MINIFS in Excel: Find Conditional Minimums Without Hiding Zero or No Matches

• Introduced: Announced February 23, 2016, for Office 365; the first numeric build is not established. Microsoft announcement.
• Availability: official help lists Excel for Microsoft 365, Excel for Microsoft 365 for Mac, Excel 2024, Excel 2024 for Mac, Excel 2021, Excel 2021 for Mac, Excel 2019.
• Checked: October 14, 2026; official MINIFS reference. Examples are independently calculated expectations, not native Excel test results.

=MINIFS(min_range, criteria_range1, criteria1, [criteria_range2, criteria2], ...)

The minimum range and one criterion pair are required. Microsoft documents up to 126 pairs, with all criteria applied together. Each condition range must have the same dimensions as the minimum range; mismatched size or shape produces #VALUE!. Official MINIFS reference

The function returns a number rather than a row identifier. It does not tell you whether one or several rows share that minimum. Keep the inclusion conditions visible before using the answer in a report.

Enter these records in A1:D9. Row 1 contains headings; amounts in D2:D9 are numbers.

The zero in P06 is deliberately included. It lets you distinguish a real matching zero from the function’s separate no-match zero convention.

=MINIFS(D2:D9,B2:B9,"West")
=MINIFS(D2:D9,B2:B9,"West",C2:C9,"Open")

Expected results: 60 and 80. The first includes both West records. Adding the Open criterion excludes P05, whose 60 would otherwise be the minimum.

These pairs describe AND conditions. Two different required region names on the same range would not create an OR selection. Write down which records should qualify before building a long list of criteria.

=MINIFS(D2:D9,B2:B9,"East",C2:C9,"Open")
=MINIFS(D2:D9,B2:B9,"East",C2:C9,"Open",D2:D9,">0")

Expected results: 0 and 120. The first includes P06. The second requires a positive amount, leaving 120, 150 and 150; their minimum is 120.

Excluding zero is a business decision, not a general correction to MINIFS. A zero may be a legitimate measurement. Keep it unless the task explicitly requires positive values or identifies zero as an unusable placeholder.

Put 125 in F2 and use:

=MINIFS(D2:D9,B2:B9,"East",C2:C9,"Open",D2:D9,">="&F2)

Expected result: 150. The two 150 records meet the threshold, while 120 and zero do not. If F2 is changed to 120, the result becomes 120 because the comparison includes the boundary.

The operator is text joined to the parameter with &. Writing ">=F2" would not insert the number from F2. Keep the operator and threshold visible to avoid a formula that looks plausible while selecting the wrong values.

=MINIFS(D2:D9,B2:B9,"South")

Expected result: 0, even though no South record exists. A formula error handler cannot distinguish this from the legitimate zero in the East Open subset.

For the fully numeric sample, use:

=IF(COUNTIFS(B2:B9,"South")=0,"No matching rows",MINIFS(D2:D9,B2:B9,"South"))

Expected result: No matching rows. COUNTIFS must use the same inclusion criteria as the minimum. If you add a positive-amount requirement to MINIFS, add that condition to the count too.

Put East, West, North, South in F5:F8. In G5 enter and fill down:

=MINIFS($D$2:$D$9,$B$2:$B$9,F5,$C$2:$C$9,"Open",$D$2:$D$9,">0")

Expected G5:G8: 120, 80, 90, 0. The last zero means no eligible row, not a positive South amount. An adjacent count column or the explicit guard can make that distinction clear.

The absolute range references keep all rows using the same source rectangle. If one range expands and another does not, the calculation can become a size-mismatch error or a semantic alignment problem.

Enter 40, 10, 30 in J2:J4 and Keep, Drop, Keep in K3:K5. Then:

=MINIFS(J2:J4,K3:K5,"Keep")

Expected result: 30, from the first and third paired positions, 40 and 30. The 10 is paired with Drop even though its worksheet row differs from that label’s row. Microsoft explicitly documents positional pairing for same-sized shifted ranges.

This is a useful diagnostic example, not a recommendation to offset ordinary tables. Audit start rows, end rows and dimensions together.

Microsoft documents an empty criterion cell as zero. A blank parameter therefore does not automatically mean ignore this filter. Define missing-parameter behavior explicitly.

Validate source amounts separately when importing mixed text, blanks or errors; a count of matching records is not proof of numeric completeness. The current dedicated support list begins at Excel 2019 for perpetual versions, while the historical 2016 announcement concerns Office 365. Do not assume identical availability from the shared 2016 date alone.

Verification: Fictional inputs and independently calculated outputs; no native Excel execution. See the editorial testing standards.