Get Today’s Date in Google Sheets

In Google Sheets, you can enter today’s date using different methods. We will learn all those methods in this tutorial, so let’s begin.

Keyboard Shortcut for Today’s Date

Ctrl + ;

1. Select the cell where you want to enter the date.
2. Press and hold the Ctrl key.
3. And then press (;) (colon key) from the keyboard.

When you enter the shortcut, you will have the current date in the active cell.

Use the TODAY Function to Get the Current Date

You have a specific function in the Google Sheets with the name TODAY.

1. Select the cell where you want to get the current date.
2. Type (=) to start the function.
3. Enter “TODAY” and opening and closing parentheses.
4. In the end, hit enter to get the date.

=TODAY()

While using TODAY’s function, you need to remember that the VOLIATILE function changes its value every time you update something in your sheet. And it will change its value when the date changes the next day.

Changing Format of the Current Date

When you insert a date in a cell (by any of the above methods), you get the mm/dd/yyyy, which you can change.

1. Click on the More Formats drop down from the Menu.
   
2. Go to the Custom Data and Time option.
   
3. Select the format that you want to apply to the date.
   
4. Click Apply.

⮞ Get the Sample Sheet