Best Udemy Excel Courses in 2026: 7 Picks Worth Your Money (Honest Rankings)

Last updated: May 2026. Written by Josh Hutcheson, OnlineCourseing editor. Every rating and enrollment figure below was pulled directly from each course's Udemy listing on 25 May 2026. See our review methodology.

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Search "Excel" on Udemy and you get tens of thousands of results. Most are forgettable. A handful are genuinely excellent, taught by instructors with six- and seven-figure student counts and ratings that have held above 4.6 stars across tens of thousands of reviews. The job of this guide is to separate that small group from the rest.

We picked these seven by three measures: a rating of 4.6 stars or higher, a large and credible review count (the bigger the sample, the more the average means), and a clear, distinct use case — so this list spans absolute beginners, formula power-users, dashboard builders, and people who want to automate Excel with code. We name what each course does well and where it falls short. We earn a commission if you enroll through our links, but the rankings are based on the courses, not the payout. Where a course has weaknesses, we say so.

This page is specifically about Udemy. If you haven't settled on a platform yet, our cross-platform guide to the best Excel courses and certifications compares Udemy against Coursera, LinkedIn Learning, the official Microsoft certifications, and free options side by side.

1. Microsoft Excel — Excel from Beginner to Advanced (Kyle Pew) — Best Overall

Instructor: Kyle Pew (Office Newb) · Rating: 4.7★ (533,864 ratings) · ~22.5 hours · All levels

If you want one course that takes you from opening Excel for the first time to building advanced workbooks, this is the one to beat. It is the most-reviewed Excel course on the platform by a wide margin — over half a million ratings — and it covers the full arc: navigation and formatting, formulas and functions, PivotTables, charts, lookup functions, and an introduction to macros. Pew has taught Excel for years, the course supports Excel 2007 through the current Microsoft 365 version, and the listing we checked was last updated in March 2026.

Who it's for: beginners and intermediate users who want one comprehensive, current course rather than stitching several together. The honest catch: at 22+ hours it is a commitment, and because it covers everything, it doesn't go as deep on any single advanced topic as a specialist course (Dutton on formulas, Gharani on VBA) does. If you already know the basics and want depth in one area, skip to a focused pick below.

2. Microsoft Excel: Advanced Excel Formulas & Functions (Chris Dutton) — Best for Formulas

Instructor: Chris Dutton (Maven Analytics) · Rating: 4.6★ (117,216 ratings) · ~9.5 hours · All levels

The definitive course if your goal is to genuinely master Excel formulas rather than memorise a handful. It works through 75+ functions — logical, lookup, text, date, statistical, and the modern dynamic-array functions like XLOOKUP and FILTER — and frames them around real data-analysis and business-intelligence problems. Maven Analytics is one of the most respected data-skills publishers on Udemy, and the 117,000+ ratings at 4.6 stars reflect a course that has been stress-tested by a large audience. Last updated November 2025.

Who it's for: people who already know their way around a spreadsheet and want to become genuinely fluent with formulas and functions. The honest catch: it is deliberately narrow — it assumes you already know basic navigation and doesn't cover PivotTables, charts, or VBA. Pair it with a broad course (#1) or a dashboards course (#4) if you need the wider picture.

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3. Unlock Excel VBA and Excel Macros (Leila Gharani) — Best for VBA & Automation

Instructor: Leila Gharani · Rating: 4.7★ (48,286 ratings) · ~22.5 hours · All levels

When you want to stop doing the same Excel task by hand and start automating it, this is the course. Leila Gharani is one of the most widely followed Excel educators anywhere, and her teaching style — clear, paced, project-driven — suits VBA particularly well because the subject intimidates people who have never written code. The course runs from recording your first macro through writing real VBA, with three complete automation projects, and carries a 4.7-star average across 48,000+ ratings. Last updated February 2026.

Who it's for: Excel users who do repetitive work and want to automate it, even with no programming background. The honest catch: VBA is a genuine programming language, so despite the gentle on-ramp this is more demanding than the formula or dashboard courses — expect to put in real practice. And VBA is a legacy technology; for newer automation, Office Scripts and Power Query are increasingly the future, though VBA remains the standard in most workplaces today.

