How to Use MIN Function in Google Sheets

In this article, you will learn how to find the minimum value of a spreadsheet with the MIN formula. This function finds the minimum value in an array of numbers.

How to utilize MIN formula in Google Sheets

1. Type “=MIN” or go to “Insert” → ”Function” → ”MIN”.
2. Select a range from which you want to find the lowest number.

The generic formula is as follows:

=MIN(value1, [value2, …])

Value 1: This could be a single number, a cell reference, or a range of cells

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Let’s see some examples. Assume your company is preparing for a new product launch and you are working on quality tests for some product types (Type A to F) and want to find the lowest score from a list of scores of the quality tests (Test A, B, and C). You can adjust the selection of a range according to a category you want to see the lowest number.

(i) The lowest Total Score

In the first example, the selected range is Total Scores of all types 21, 24, 27, 30, 33, 36 that has the lowest score of 21.

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(ii) The lowest single Test Score (in any Tests) for Type A

In the second case, the selected area contains Type A’s test results in each Test 7, 1, 13. The MIN formula defined the lowest score of 1.

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(iii) The lowest Test A Score

For the third example, Test A scores of all types are selected as a range in the formula 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 with the lowest score of 7 

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(iv) The lowest single score in Test A and C

You can select non-adjacent fields, as shown in the fourth example. In such a case, each field (as “Value”) should be punctuated by a comma. The outcome is 7 as the lowest score.

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(v) The lowest single score in all Tests

You can also select an entire area if you want, but you need to ensure that the chosen range doesn‘t contain irrelevant figures. In the example above, the lowest score is 1 across all tests.

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(vi) Example of a manual input

We recommend you always use cell reference(s), but if you want to know how to manually input a series of numbers in a formula to get the lowest one among them, see the sixth example. You can input each number (as each “Value”) by punctuating them with commas.

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How do you find the maximum value in Google Sheets?

You can use the MAX function in Google Sheets to find the lowest figure in a selected range. Check this page to learn how to utilized the MAX formula in Google Sheets.

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