How to Find Lowest Value in an Excel Column (6 Ways)

To demonstrate all the methods, we’ll use the same dataset below. It shows Bitcoin prices by months in dollars. We’ll look for the lowest price on the list and show the month with that value.

Method 1 – Find the Lowest Value in a Column Using the AutoSum Feature

Steps:

Select the cell you want your minimum value to be displayed.

In the Home tab, go to Editing.
Go to the ΣAutoSum function and click on the down arrow beside it.
Select Min from the drop-down list.

Select the column you want the minimum value from.

Press Enter.

Excel will put the value into the cell.

Method 2 – Using the MIN Function to Find the Lowest Value in a Column

Steps:

Go to the cell you want your minimum value to be displayed.

Use the following formula:

=MIN(C5:C11)

Press Enter. You will have your lowest value from the column.

Method 3 – SMALL Function to Find the Lowest Value

Steps:

Go to the cell you want to see your minimum value.
Insert the following formula. (We use 1 as the second argument to find the smallest value of the array)

=SMALL(C5:C11,1)

Press Enter.

Method 4 – Find the Lowest Value in a Column Using Conditional Formatting

Steps:

Select the column you want your lowest value from.

In the Home tab, under the Styles group, go to Conditional Formatting.
Select New Rule from the drop-down list.

A New Formatting Rule box will appear. Under Select a Rule Type, select Use a formula to determine which cells to format.
In the Format values box, use the following formula.

=C5=MIN(C$5:C$11)

You can select your cell style from the Format option (we have used Fill Color green here).
Click on OK.

Method 5 – Using the “Bottom 10 Items” Option

Steps:

Select the column you want to format.

In the Home tab, under the Styles group, select Conditional Formatting.
Select Top/Bottom Rules, and then select Bottom 10 Items.

In the Bottom 10 Items box that pops up, select or write the value 1.
Click on OK.

Excel will highlight the lowest value.

Method 6 – Lookup the Lowest Value in an Excel Column

Let’s show during which month Bitcoin had the lowest price.

Steps:

Find a minimum value using one of the first three methods and put it cell F5.
Select the result cell F6.

Use in the following formula.

=INDEX(B5:B11,MATCH(MIN(C5:C11),C5:C11,0))

Press Enter.

Breakdown of the formula:

MIN(C5:C11) finds the lowest value from the range C5 to C11, in this case, it is 38,718.
MATCH(MIN(C5:C11), C5:C11,0) finds the row number where 38,718 is located from C5 to C11, which is 2.
INDEX(B5:B11, MATCH(MIN(C5:C11), C5:C11,0)) will show the value of the 2nd cell from range B5:B11, February 2022.