Calculate Distance Between Multiple Addresses in Excel
Meet the Excel Distance Matrix Calculator
Imagine you manage deliveries or sales territories and need to know which customer is closest to a warehouse (or which warehouse is closest to a customer). Manually checking routes one by one is slow and error prone. The easiest solution is to calculate distance between multiple addresses in one go and see every pair in a single grid.
What the distance matrix does
Enter your addresses into a simple spreadsheet, press one button, and the workbook returns a complete distance and travel time matrix for every pair. Each row and column represents a location; where they intersect you see the distance and estimated travel time. This layout makes it trivial to compare any location to any other location at a glance.
Quick visual cues: heat map and toggles
The matrix comes with a built-in color heat map so the shortest routes appear in green and the longest in red. Turn the heat map on or off with a single toggle when you want raw numbers without color.
Flexible address input
You do not need perfectly formatted addresses. The tool accepts:
- Full or partial street addresses
- Landmarks and building names
- Postal codes
- GPS coordinates
This makes it easy to work with existing lists from CRMs, order systems, or spreadsheets (no painful cleanup required).
Settings you actually need
The matrix is configurable. You can choose to show:
- Distance only, time only, or both
- Units in miles or kilometers
- Travel mode: driving, walking, biking, or public transportation
- Traffic mode: static estimates or Traffic Aware current conditions
Where the numbers come from and costs
Distances and travel times come from Google Maps, so results are accurate and consistent with real-world routing. To use the calculator you need a Google Maps API key. Getting the API key takes only a few minutes and Google provides 10,000 free distance calculations per month. Beyond that, additional calculations cost about $5 per 1,000 requests.
Practical setup and compatibility
Setup is straightforward: paste or import addresses, configure travel mode and units, then run the calculation. The Excel template is a one-time purchase and works across Excel 365 and older versions back to Excel 2007 on both Windows and Mac. After purchase you receive the download, a license key, and a short getting started guide to walk through setup.
Use cases that benefit most
- Logistics and route planning
- Sales territory optimization
- Service area analysis
- Quickly finding the closest warehouse or office to a customer
Now that we have the basics, this workflow replaces repetitive Google Maps lookups with a fast, repeatable spreadsheet process. If you need to calculate distance between multiple addresses frequently, a distance matrix in Excel saves time and reduces mistakes. Try it on a real dataset and you will quickly see where route or territory adjustments can deliver the biggest gains (and yes, the heat map makes the differences painfully obvious).
Final takeaway: a single Excel matrix gives you full visibility of pairwise distances and travel times, configurable to your needs, and powered by reliable Google Maps data. Handy and practical. It’s like having a routing assistant inside your workbook. —Sven
Download the Excel Distance Matrix Calculator template HERE.