How to Add a Hyperlink in Google Sheets

To add a hyperlink in Google Sheets, click a cell and press Ctrl + K (Command + K on a Mac), or click Insert > Link. Type the text to show, enter the web address, and click Apply. You can also use the formula =HYPERLINK(“https://example.com”,”Link text”).

These steps cover Google Sheets in a web browser on Windows, Mac, and Chromebook, plus the Google Sheets app for Android, iPhone, and iPad. They follow Google’s help pages Work with links & bookmarks, the HYPERLINK function reference, and the Sheets keyboard shortcuts list.

Which Linking Method Should You Use?

Google Sheets gives you four ways to make a link. They all produce a clickable cell, but each one suits a different job.

Method	Best for	What to know
Insert link (menu, right-click, or Ctrl + K)	One-off links with friendly text	Can link to websites, email addresses, other sheets, cell ranges, and Drive files
Typing or pasting a web address	Quick links where the full address can show	Sheets turns most valid web addresses into links on its own
HYPERLINK formula	Many links built from a list of addresses	The link updates when the cells it points to change
Smart chip	Links to Drive files, YouTube videos, places, or people	Shows the file name or title as a chip instead of plain text

If you’re not sure, start with Insert link. It’s the easiest to read later, and you can change the text and address in one box.

How to Add a Hyperlink With Insert Link

1. Open the spreadsheet at sheets.google.com and click the cell where you want the link. To link only some of the words in a cell, double-click the cell and highlight those words.
2. Click Insert > Link, or press Ctrl + K (Command + K on a Mac). You can also right-click the cell and choose Insert link, or click the Insert link button (the chain icon) in the toolbar. A small link box opens next to the cell.
3. Under Text, enter the words you want people to see. If the cell already has text, it’s filled in for you.
4. Under Link, type or paste a URL or an email address, or type a few words to search for a website.
5. Click Apply.

6. Click a different cell, then click the linked cell once. A preview card appears with the address. Click the address in the card to open it in a new tab and confirm it goes to the right page.

The text in the cell now looks like a link (blue and underlined by default). When you copy and paste a linked cell somewhere else in the spreadsheet, the link comes along with it. Working in a document instead? Follow the steps for adding a hyperlink in Google Docs.

Links are not the only cell formatting you can change; you can also make text larger in Google Sheets so it is easier to read.

How to Put More Than One Link in a Cell

A single cell can hold several links, each attached to different words. Google’s help page describes it this way:

1. Double-click the cell, or click it and then click in the formula bar, so you can select text inside it.
2. Highlight the first word or phrase you want to link.
3. Press Ctrl + K (Command + K on a Mac) or click the Insert link toolbar button.
4. Enter the address and click Apply.
5. Highlight the next phrase and repeat.

There’s one catch in the iPhone and iPad app: when a cell holds more than one link, only the first link shows when you edit it there, and saving the edit replaces the links in that cell. Make multi-link edits on a computer.

How to Make a Link by Typing or Pasting a Web Address

Type or paste a full address such as https://www.google.com into an empty cell and press Enter. Sheets converts most valid URLs into links automatically, so you don’t need a formula or the Insert menu. The cell shows the whole address, which is fine for a reference list but harder to read in a report. Use Insert link or HYPERLINK when you want shorter, descriptive text.

Turn a Pasted Link Into a Smart Chip

For a Google Drive file, a YouTube video, or a Google Maps place, you can show a chip with the file or place name instead of the raw address. Google’s smart chips help page lists two ways:

• Paste the link into a cell and press Tab right away.
• Select the cell with the link, click Insert > Smart chips, and choose the matching Convert to option, such as Convert to file chip.

You can also hover over a cell with a link, click Replace URL in the preview, and click Chip. Mentioning a file in a chip doesn’t give anyone access to it; you still need to share the file.

How to Link to Another Sheet, Range, or File

The Insert link box can point to places inside your spreadsheet, not only to websites. This is handy for building a contents tab that jumps to every other tab.

Link to Another Sheet Tab

1. Click the cell for the link and press Ctrl + K, or click Insert > Link.
2. Click in the Link field. A list of suggestions opens.
3. Under Sheets and named ranges, click the tab you want.
4. Click Apply.

Clicking the link later switches to that tab. Clear tab names make these links easier to understand, so you may want to rename your sheet tabs first.

Link to a Range of Cells

1. Click the cell for the link and click Insert > Link.
2. In the list under the Link field, click Select a range of cells to link.
3. Select the cells with your mouse, or type the range (for example, Sheet2!A1:D20), and click OK.
4. Enter display text under Text if you want something friendlier than the range, then click Apply.

Clicking the link jumps to that range and selects it. The range can be on a different tab. If you’ve already created a named range (in Data > Named ranges), it appears in the same list, so you can pick it by name instead of selecting cells.

Link to a Google Drive File

1. Click the cell and press Ctrl + K.
2. In the Link field, type part of the file’s name.
3. Pick the matching Docs, Sheets, Slides, or other Drive file from the results.
4. Click Apply.

The link only opens for people who have access to that file. If you’re sharing the spreadsheet, make sure the linked file is shared too; here’s how to get a shareable link for a Google Sheets file, and the same Share box works for Docs and Slides.

