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Set a spreadsheet’s location & calculation settings

You can change a spreadsheet’s locale, time zone, calculation settings, and functions language in Google Sheets.

When you make a change, it changes for the entire spreadsheet. Everyone working on it will see the changes, regardless of their location.

[Computer] [Android][iPhone & iPad]

[Change locale and time zone]

When you change the locale and time zone of a spreadsheet, it changes the spreadsheet’s default currency, date, and number formatting.

  1. On your computer, open a spreadsheet in Google Sheets.
  2. Click File and then Settings.
  3. Under "General," click the "Locale" and "Time zone" menus to change your settings.
  4. Click Save settings.

Changing the locale doesn’t change your language settings in Google Sheets. You can set the language in Google Account settings.

[Change the language for functions]

You can change the language of Google Sheets functions between English and 21 other languages.

  1. Make sure you’re set to a non-English language in Google Account settings.
  2. On your computer, open a spreadsheet in Google Sheets.
  3. Click File and then Settings.
  4. Under "Display language," uncheck "Always use English function names" to see functions in your display language.
  5. Click Save Settings.

Language options​

Google Sheets supports functions in these languages:

  • Czech
  • Danish
  • Dutch
  • English
  • Estonian
  • Finnish
  • French
  • German
  • Hungarian
  • Italian
  • Japanese
  • Malaysian
  • Norwegian (Bokmal)
  • Polish
  • Portuguese (Portugal)
  • Portuguese (Brazil)
  • Russian
  • Slovenian
  • Spanish
  • Swedish
  • Turkish
  • Ukrainian

[Choose how often formulas calculate]

When any value in a sheet changes, the change can automatically trigger a recalculation.

For example, if cell A1 = 5, and no other tabs, cells, or formula refers to A1, then when you change the value in A1 from 5 to 7, there’s no recalculation.

However, if other tabs, cells, or formulas refer to A1, then whenever you change A1, a recalculation is automatically triggered. For example, B1 contains the formula =A1+10.

Some functions need to have specific controls in terms of how often we want to trigger a recalculation. For example volatile functions such as TODAY, NOW, RAND, and RANDBETWEEN, because those values inherently change all the time. TODAY changes every new day, NOW changes every second, and RAND and RANDBETWEEN change at an infinite frequency.

This can cause the entire sheet to not work. To choose how often formulas calculate:

  1. On your computer, open a spreadsheet in Google Sheets.
  2. Click File and then Settings and then Calculation.
  3. Choose settings for:
    • Recalculation: Sets how often certain formulas are updated.
    • Iterative calculation: Sets the number of times a formula with a circular reference can occur.
  4. Click Save settings.

Functions that pull data from outside the spreadsheet recalculate at the following times:

  • ImportRange: 30 minutes
  • ImportHtml, ImportFeed, ImportData, ImportXml: 1 hour
  • GoogleFinance: may be delayed up to 20 minutes