4. Visually Effective Excel Dashboards (Leila Gharani) — Best for Dashboards

Instructor: Leila Gharani · Rating: 4.6★ (22,387 ratings) · ~11 hours · All levels

A focused course on turning raw data into interactive, presentation-ready Excel dashboards — dynamic charts, form controls, slicers, and KPI reporting. This is the skill that makes Excel work look professional to managers and clients, and Gharani teaches it with the same clarity that makes her VBA course so well rated. Across 22,000+ ratings it holds 4.6 stars, and the listing was last updated March 2026.

Who it's for: analysts, finance and operations people, and anyone who needs to present data clearly rather than just calculate it. The honest catch: you need solid intermediate Excel before starting — comfort with formulas, charts, and ideally PivotTables — so this is a second or third course, not a first. If dashboards are your only goal but you're still a beginner, do a broad course first.

5. Microsoft Excel — Excel from Beginner to Advanced 2026 (Warrick Klimaytys) — Best Freshest Beginner Course

Instructor: Warrick Klimaytys · Rating: 4.6★ (26,291 ratings) · ~12 hours · All levels

The most recently refreshed full-arc course on this list — updated May 2026, and built explicitly around current Microsoft 365 Excel, including the AI features (Copilot) now appearing in the app. It covers the same beginner-to-advanced ground as the Kyle Pew course but in roughly half the runtime, which some learners prefer. At 4.6 stars over 26,000+ ratings, it's well validated without being as enormous a sample as Pew's.

Who it's for: beginners who specifically want the most up-to-date version of Excel taught (Copilot, dynamic arrays) and prefer a tighter, faster course. The honest catch: the smaller review count means slightly less of a proven track record than the half-million-rating courses, and the speed comes at the cost of depth — you'll cover the breadth but with fewer reps on each topic than Pew's longer treatment.

6. Microsoft Excel: Learn Modern Excel for Data Analysis (Maven Analytics) — Best for Data Analysis

Instructor: Enrique Ruiz (Maven Analytics) · Rating: 4.7★ (574 ratings) · ~6 hours · All levels

A focused, project-based introduction to using Excel specifically for data analysis — structuring data, formulas, charts, and PivotTables — from the same Maven Analytics stable behind the formulas course at #2. At ~6 hours it's a tight, modern primer aimed at people who want Excel as an analytics tool rather than a general office skill, and it carries a 4.7-star average. Last updated January 2026.

Who it's for: aspiring data analysts and anyone who wants a short, current path into Excel-for-analytics. The honest catch: with only 574 ratings, this is a newer course with a far smaller track record than the others here — the high rating is encouraging but rests on a small sample. If you want a more proven option for the same ground, Maven's formulas course (#2) or Pew's broad course (#1) have vastly larger review bases.

7. Excel for Beginners (Kevin Stratvert) — Best Fast, Free-Feeling Intro

Instructor: Kevin Stratvert · Rating: 4.6★ (35,012 ratings) · ~2 hours · Beginner

A short, plain-spoken primer that teaches the Excel essentials in about two hours, from a former Microsoft program manager whose tutorials are widely trusted. It does one job and does it well: getting a nervous beginner comfortable with the interface, basic formulas, and formatting, fast. At 35,000+ ratings and 4.6 stars, it's a well-loved on-ramp.

Who it's for: total beginners who want the core of Excel quickly before deciding whether to go deeper. The honest catch: it's foundational by design — you'll outgrow it quickly — and its last major update (January 2024) is the oldest on this list, so it predates the current Copilot-era Excel. Treat it as a fast entry point, then move to a broad course (#1 or #5) for depth.

Udemy Excel Courses Compared at a Glance

Ratings, review counts, and course lengths verified directly from each course's Udemy listing on 25 May 2026 (a May 2026 snapshot). Star ratings and enrollment figures change over time — check the live listing before buying.

How to Vet Any Udemy Excel Course Before You Buy

Udemy is an open marketplace: anyone can publish, so quality varies enormously. The good news is that a few quick checks reliably separate the strong courses from the filler. Before you enroll in anything — on this list or not — run through these.

Check the rating and the number of ratings

A 4.9-star course with 30 reviews tells you almost nothing; a 4.7-star course with 100,000 reviews is a genuine signal. Treat the review count as the confidence level behind the average. As a rule of thumb, want at least a few thousand ratings before you fully trust the star score, and be skeptical of brand-new courses marked "Highest Rated" off a tiny sample. (This is exactly why we flagged the data-analysis course at #6 — a strong 4.7, but on only 574 ratings so far.)