Get a Link to a Specific Cell

To send someone straight to a cell or range in this spreadsheet, right-click the cell (or a selected range), point to View more cell actions, and click Get link to this cell (or Get link to this range). The address is copied to your clipboard. You can paste it into an email or chat, or into the Link field of Insert link in another spreadsheet. The person still needs access to the spreadsheet to open it.

How to Use the HYPERLINK Formula

Type =HYPERLINK(url, [link_label]) in a cell and press Enter. For example, =HYPERLINK(“https://www.solveyourtech.com”,”Solve Your Tech”) shows the words Solve Your Tech and opens the site when clicked.

Part	Required?	What it does
url	Yes	The full address in quotation marks, or a cell reference that holds the address
link_label	No	The text shown in the cell, in quotation marks or as a cell reference. Without it, the address itself shows.

A few more rules apply:

• Put the address and the label in quotation marks when you type them directly. Leaving out the quotes causes an error.
• If you leave out the protocol (the https:// part), Sheets adds http:// for you. Type https:// yourself when the site uses it.
• Only these link types work: http://, https://, mailto:, ftp://, aim:, gopher://, telnet://, and news://. Anything else shows the label as plain text with no link.
• An empty label (“”) makes the cell look blank, but the link is still there and still opens when someone clicks the cell.

Build Links From a Column of Addresses

The formula is most useful when you have many links. Suppose column A holds web addresses and column B holds page names. In C2, type =HYPERLINK(A2,B2) and drag the fill handle down the column. Each row gets its own link, and changing an address in column A updates the link right away.

You can also join a fixed address to a value with the & symbol. If column A holds order numbers, =HYPERLINK(“https://example.com/orders/”&A2,”Order “&A2) makes a link for each order. Replace example.com with your real site.

Make an Email Link

Use mailto: as the address, for example =HYPERLINK(“mailto:name@example.com”,”Email Sam”). Clicking it opens the computer’s default email program with the To line filled in. You can add a subject line by putting ?subject= after the address, such as “mailto:name@example.com?subject=Budget”. If nothing opens, you can set Gmail as the default email in Chrome so the link opens a Gmail message.

Link to Another Tab With the Formula

HYPERLINK can’t take a tab name such as ‘Sheet2’!A1 as its address. Instead, it uses the tab’s ID number. Click the tab you want and look at the browser’s address bar; the number after gid= is that tab’s ID. Then use a formula like =HYPERLINK(“#gid=123456789″,”Go to Budget”). Adding &range=B5 after the number, as in “#gid=123456789&range=B5”, jumps to a specific cell. These links only work inside the same spreadsheet. Insert link (above) does the same job without looking up the ID, so use the formula only when you’re building many links at once.

How to Open, Edit, or Remove a Link

• Open: click the cell, then click the address in the preview card. With the cell selected you can also press Alt + Enter (Option + Enter on a Mac), per Google’s shortcut list.
• Edit: right-click the cell and click Edit link, or click the pencil icon in the preview card. Change the text or address and click Apply.
• Remove: right-click the cell and click Unlink, or click the Remove link icon (a broken chain) in the preview card. The text stays in the cell; only the link goes away.

A link made with the HYPERLINK formula lives in the formula itself. To change it, click the cell and edit the formula in the formula bar. To get rid of it, delete the formula and type plain text in its place.

How to Add a Link in the Sheets App on a Phone or Tablet

Google’s help pages list these steps for the Google Sheets app on Android:

1. Open the spreadsheet in the Google Sheets app.
2. Tap the cell where you want the link.
3. In the top right, tap Create (the plus icon), then tap Link.
4. In the Text field, type the words to show.
5. In the Link field, enter a URL or email address, or search for a website.
6. Tap Done to save.

On an iPhone or iPad, the steps are the same except that the button in the top right is labeled Insert. Tap Insert > Link, fill in the two fields, and tap Done.

To change or remove a link on Android, tap the cell and tap Edit link or Remove link. On an iPhone or iPad, tap the cell, tap the right arrow in the menu that appears, and then tap Edit link or Remove link. You can also type a HYPERLINK formula into a cell in either app, the same way you would on a computer.

Troubleshooting Hyperlinks in Google Sheets

• The HYPERLINK formula shows an error. Check that both quotation marks are around the address and around the label, and that the quotes are straight quotes, not curly ones pasted from a word processor. An error in a referenced cell also makes the formula return an error.
• The label shows, but it isn’t a link. The address uses a link type Sheets doesn’t support, so it shows the label as plain text. Use an address that starts with https:// or mailto:.
• The cell shows the full address instead of your text. The formula has no second part. Add a label, as in =HYPERLINK(A2,”Open page”).
• Clicking the cell doesn’t open the page. In Sheets, a single click selects the cell and shows the preview card. Click the address inside the card, or press Alt + Enter.
• Insert link is grayed out, or nothing happens when you press Ctrl + K. You probably have view-only or comment-only access. Ask the owner for edit access, or make a copy with File > Make a copy.
• People can’t open a link to a Drive file. The link works only if they have access to that file. Share the linked file, or change its General access to Anyone with the link.
• A web address stays as plain text. Sheets recognizes most full addresses, but not every string of text. Add https:// to the front, or use Insert link.

Frequently Asked Questions

Related Guides

• How to insert a picture in Google Sheets
• How to show formulas in Google Sheets
• How to turn off automatic hyperlinks in Excel