# How to find the 3rd Wednesday of a month in Excel

Find the first matching weekday, then add 7 days per extra week: `=LET(first,EOMONTH(A2,-1)+1,first+MOD($E$1-WEEKDAY(first),7)+7*($E$2-1))`.

**Excel:** `=LET(first,EOMONTH(A2,-1)+1,first+MOD($E$1-WEEKDAY(first),7)+7*($E$2-1))` (Excel 2021, 2024 and Microsoft 365)

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

## Example

Sample data (row 1 is the header):

| A | B | C | D | E |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Month | Meeting date |  | Weekday (1=Sun … 7=Sat) | 4 |
| 2026-01-01 |  |  | Occurrence | 3 |
| 2026-02-01 |  |  |  |  |
| 2026-03-01 |  |  |  |  |
| 2026-04-01 |  |  |  |  |
| 2026-05-01 |  |  |  |  |
| 2026-06-01 |  |  |  |  |

Formula in B2, filled to B7: `=LET(first,EOMONTH(A2,-1)+1,first+MOD($E$1-WEEKDAY(first),7)+7*($E$2-1))`

Result: 1/21/2026; 2/18/2026; 3/18/2026; 4/15/2026; 5/20/2026; 6/17/2026

## How it works

The formula finds the first matching weekday in the month, as in the first-Monday formula, then adds 7 days for each later occurrence. With 4 (Wednesday) in E1 and 3 in E2, it returns the third Wednesday: January 21, 2026.

## Other ways

- `=EOMONTH(A2,-1)+1+MOD($E$1-WEEKDAY(EOMONTH(A2,-1)+1),7)+7*($E$2-1)`: The same without LET, for older versions.

## Common mistakes

- Not every month has a 5th occurrence; the formula then returns a date in the next month. Check with `MONTH(result)=MONTH(A2)`.
- WEEKDAY numbers start at Sunday = 1, so Wednesday is 4, not 3.

## Questions

**How do I calculate Thanksgiving, the fourth Thursday of November?**

`=LET(first,DATE(2026,11,1),first+MOD(5-WEEKDAY(first),7)+21)` returns November 26, 2026.

**How do I get the last occurrence instead?**

Work back from the month end: `=EOMONTH(A2,0)-MOD(WEEKDAY(EOMONTH(A2,0))-$E$1,7)`.

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/third-wednesday-of-the-month