numbers placed in Excel 👇

Large numbers in Excel sheet

To add commas to these numbers:

Step 1) Select the numbers to which commas are to be added.

Step 2) Go to the Home tab from the Ribbon > Number group > Press the comma icon.

Comma style in Excel

This denotes the comma-style formatting.

The numbers will be formatted as follows:

comma style number format

The comma-style formatting is applied to the numbers. However, along with it, there are also two decimal positions added to it.

If you do not want the decimal points added to numbers, you can get rid of them by pressing the decrease decimal button on the Home tab > Number group > Decrease Decimal button.

Decrease decimal positions

Pressing it twice will remove the decimal places from the selected numbers.

Decimal separator

This can also be achieved by applying the accounting formatting with a currency symbol.

Step 1) Select the numbers to which commas are to be added.

Step 2) Go to the Home tab from the Ribbon > Number group > Press the dollar icon.

Dollar icon in Excel

This denotes the accounting formatting with a currency symbol.

Under this formatting style, the numbers would be formatted as follows 💡

Numbers formatted with symbols

This style not only adds commas and decimals but a currency symbol too (which will be $ by default but can be changed).

You can opt for this style if you want comma style together with currency symbols added to numbers.

Also, you can remove the decimal positions in this format as well by using the Decrease Decimal button.

comma separator format

Ultimately, with both these ways, the numbers will be under the Accounting Format.

Accounting format persists

Some highlights of the Accounting Format include:

Step 1) It formats the number with comma style.

Step 2) Negative numbers appear in enclosures (or parentheses).

Negative numbers

Step 3) Zeros are replaced by a dash symbol.

Dash symbol

Step 4) The currency symbol (if applied) appears to the left of the cell.

Currency symbol

Step 5) Numbers include two decimal places by default (you can adjust it later to more or less decimal places as explained above).

With these considerations in mind, you know if applying the accounting format to the underlying is appropriate or not 🤔

From the Number Formats

Another way to add commas to numbers is to do it directly from the Format Cells option.

Number Format

Step 1) Select the cells to which comma-style formatting is to be applied.

Selection of Excel cells

Step 2) Go to the Home tab > Number Group > More Number Formats.

More custom Number formats

Alternatively, press the shortcut key of Ctrl + 1 to launch the Format Cells dialog box.

Kasper Langmann, co-founder of Spreadsheeto

This launches the Format Cells dialog box as below.

Format Cells dialog box

Step 3) From the Category pane on the left side, select “Numbers” format.

Step 4) Check the box for “Add Thousands Separator”.

Checking this box will add commas to the selected numbers ✔

Step 5) Choose the number of decimal places you want by increasing/decreasing the count.

Step 6) Select how you want the negative values to appear.

thousands separator check box

Step 7) Press okay and commas will be added to numbers like below:

insert commas in Excel

Accounting Format

The other format that you can apply to add commas to numbers is the Accounting Format 🧮

Here’s how you do it.

Step 1) Select the cells to which the comma-style formatting is to be applied.

Step 2) Launch the Format Cells dialog box by pressing the Control key + 1.

Step 3) From the Category pane on the left side, select “Accounting” format.

Step 4) Choose the number of decimal places you want by increasing/decreasing the count.

Step 5) Choose the currency symbol you want with the numbers. Or select “None” if you do not want any currency symbols.

Selection of Accounting format

Step 6) Press Okay.

Excel will apply the accounting format to the selected cells, and commas will be added to numbers.

Commas added to numbers

Currency Format

The last format that you can apply to add commas to numbers in Excel is the currency format 💵

Step 1) Select the cells to which the comma-style formatting is to be applied.

Step 2) Launch the Format Cells dialog box by pressing the Control key + 1.

Step 3) From the Category pane on the left side, select the “Currency” format.

Step 4) Choose the number of decimal places you want by increasing/decreasing the count.

Step 5) Choose the currency symbol you want with the numbers.

Step 6) Choose how you want the negative numbers displayed, in red font, red font and enclosures, with minus sign or, however.

Even under the currency format, you can get rid of the currency symbols by selecting “None” as the currency symbol. However, in that case, the numbers will be formatted as “Numbers” and not as currency.

Kasper Langmann, co-founder of Spreadsheeto
Selection of currency format

Step 7) Press Okay.

Excel will apply the currency format to the selected cells and commas will be added to numbers.

Numbers formatted as currency

While both the “Accounting” and the “Currency” format will ultimately add commas to numbers in Excel (with and without currency symbols and decimal places), here are two evident differences between these formats:

Step 1) Under the currency format, the currency symbols appear immediately before the number. Whereas, in the accounting format, the currency symbols appear towards the left of the cell.

Currency symbols alignment

Step 2) The accounting format shows zeros as dashes. The currency format doesn’t.

Zeros representation

Step 3) The accounting format will show negative values in enclosures. The currency format allows you to choose from a variety of ways to display negative values.

negative values representation

Based on some of these key differences, you may choose between the currency or accounting format. Ultimately, both will add commas to numbers in MS Excel 👀

Conclusion

Comma-style formatting of numbers is often indispensable – especially if you’re working with finances.

Hard to say you can read big numbers in thousands and millions without thousand separators. With this guide, you now know multiple methods to quickly add commas to numbers in Microsoft Excel.

Read the following Excel tutorials on Spreadsheeto to learn other ways to format numbers in Excel.