How do I raise a number to a power in Excel?

Excel gives you two ways to raise numbers to a power — pick whichever you prefer.

The ^ Operator

The quickest method:

=2^3

Result: 8 (2 × 2 × 2)

The POWER Function

An alternative approach:

=POWER(2, 3)

First argument is the base, second is the exponent.

Examples

• Square a number: =A1^2
• Cube: =A1^3
• Square root: =A1^0.5 or =SQRT(A1)
• Cube root: =A1^(1/3)

Negative Exponents

Work exactly as expected:

=10^-2

Result: 0.01 (that's 1/100)