# How to calculate the change in percentage points in Excel

Subtract one percentage from the other and multiply by 100: `=(C2-B2)*100`. A rise from 2.5% to 3.0% is 0.5 points.

**Excel:** `=(C2-B2)*100` (Every current version)

**Google Sheets:** the same formula works.

## Example

Sample data (row 1 is the header):

| A | B | C | D |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Metric | Last month | This month | Change |
| Open rate | 0.21 | 0.235 |  |
| Click rate | 0.025 | 0.03 |  |
| Unsubscribe rate | 0.004 | 0.003 |  |
| Bounce rate | 0.012 | 0.015 |  |

Formula in D2, filled to D5: `=(C2-B2)*100`

Result: +2.5 pts; +0.5 pts; -0.1 pts; +0.3 pts

## How it works

When both numbers are already percentages, subtracting them gives the change in percentage points: 3.0% minus 2.5% is 0.005, or 0.5 points once multiplied by 100. The custom format adds the sign and the word "pts" so nobody reads it as a percent change.

The relative change is a different number: the click rate grew by 20% (`=C3/B3-1`), but only by half a point.

## Other ways

- `=ROUND((C2-B2)*100,2)`: Rounds away floating-point noise (2.5000000000000022) before you compare or export the numbers.

## Common mistakes

- Formatting `=C2-B2` as a percentage shows "0.5%", which readers take as a relative change. Label points as points.
- A rate rising from 1% to 2% is +1 point but +100%. Reports that say "up 1%" are ambiguous.

## Questions

**How do I show the relative change too?**

Use `=C2/B2-1` formatted as a percentage: the open rate rose 11.9%.

**What is a basis point?**

One hundredth of a percentage point. Multiply by 10,000 instead: `=(C3-B3)*10000` gives 50 bps for the click rate.

Every formula and result on this page was checked by running it in the Spreadsheet Practice formula engine on 2026-10-30.

Source: https://spreadsheetpractice.com/formulas/percentage-points-difference