Check the last-updated date and the Excel version

Excel itself keeps changing — dynamic-array functions like XLOOKUP and FILTER, and now Copilot AI features, are recent additions that older courses simply don't cover. On the course page, look for "Last updated" near the title, and check which Excel version the course teaches. For 2026, prefer a course refreshed within the last 12–18 months that explicitly covers Microsoft 365 Excel. Every pick on this list was checked for its update date, and we flagged the oldest (Kevin Stratvert's, last updated January 2024).

Check the instructor's track record

Click the instructor's name to see their total students, course count, and other reviews. Established Excel educators — Kyle Pew, Leila Gharani, and the Maven Analytics team (Chris Dutton, Enrique Ruiz) — have years of consistent feedback behind them. A single course from an unknown publisher with no profile history is a bigger gamble.

Match the course to your actual goal

Excel is broad, and the biggest mistake buyers make is picking a course that doesn't match what they need. If you're starting from zero, buy a broad beginner-to-advanced course (#1 or #5). If you already know the basics and want one specific skill, buy the specialist: formulas (#2), VBA (#3), or dashboards (#4). Most courses offer free preview lessons and a published curriculum — watch a preview and skim the curriculum to confirm fit. Because Udemy carries a 30-day money-back guarantee, you can also buy, start, and refund if a course isn't what was advertised.

What Udemy Excel Courses Actually Cost

Ignore the list price. Udemy courses advertise list prices of roughly $40 to $160, but the platform runs sales so frequently that almost nobody pays full price. During the sale we observed while researching this guide, the courses above were priced around $9.99 to $19 — a typical range. If you ever land on a course showing full price, wait a few days or check back from a fresh browser; a sale is rarely far off. For the full picture, see our guides on how much Udemy costs and how often Udemy runs sales.

Each purchase is a one-time payment with lifetime access — no subscription, no recurring charge. That makes Udemy a low-risk way to test a topic: a single Excel course at $15 costs less than a month of most subscription platforms, and it's yours to revisit whenever you want. Every Udemy course is also covered by a 30-day money-back guarantee, so if a course isn't what you expected, you can request a refund within 30 days of purchase.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best Excel course on Udemy for beginners?

For most beginners, Kyle Pew's Microsoft Excel — Excel from Beginner to Advanced (4.7★, 530,000+ ratings) is the best all-round start — comprehensive and the most-reviewed Excel course on the platform. If you want the most up-to-date version of Excel taught (Microsoft 365 + Copilot AI), Warrick Klimaytys's Beginner to Advanced 2026 is fresher and shorter. For a quick two-hour primer before committing to a longer course, Kevin Stratvert's Excel for Beginners is an excellent on-ramp.

Which Udemy course is best for learning advanced Excel formulas?

Chris Dutton's Advanced Excel Formulas & Functions (Maven Analytics, 4.6★, 117,000+ ratings) is the standout. It works through 75+ functions — including modern dynamic-array functions like XLOOKUP and FILTER — framed around real data-analysis problems. It assumes you already know basic navigation, so pair it with a broad course if you're starting from scratch.

Is there a good Udemy course for Excel VBA and macros?

Yes — Leila Gharani's Unlock Excel VBA and Excel Macros (4.7★, 48,000+ ratings) is the best-regarded VBA course on Udemy. It takes you from recording your first macro to writing real VBA across three automation projects, with a gentle on-ramp for people who have never written code. Be aware VBA is a real programming language and demands genuine practice.

Are Udemy Excel courses worth it?

For self-directed learners, yes — the value-for-money is hard to beat at $10–$20 on sale, with lifetime access and a 30-day refund window. The trade-off is that Udemy gives you no mentorship, no graded projects, and no accredited credential. If you specifically need a recognised qualification, the official Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) Excel certification is the credential employers know — though Udemy courses are excellent preparation for it. For learning practical Excel skills on your own schedule, Udemy is excellent.

How much do Excel courses on Udemy cost?

List prices run roughly $40 to $160, but Udemy's frequent sales bring most courses down to about $10–$20. Each course is a one-time purchase with lifetime access, not a subscription. See our full Udemy cost guide for details.

Do Udemy Excel courses come with a certificate?

Yes — you receive a Udemy certificate of completion when you finish a course. It's useful for your own records and for showing initiative on a résumé or LinkedIn, but it is not an accredited or industry-recognised credential like the Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) certification. Employers value the skills and workbooks you can demonstrate far more than the certificate itself.

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