Google Sheets boasts a staggering 10 million cell limit. That's a lot of digital real estate, sparking the question: what exactly can you do with such a massive spreadsheet? More importantly, when does sheer volume cross the line from "cool" to a rather profound exercise in futility?
Here, I'll dive deep into Google Sheets' capabilities and limitations, exploring whether this kind of space is actually useful for your data projects or if it's a sign you might need to look beyond spreadsheets altogether.
Table of contents:
Google Sheets cell limits, explained
Alright, let's get technical.
How many columns can you have in Google Sheets?
You can get pretty wide with your spreadsheets. Google Sheets supports up to 18,278 columns (that's out to column ZZZ). Once you get to ZZZ, it's time for a nap anyway.
What is the character limit for Google Sheets cells?
Each individual cell can hold up to 50,000 characters. That's enough to have AI write an eBook about spreadsheet etiquette and still have 43,443 characters leftover.
How many rows can Google Sheets handle?
The direct answer is that a Google Sheet can have a maximum of 10 million rows. But this is only possible if your sheet contains just a single column.
The ultimate limit for any Google Sheet is not the number of rows or columns, but the total number of cells, which is capped at 10 million. So the number of rows you can have is determined by the number of columns you use.
For example, a brand-new Google Sheet typically starts with 1,000 rows and 26 columns (A-Z), giving it 26,000 cells. If you were to fill all 18,278 available columns, your sheet would be limited to approximately 547 rows (10,000,000/18,278 ≈ 547) to stay within the 10 million cell cap.
How many sheets can you have in Google Sheets?
A single Google Sheet spreadsheet can house up to 200 individual tabs (or "sheets") within it. While each of these tabs contributes to the overall file size, they don't directly share the 10 million cell limit. Each individual tab operates under its own 10 million cell ceiling, allowing you to organize vast amounts of data across multiple, well-defined sections.
Other Google Sheets limits
There are more limitations to consider than just sheets, rows, columns, and characters:
Finance formulas: Specific finance-related formulas (like GOOGLEFINANCE) have limitations on the number of refreshes per day. While there's no exact published number, excessive refreshes can be temporarily blocked to prevent server overload.
ImportRange, ImportData, ImportHtml, ImportFeed, or ImportXml formulas: These formulas can pull data from external sources but are generally limited to around 50 external references at once to avoid bogging things down.
String length: Even though cells can hold a lot of text, Google has some rules on how long specific text strings created by formulas can be. Unfortunately, they don't publish exact limits, but generally speaking, tens of thousands of characters is where you might start running into issues.
File size limit: For all its expansive possibilities, an individual Google Sheet file has a 10MB size limit.
What you need to know about the 10 million cell limit
Ok, so you have 10 million cells. But that doesn't mean having 10 million cells is particularly useful. Here's what I found out:
1. You can't jump straight to 10 million
To test drive the limit, I removed all but one cell from my spreadsheet and went to use the built-in Add button to create 9,999,999 new rows. No dice.
Even though the technical limit has been raised, Google still has guardrails in place to keep us from getting too wild too quickly. Because, it turns out, 10 million is a lot of cells.
You can still add up to five million rows at once, however, and if your sheet has more than two columns, you may need to do a bit of math to see how many rows you can add before reaching the barrier (10,000,000 divided by number of columns, rounded down).
2. A sheet with 10 million cells is really slow
Once you've hit 10 million cells, you'll probably say two things:
"Wow."
"Why isn't it doing anything?"
Because even if they're blank, Google Sheets still has to think about all of those cells, and in turn, your browser still has to do work to render them. Unlike traditional desktop spreadsheet software that directly leverages your computer's full processing power, Google Sheets operates within your web browser. This means its performance is heavily reliant on your local machine's available RAM and CPU resources to load, calculate, and display every single cell. Ten million of anything is a lot to process, so even things like scrolling will take longer than you might be used to. Just pretend you're on dial-up. (Here, this'll help.)
If you want to actually do anything to those cells, that's another matter entirely. Adding a single SEQUENCE() function to count the cells resulted in a long delay, followed by my browser crashing.
It did eventually load, in case you want to check my math.
But then let's say that you get your 10 million cells set up, filled with your amazing data, and you want to change the formatting? No, you don't.
