Google Sheets is effectively a full-featured version of Microsoft Excel in your browser with many powerful functions and features also included. Like Excel, you can merge cells in Google Sheets into a larger single cell, and here’s how to do it.

You might want to merge a cell when you run out of space or want to create a cell that spans or requires multiple columns or even rows. Like Excel, this is an essential tool when working with large spreadsheets, and like Microsoft’s desktop app, the process is just as simple within Google Sheets.

Sheets does not limit this to merging horizontally, you can merge cells in vertical orientation too. What’s more, there does not appear to be a limit to how many cells you can combine via this method either. Because Google’s Workspace suite is fully cloud-based, you can do this across all of your devices including mobile, desktop, laptop, and tablet.

How to merge cells in Google Sheets on desktop

1. Open or create a new spreadsheet via Google Sheets in your browser.
2. Pick or highlight the two or more cells that you want to merge.
3. Open the “Format” menu from the top toolbar.
4. Scroll down in the drop-down menu and highlight “Merge,” then choose which merging method you would like Google Sheets to apply. You can Merge Horizontally, Merge Vertically, or Merge All.
   • Note: Depending upon how many cells you have selected, certain options may not be available

An alternative method is using the dedicated Merge button from within the docked toolbar. You’ll find this in between the cell border and text alignment tool. An icon that has brackets with arrows pointing toward each other is what you need to look out for. Tapping this performs the same process as above without needing to enter the “Format” menu.

How to merge cells in Google Sheets on Android/iOS

1. Open the Google Sheets app on your Android or iOS device.
2. Create or open an existing spreadsheet.
3. Tap or highlight the two or more cells that you want to merge.
4. After selecting cells, a new toolbar will appear at the bottom of your display. There is a “Merge” icon next to the text alignment tools and next to the bucket fill button.
5. Tapping this icon will merge all cells that you have selected.
   • Note: If you have cells with content only the left-most text or numbers will be preserved when merging. A warning will pop-up to confirm this on mobile.

As noted, this process will work on Google Sheets across all of your devices, no matter whether you’re using a Windows PC, laptop, Mac, iPhone, or Android. You can use it for visual or functional purposes, in whichever situation you want to combine two cells or cell contents.