Google Sheets SUMIFS Date Range: Total One Category Between Two Dates

Need the total for one category between two dates in Google Sheets? Use SUMIFS with the category and the two dates typed in cells. In my test, one formula in F4 added the Food amounts from November 3 to November 20, 2026, and showed 125. Steps shown: 1. Column A has the dates, column B the categories and column C the amounts. F1 holds the category (Food), F2 the start date (2026-11-03) and F3 the end date (2026-11-20). 2. Click F4 and type the SUMIFS formula, then press Enter. In words: =SUMIFS(C:C, B:B, F1, A:A, then the greater-than-or-equal-to sign in double quotes joined to F2 with an ampersand, then A:A, then the less-than-or-equal-to sign in double quotes joined to F3 with an ampersand, and a closing bracket. The exact formula is on screen and in the captions. 3. Column C holds the amounts it adds. Column B has to match the category in F1. Each date in column A has to be on or after F2 and on or before F3. 4. Put each comparison sign in quotes and join it to the cell with an ampersand. What we tested (one small synthetic sheet, ten rows, dates typed as year-month-day (for example 2026-11-03), date-only values, Google Sheets, November 6, 2026): Food from November 3 to November 20: 125 (25 + 30 + 50 + 20). The Food rows on November 2 and November 21 are outside the dates and are not counted. End date changed to November 19: 105. The 20 on November 20 is left out, so the end date is included. Changed back to November 20: 125 again. Text date: an apostrophe and then 2026-11-12 typed in A7. The cell still showed the same date, but it was stored as text, sat on the left of the cell, and the total dropped to 75 with no error. In this sheet, with no alignment set, the real dates sat on the right. Fix: the same date retyped in A7 with no apostrophe moved to the right, and the total was back to 125. Category Travel: 200 (120 on the start date, November 3, plus 80). Category Rent, with no matching row: 0, not an error. Not tested: a cell formatted as Plain text. Retyping may keep it as text there; I did not test that case. Google help: SUMIFS syntax: "SUMIFS(sum_range, criteria_range1, criterion1, [criteria_range2, criterion2, ...])" and "Returns the sum of a range depending on multiple criteria." https://support.google.com/docs/answe... "criterion1 - The pattern or test to apply to criteria_range1" https://support.google.com/docs/answe... The SUMIFS page does not state how dates, text dates or rows with no match behave; those results come from my test above. Dates are numbers: "Google Sheets uses the 1900 date system. It counts the days since December 30, 1899 (not including December 30, 1899)." https://support.google.com/docs/answe... SUMIF help: "If range contains text to check against, criterion must be a string." https://support.google.com/docs/answe... Use conditions (checked 2026-11-06): Google Sheets is a Google service. Google Terms of Service apply: https://policies.google.com/terms Scope: one small sheet in one spreadsheet, dates typed as year-month-day with no times, whole-number amounts, default formats. The spreadsheet locale was not read. Dates with times of day, OR logic across two categories, rolling windows with TODAY(), Excel, QUERY and pivot tables are not covered. Related video, Find Names Missing From Another List in Google Sheets (FILTER + COUNTIF):    • Find Names Missing From Another List in Go...   Chapters: 0:00 My result, then the data and the inputs 0:21 Click F4 and type the SUMIFS formula 0:39 What each part of the formula does 0:56 The total: 125 for Food 1:09 The end date is included (105 test) 1:23 The trap: a date stored as text 1:46 Fix: retype the date 2:04 Travel 200, Rent 0; what I tested Subscribe to But How? for quick, clear answers to everyday how-tos: @buthowtodoit Narration is an AI voice (Fish Audio); the screen demonstration is real and was recorded in Google Sheets.