When trying to center-align the text in the sheet above, about three minutes passed before Google finally gave me this error:
"That's fair," I thought, "I'll come back to it later." But 20 minutes later, the error was still there. "Temporarily" stretched longer and longer until I opted to delete the sheet, start over, center the text first, then add my data. The more you can do before maxing out the cells, the better.
3. Your Zaps will not be happy about 10 million cells
Just because Google Sheets can have 10 million cells does not mean your sheet should have 10 million cells.
When Zapier sends a request to Google Sheets, whether it's to create a new row or see if there are any changes that need to be triggered on, it waits around 30 seconds for a response. In order to send that response, Google needs to process all cells in the sheet, determine their output, wrap it up in a nice little package, and send it back. Even though it's a big Google machine, that can still take some time on large sheets because it processes those cells one at a time, going left-to-right and top-to-bottom, like reading a book.
If Google Sheets can't form a response within that 30 seconds, Zapier receives a "timeout" error, meaning it may not receive new rows or make updates as expected.
With even a relatively simple spreadsheet (which uses one formula in cell A2 to fill in the row numbers), timeouts start to happen at around 1,200,000 cells, almost one-tenth of the new limit. If your sheet has lots of formulas, especially with slower functions like QUERY() or IMPORTRANGE(), that number is even lower.
So the moral of this story is to resist the temptation of 10 million cells. Your Zaps will thank you for it. (If you really do need that many cells, keep reading for some solutions.)
4. 10 million cells lets you do…a lot
If you can get past the slowness, this new limit does open up some fun and interesting possibilities. In my initial experiments, I was able to come up with a couple:
But you could also:
Keep a record of the first and last name of every person in Cape Town, South Africa
Take a census of all of the swans in England (a real thing) for the next ~75-150 years
Make the cells as tall and wide as possible (2,000 pixels) to have a spreadsheet that could fill around 20 billion 4K TVs
If it's not obvious yet, the actually practical uses for 10 million cells are few and far between. I'm not sure who Google actually changed the limit for, but whoever they are, they should follow the next step.
What you should actually do if you need 10 million cells
I'm going to say this out of love: if this is you, stop using Google Sheets.
If your spreadsheet has 10 million cells, you no longer need a spreadsheet. You need a database, and those are two different things.
Here's a breakdown of what to do and some alternative tools.
Optimize your existing sheets
Before abandoning Sheets entirely, consider these strategies to manage large datasets more efficiently:
Split your data: Break down your single massive sheet into multiple, smaller, more manageable Google Sheets files. You can then use IMPORTRANGE to pull specific subsets of data into a main sheet for analysis or reporting, but this should be used judiciously, as IMPORTRANGE has its own performance limitations.
Filter and hide: Leverage Google Sheets' robust filtering capabilities. Work only with the relevant subsets of data at any given time by filtering out unnecessary rows. You can also hide rows and columns that aren't actively needed to reduce rendering load.
Archive old data: Regularly move historical or less-accessed data to separate archive sheets or even entirely different files. This keeps your active working sheets lean.
Transition to a dedicated database
Databases are purpose-built for managing, querying, and relating large volumes of structured data. They allow you to selectively process only the data you need, making them significantly faster and more scalable than spreadsheets for complex operations. Here are my suggestions for user-friendly database solutions:
Zapier Tables: Built for automation-first workflows, Zapier Tables lets you store, organize, and automate your data. It can also handle a significantly higher volume of records compared to a lot of entry-level database alternatives, giving you space to scale your data.
Airtable: This tool is designed to put a friendly, spreadsheet-like face on your data, making it easy to import (from Google Sheets, for example) and get started with database functionality. It excels at relational data and custom views.
Notion or Coda: These next-gen document tools blend features of databases, documents, and spreadsheets. While they give you more flexible ways to organize and connect information, their raw data capacity might not match a dedicated database.
Explore data warehousing solutions
For truly massive datasets (read: billions of rows) or complex analytical needs, you'll need to move beyond operational databases to a data warehouse.
If you're already in the Google ecosystem, BigQuery is Google's serverless enterprise data warehouse. It's designed for petabyte-scale data analysis and can run complex SQL queries over vast datasets in seconds, making it ideal for business intelligence and large-scale reporting that would crash any spreadsheet.
The core idea is that while Google Sheets is a fantastic tool for many tasks, knowing its practical limitations—and having a plan for when you hit them—is crucial for efficient and scalable data workflows.
