Excel ROUNDUP Function

ROUNDUP rounds a positive number up to the precision you choose or a negative number down to the precision you choose.

Use it when extra precision should push the result outward, such as for package counts, billing increments, minimum reserves, or required capacity.

Choose the number Use a value, cell, or formula result

Choose the rounding place Decimals, whole numbers, tens, hundreds, etc.

Push past the chosen place Positive numbers step up; negatives step down farther from zero

ROUNDUP syntax & arguments

Syntax

=ROUNDUP(number, num_digits)

Required Optional

1

number
Required

The number, cell reference, or formula result to round outward at the chosen decimal or place value.
2

num_digits
Required

The number of digits or places to keep. Positive num_digits values keep that many decimal places, so 2 changes 12.981 to 12.99 and -12.981 to -12.99. 0 keeps no decimal places, so 12.1 becomes 13 and -12.1 becomes -13. Negative num_digits values work left of the decimal. -1 rounds to a multiple of 10, -2 rounds to a multiple of 100 and so on. For example, num_digits of -1 turns 121 to 130 and -121 to -130.

Example

=ROUNDUP(B2, 2)

Round B2 to two decimal places, pushing away from 0 if later decimals remain.

ROUNDUP caveats

Negative numbers actually round down moving farther from zero

ROUNDUP rounds negative numbers down instead of up, which may not be intuitive given the function's name. For instance, =ROUNDUP(-9.81,1) returns -9.9, not -9.8.
Negative num_digits uses place values

A num_digits of -1 rounds positive numbers up to the next higher multiple of 10 and negative numbers down to the next lower multiple of 10 while a num_digits of -2 rounds positive numbers up to the next higher multiple of 100 and negative numbers down to the next lower multiple of 100 and so on. So for instance, =ROUNDUP(987,-2) returns 1000 and =ROUNDUP(-987,-2) returns -1000.
It does not choose the nearest value

=ROUNDUP(2.1,0) returns 3, not the nearest whole number 2. Any digit after the chosen place pushes the result farther from zero, even when it is below 5.

Need alternative rounding? Use ROUND when values should go to the nearest result, or ROUNDDOWN when positive numbers should round down and negative numbers should round up.