Docs · guide

Does not equal in Excel: two characters, four different spellings

By Alberto Gulotta · Updated · 11 min read

The does not equal in excel operator is <> — less-than then greater-than, no space. That is the whole answer for a formula. It stops being the whole answer the moment you put it inside COUNTIF or SUMIF, where it has to be written as text and joined to its value with an ampersand, and where getting that wrong produces a number rather than an error.

The six comparison operators in Excel, from Microsoft’s own operators page
OperatorMeaningExample
=Equal to=A1=B1
>Greater than=A1>B1
<Less than=A1<B1
>=Greater than or equal to=A1>=B1
<=Less than or equal to=A1<=B1
<>Not equal to=A1<>B1
The six comparison operators in Excel with not equal to written as the two characters less than and greater than
Six operators, and the last one has no key of its own. Figure drawn by AI Tools Primer.
  1. Click an empty cell and type an equals sign. Every formula starts there, including a comparison — the first = means “calculate this”, not “equals”.
  2. Type the first value or click its cell. Clicking is safer than typing a reference, because Excel writes it correctly and colours it on the sheet.
  3. Type the two characters <>. Less-than then greater-than, no space between them. There is no key for “not equal” on the keyboard and no other spelling Excel accepts.
  4. Type the second value or click its cell, then press Return. The cell now says TRUE or FALSE. Microsoft’s rule for the whole family: “when two values are compared by using these operators, the result is a logical value — either TRUE or FALSE”.
  5. Wrap it in IF if you want words instead. =IF(A1<>B1,"changed","same") turns the logical value into something a reader can act on.
  6. If you are counting rather than comparing, stop here. Inside COUNTIF and SUMIF the same two characters have to be written differently, and that is the next section.
The steps to write a does not equal comparison in Excel, ending with TRUE or FALSE in the cell
Four steps for a comparison; the fifth turns it into words. Figure drawn by AI Tools Primer.

The same operator, in the four places people use it

Only the first one is written the way you would expect. The other three put <> inside quotation marks, and that is where the wrong answers come from.

Comparing two cellsReturns TRUE or FALSE. The operator stands on its own, with no quotation marks anywhere.
=A1<>B1
Inside an IFSame comparison, with your own words as the two outcomes. Still no quotation marks around the operator.
=IF(A1<>B1,"changed","same")
Counting things that are not a fixed valueNow the whole condition is a text string: the operator and the value live together inside one pair of quotation marks.
=COUNTIF(B2:B5,"<>75")
Counting things that are not what is in another cellMicrosoft’s own example, and the one that catches everybody: the ampersand joins the operator to the cell’s value.
=COUNTIF(B2:B5,"<>"&B4)
How the not equal operator has to be written inside COUNTIF in Excel, joined to the cell value with an ampersand
Inside COUNTIF the operator becomes text, and the ampersand is the join. Figure drawn by AI Tools Primer.

Why <>A1 inside COUNTIF gives the wrong number and no error

Because COUNTIF does not take a comparison. It takes a criterion, and a criterion is a piece of text. Microsoft defines the argument as “a number, expression, cell reference, or text string that determines which cells COUNTIF counts”, and gives ">32" as the example of a comparison written as one. The quotation marks are not decoration: they are what turns an operator into something COUNTIF can read.

So the value has to be glued on, not typed in. Microsoft’s worked line is exact: =COUNTIF(B2:B5,"<>"&B4) “counts the number of cells with a value not equal to 75”, and the explanation is that “the ampersand (&) merges the comparison operator for not equal to ("<>") and the value in B4 to read =COUNTIF(B2:B5,"<>75")”. Write "<>B4" instead and Excel counts the cells that do not contain the letter B followed by a four.

Nothing about that is flagged. You get a whole number, in the right cell, of a plausible size. It is the same class of fault as an approximate lookup: an answer, not an error. If a count seems too high by roughly the number of rows in the range, the missing ampersand is the first thing to check.

“Not equal to nothing”, and the cell that only looks empty

<>"" is how people write “this cell has something in it”, and most of the time it is right. The exception is worth knowing because it is invisible: a cell holding a formula that returns an empty string — something like =IF(A1>10,"high","") — is not blank. It contains a formula, and its result is a text value that happens to have no characters.

So two reasonable-looking tests disagree. =A1<>"" says the cell is empty, because the value is an empty string. ISBLANK says it is not, because there is a formula in it. Neither is broken; they are answering different questions, one about the value and one about the cell. On a column of formulas, that difference decides whether a count is right.

The practical version. Use <>"" when you care about what is displayed, and ISBLANK when you care about whether anything was ever put there. And if a row count disagrees with what you can see on screen, a column of formulas returning "" is the usual reason.

Text comparisons ignore capitals, and that surprises people twice. =A1<>B1 on the words “Apples” and “apples” returns FALSE: to Excel they are the same value. Microsoft says the same of the counting functions — criteria “aren’t case sensitive”, so “the string "apples" and the string "APPLES" match the same cells”. If capitals genuinely matter, the comparison to reach for is EXACT, which is the only one that sees them.

The other reason two identical-looking cells are not equal. A trailing space. “Smith” and “Smith ” are different values and look identical in every font ever made. Microsoft’s own advice on counting is to “make sure your data doesn’t contain erroneous characters” — leading spaces, trailing spaces, straight against curly quotation marks. When a comparison insists two things differ and you can see they do not, TRIM on a spare column settles it in a second.

A number that is really text is the third case. Data pasted from a web page or a PDF often arrives as text, and text 75 is not equal to number 75. The tell is the alignment: Excel puts numbers on the right of a cell and text on the left by default, so a column that is ragged down the left edge is a column of numbers, and one aligned left is a column of text pretending.