What if I need to reduce the number of cells in a Google spreadsheet?
Maybe you can't get enough of Google Sheets' familiar fields, and you need to clean up your project to add even more sweet, sweet data. Remember, Google counts blanks as part of your total cell limit.
Here's how to find and remove empty rows fast:
Select your entire dataset and go to Data > Create a filter.
Click the filter icon on any column header.
Under Filter by values, click Clear, then select (Blanks) and press OK.
Highlight all the now-visible empty rows (hold shift and click the last row number).
Right-click and choose Delete selected rows.
Click the filter icon again, and choose Select All. Click OK.
Be careful with complex sheets to avoid any potential formatting issues.
Things like nested tables, merged cells, and conditional formatting can make it difficult for the system to accurately interpret and display the data. Complex formulas and functions can also contribute to formatting issues, especially if they aren't properly structured or if there are circular references.
Automate Google Sheets
Google's sky-high cell limit opens up a ton of fun and interesting possibilities. Even better, it can create even more automation possibilities. By using Google Sheets with Zapier, you can send data to your spreadsheet from all the other apps you use—and send your Google Sheets data to those other apps too.
Learn more about how to automate Google Sheets, or get started with one of these pre-built templates.
Save new Gmail emails matching certain traits to a Google Spreadsheet
Add new Facebook Lead Ads leads to rows on Google Sheets
Send emails via Gmail when Google Sheets rows are updated
Create Google Sheets rows for new Google Ads leads
Zapier is the most connected AI orchestration platform—integrating with thousands of apps from partners like Google, Salesforce, and Microsoft. Use interfaces, data tables, and logic to build secure, automated, AI-powered systems for your business-critical workflows across your organization's technology stack. Learn more.
Google Sheets cell limit FAQ
If there's somehow still more you need to know about Google Sheets cell limits, these answers should clear things up.
Can Google Sheets handle 100,000 rows?
Google Sheets can handle way more than 100,000 in terms of raw row count. It can handle 10 million rows as long as there's only one column. The more columns you have, the fewer rows you can add. You'll also want to be aware of the formulas you're using, as complex formulas spread over many cells could result in performance issues.
How do I increase the number of cells in Google Sheets?
To add individual rows or columns, right-click directly on a row number (to insert a row) or column letter (to insert a column). Choose the desired action: Insert 1 row above, Insert 1 row below, Insert 1 column left, or Insert 1 column right.
To add multiple rows or columns, highlight the number of rows or columns you want to insert. Right-click anywhere within your highlighted selection. Select Insert [Number] rows... or Insert [Number] columns.... If you need to add a large number of rows to the bottom of your sheet, simply scroll down and click the Add [Number] rows button (which usually adds 1,000). You can also customize the number of rows added in the text box.
What are the limitations of Google Sheets compared to Excel?
The age-old Google Sheets vs. Excel debate. While Google Sheets has become a powerful contender, Excel still holds some advantages due to its desktop platform. Offline, Excel can handle larger files and more complex calculations without performance hiccups. It also has a slightly wider range of advanced functions and niche analysis tools. Sheets, however, wins when it comes to its cloud-based nature and collaboration options.
Why is Google Sheets telling me I reached the cell limit even though I haven’t?
Even if your visible data doesn't seem to fill 10 million cells, Google Sheets often counts "used" cells differently than you might expect. Here are the common culprits:
Invisible "used" cells: Google Sheets tracks the largest range you've ever interacted with. If you've scrolled far down or far to the right and accidentally typed something, applied formatting, or even just clicked around, Google Sheets often extends its "used range" to include those cells. Even if you delete the content later, those cells might still be counted toward your limit.
Excessive blank rows/columns: You might have accidentally added millions of blank rows or columns to your sheet, perhaps by clicking "Add 1,000 rows" repeatedly or dragging a selection too far. Even though they're empty, they contribute to the total cell count.
Formatting applied to large ranges: Applying conditional formatting, borders, or even basic cell background colors to entire columns or rows (e.g., selecting column A and formatting it) can cause Google Sheets to consider that entire range "in use," even if most cells are empty.
To fix this, try the steps above about finding and removing empty rows/columns, and always try to apply formatting only to the specific ranges you intend to use.
Related reading:
This article was originally published in March 2022. The most recent update, with contributions from Michael Kern, was in June 2025.
