In a Nutshell
The MIN function is used to find the lowest value in a range of values.
Syntax
=MIN(number1, [number2], …)
The arguments (number1 , number2, …) are up to 255 numbers for which you want to find the minimum value.
The first one is required; the rest are optional.
Notes
The MIN function is a worksheet function so it can be entered as part of a formula in a worksheet cell (see examples below).
Each argument listed in the brackets can either be a constant (e.g. 5,000 or pi), a cell reference (e.g. H5), or a cell range (e.g. all the cells from F22 to J22).
Because an argument can be a range of values, we aren’t limited to finding the minimum out of only 255 values.
Examples
Take a look at the following example (Download the example workbook to follow along):
Example 1
For this example, let’s assume my son Max has a fruit selling business and he wishes to sell bananas to his friends at school. He obtained quotations from 10 suppliers and logged them all in a table in Excel. He now wishes to see which supplier offered him the lowest price.
In cell F9, we enter the formula =MIN(C9:C18). Excel looks in the range C9 to C18 and brings back the lowest value, being $0.80 per kg (found in cell C17).
A few more quick examples
In the image below we can see three ways of using the MIN function:
Example 1 brings back the minimum value from the five numbers entered between the brackets (1, 2, 3, 4 and 5).
Example 2 brings back the minimum value from a cell range (F22 to J22).
Example 3 brings back the minimum value from two cell ranges as well as a constant. The ranges are F24 to J24, and F26 to J26 and the constant is the value 20). We can see here that the constant (20) was the minimum out of all of the values.
In case you missed it, here is a link to the example workbook.
You can also combine the MIN and MAX functions in really neat ways, like creating “ceiling” and “floor” values.
Errors
MIN produces an error if the argument (the value in brackets) is not numerical. E.g. =MIN(“a”, “b”, “c”) will produce an error.
Excel Versions Supported
All versions