Where the operator changes meaning entirely. Advanced Filter, conditional formatting rules and data validation all accept criteria, and each has its own idea of whether the operator wants quotation marks. The rule that survives all of them: if the box you are typing into expects a criterion rather than a formula, the operator is text; if it expects a formula, it is not.

The same rule, in the other program. Google’s own documentation for Sheets writes the criterion the same way — COUNTIF(A1:A10,">20") — and defines the argument as “the pattern or test to apply”. So a formula that counts correctly in Excel usually counts correctly in Sheets, and one that forgot the quotation marks is wrong in both. That is worth knowing before a workbook is converted rather than after.

The operator table, the criteria definition and the worked COUNTIF line are quoted from Microsoft’s own Excel documentation and from Google’s Sheets documentation, read on 4 September 2026 and listed below. The note on empty strings, trailing spaces and text numbers is ours.

Where to start

Four ways in.

“I just need the symbol.”
It is <> — then the four places
“My COUNTIF is wrong.”
Quotation marks and ampersand — the countif trap
“Two identical cells say not equal.”
Spaces or text numbers — see when equal things are not
“I want words, not TRUE.”
Wrap it in IF, step five the four places

The four places

One operator, written two different ways depending on whether Excel is expecting a formula or a criterion. Everything else follows from that distinction.

XLOOKUP in ExcelThe six arguments, and the four cases where it beats the older function.Open this guide → Percentages in ExcelThe four formulas, and why the same 10 can mean 10% or 1000%.Open this guide → Percentage increase in ExcelA different formula from a plain percentage, and the sign that tells you it went the other way.Open this guide →

The COUNTIF trap

A criterion is a piece of text, so the operator goes inside the quotation marks and the value is joined on. Get it wrong and you get a number, not an error.

Removing duplicates in ExcelThree tools and only one deletes, and what Excel actually counts as a duplicate.Open this guide → Comparing two Excel filesWhat changed between two versions of the same workbook, without reading both.Open this guide → Pivot tables in Google SheetsThe summary that answers a question a formula cannot ask.Open this guide →

When equal things are not

Trailing spaces, capital letters and numbers stored as text: three reasons a comparison disagrees with your eyes, and none of them shows on screen.

Wrap text in ExcelOne button on the ribbon, and the row height that does not follow it.Open this guide → Sorting alphabeticallyOne word in Microsoft’s first step keeps your rows together.Open this guide → PDF to ExcelWhat survives the conversion, and the numbers that arrive as text.Open this guide →

Where the result goes

TRUE and FALSE are rarely the destination. They feed an IF, a count, a colour rule or a chart, and each one reads them slightly differently.

Drop-down lists in ExcelPut the source in a table so it updates itself, and the option that decides whether the list is enforced.Open this guide → Lock cells in ExcelEvery cell is already locked, so the real job is unlocking the ones people should edit.Open this guide → Bar graphs in ExcelClustered, stacked and 100% stacked answer three different questions, and only one is comparable.Open this guide →

Questions people also ask

What is the does not equal sign in Excel?

Two characters typed together: <>. Microsoft lists it among the comparison operators as “not equal to”, with =A1<>B1 as the example.

How do I write not equal in an IF statement?

The same way, with no quotation marks around the operator: =IF(A1<>B1,"changed","same"). The comparison sits inside the first argument of IF exactly as it would on its own.

Why does my COUNTIF with <> give the wrong count?

Because inside COUNTIF the condition is a text string. Use "<>75" for a fixed value, and "<>"&B4 for a cell — the ampersand “merges the comparison operator for not equal to” with the value.

Is there a NOT function I should use instead?

There is, and it does the same job the long way round: =NOT(A1=B1) equals =A1<>B1. NOT earns its place when it wraps something more complicated than a single comparison.

How do I count cells that are not empty?

=COUNTIF(range,"<>") counts cells with anything in them. Be aware that a formula returning an empty string counts as having something, which is why it can disagree with what you see on screen.

Not covered here. It will not list every function that accepts a criterion. The rule — criterion means text, formula means no quotation marks — covers the ones it does not name.

It will not teach the IF function properly, which is a bigger subject and deserves its own page.

And it will not tell you a comparison is broken when the data is. Spaces and text numbers are a data problem wearing a formula’s clothes. What holds instead is simple: the operator table, the criteria definition and the worked COUNTIF example are quoted from Microsoft’s own Excel documentation, with the date each page was read.

Sources

  1. Microsoft Support — Using calculation operators in Excel formulas: the comparison operator table, including <> for not equal to, and the rule that the result is TRUE or FALSE — support.microsoft.com, read 4 September 2026.
  2. Microsoft Support — Use the COUNTIF function in Microsoft Excel: the definition of a criterion as a text string, the case-insensitivity note, and the worked example =COUNTIF(B2:B5,"<>"&B4) — support.microsoft.com, read 6 September 2026.
  3. Google Docs Editors Help — COUNTIF in Google Sheets: the same criterion-as-text rule in the other spreadsheet, read as a check that the behaviour is not a Microsoft peculiarity — support.google.com, read 4 September 2026.

Written by Alberto Gulotta

Founder and editor of AI Tools Primer, writing from Palermo, Italy. Thirty-five years of taking computers apart, starting with a Commodore 64 — the long version is on the about page.

Something wrong on this page? Write to aitoolsprimer@gmail.com and it gets fixed.

Written on 4 September 2026 · last checked 7 September 2026.

Independence and limits

No affiliate links and no paid placements anywhere on this site. Nobody pays to appear here, and no company has seen this page before you did.

This is general information, not professional advice. Where a page touches money, health, safety or the law, it names its source and the date it was read — and your situation may still differ. See the privacy page and the cookie policy.