How to Add Timestamps to Cells in Google Sheets

In this tutorial, you will learn how to add timestamps to cells in Google Sheets

How to Add Timestamps to Cells in Google Sheets

Have you wondered how to keep track of when certain changes were made in a spreadsheet?

Google Sheets provides a few ways for users to add timestamps to cells. Timestamps are useful because they show both the date and time in the same cell.

In this guide, we will show you two ways you can add timestamps in Google Sheets. First, we will show you some keyboard shortcuts you can use to add a timestamp quickly in a cell. We will then show you how to use the NOW function to create a new timestamp.

How to Insert Timestamps in Google Sheets

Here’s how to insert a timestamp in Google Sheets.

Step 1

First, select a cell where you want to add timestamps to.

In this example, we have a spreadsheet where users must add a timestamp of when they’ve added their name to the list.

Step 2

We can return the current date by holding the Ctrl key and pressing the colon key.

Step 3

We can return the current time by holding both the Ctrl and Shift keys and pressing the colon key.

Step 4

Another way to add a timestamp is by using the NOW function. The NOW function will return a timestamp of the current time in the format seen below

Since the NOW function is volatile and will continuously update when changes are made to the sheet, we will have to convert the function into just a value.

We can use the Paste special > Values only option to retain just the first result of the NOW function.

Summary

This guide should be everything you need to add timestamps to cells in Google Sheets.

You may make a copy of this example spreadsheet to test it out on your own.