How to Calculate Distance Between Two Locations in Excel
Excel Distance Calculator: Calculate Distances and Travel Time Right Inside Excel
Imagine you are planning a day of deliveries or scheduling meetings across town. You type a couple of locations into a spreadsheet and, with a single click, you get the exact distance and expected travel time. No map hopping, no manual lookups. That is exactly what the Excel Distance Calculator does: a ready-to-use template that turns Excel into a quick, reliable routing tool.
Why use an Excel Distance Calculator?
Before we get into how it works, let us be clear about the problem this solves. Manually checking routes in a browser is slow and error prone when you have dozens or hundreds of address pairs. The Excel Distance Calculator automates that process inside the spreadsheet you already use for planning, budgeting, or reporting. Think of it as giving Excel a GPS brain.
How it works, in plain English
At its core the tool asks for a start location and a destination. You can type a full address, a building name, a landmark, a postal code, or even just a city. Click the calculate button and the template queries Google Maps to return the most accurate distance and travel time. It handles international addresses too, so you are not limited to one country.
Supported travel modes and units
The Excel Distance Calculator is flexible. You can switch distance units between miles and kilometres, and choose the travel mode: driving, walking, biking, or public transit. You can also choose whether travel time is shown in hours or minutes, depending on how you prefer to read results.
Live traffic and real-time data
For driving routes you can optionally factor in current traffic. Because the template relies on live Google Maps data, the times and routes reflect the latest conditions. That makes the Excel Distance Calculator ideal for planning during rush hour or when precise ETA matters.
What you need to set it up
To make the Google Maps lookups work you will need a Google Maps API key. Setting up the key takes only a couple of minutes and is free to start. Google provides 10,000 distance searches per month at no charge. If you exceed that, billing is simple: roughly 5 dollars for each additional 1000 requests. In short, most users will find the free tier ample for regular use.
Compatibility
The template runs in the desktop version of Excel. That includes Excel 365 and older versions back to Excel 2007. It works on macOS as well as Windows, so you are covered whether you are on a laptop or a corporate desktop.
Purchase, setup, and help
The Excel Distance Calculator is a one-time purchase. Buy it once and you can use it forever. After purchase you will receive a welcome email that contains a short getting started video that walks you through the setup step by step, including where to paste your Google Maps API key and how to start bulk calculations.
Quick setup steps
- Open the template in desktop Excel.
- Paste your Google Maps API key into the settings area.
- Enter start and destination values or import a list of address pairs.
- Choose units, travel mode, and whether to factor in live traffic.
Tips and practical uses
- Logistics and delivery planning: automate route distances and ETAs for many stops.
- Sales route planning: estimate travel times for customer visits in one go.
- Cost modeling: combine distances with fuel cost per mile or kilometre to estimate expenses.
Now that you understand how it works, give the Excel Distance Calculator a try. It turns a repetitive task into a one click operation and keeps everything where you probably do your work already: in Excel. A small setup up front can save you hours of copying and pasting back and forth between apps. Consider it Excel with a built-in compass (and slightly less attitude than a real compass).
Happy routing, and may your spreadsheets be both accurate and slightly less boring.
