Travel Formulas – Time and Distance Formulas in Google Sheets

Bring the power of Google Maps™ into your spreadsheets with the Travel Formulas Google Sheets™ add-on. You get access to four exclusive formulas.



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Formula autocomplete showing for four travel formulas
Four Available Formulas

Benefits

Calculate distances, times, and routes efficiently to free up time for more critical tasks. Avoid switching between your spreadsheet and Google Maps™.

Four Custom Formulas

Calculate trip information without leaving your spreadsheet with these four custom formulas.

TRAVELTIME – Returns the trip duration between two locations

TRAVELDISTANCE – Finds the trip distance between two locations

TRAVELROUTEURL – Returns the link to your route in Google Maps™

TRAVELDIRECTIONS – Provides turn-by-turn directions

TRAVELTIME Formula

Returns the trip duration between two locations.

The TRAVELTIME formula
Calculating Trip Duration

=TRAVELTIME(origin, destination, mode, departure_time)

origin – The starting location

destination – The ending location

mode – The mode of travel (“driving”, “walking”, “bicycling”, “transit”) [optional, defaults to driving]

⏱️ Find the fastest route by trying different departure times.

TRAVELDISTANCE Formula

Returns the trip distance between two addresses.

The TRAVELDISTANCE formula
Calculating Trip Distance

=TRAVELDISTANCE(origin, destination, mode, unit)

origin – The starting location

destination – The ending location

mode – The mode of travel (“driving”, “walking”, “bicycling”, “transit”) [optional, defaults to driving]

unit – The unit of distance (“mi”, “km”) [optional, defaults to miles]

TRAVELROUTEURL Formula

Returns the link to the route in Google Maps™.

The TRAVELROUTEURL formula
Creating a Link to the Route

=TRAVELROUTEURL(origin, destination, mode, departure_time)

origin – The starting location

destination – The ending location

mode – The mode of travel (“driving”, “walking”, “bicycling”, “transit”) [optional, defaults to driving]

TRAVELDIRECTIONS Formula

Returns turn-by-turn directions.

The TRAVELDIRECTIONS formula
All Directions from one formula

=TRAVELDIRECTIONS(origin, destination, unit, mode, departure_time)

origin – The starting location

destination – The ending location

unit – The unit of distance (“mi”, “km”) [optional, defaults to miles]

mode – The mode of travel (“driving”, “walking”, “bicycling”, “transit”) [optional, defaults to driving]

departure_time – A datetime in the future for transit/driving in traffic. It is best to use a cell reference formatted to a datetime [optional, defaults to present time]

Location Formats

If Google MapsTM can interpret the locations, they will work in this add-on. Accepted location identifiers include:

  • Latitude / Longitude
    • Will snap to the nearest road
  • Street address
  • Plus Code
  • City / Country / Other political boundary
  • Point of interest
  • Airport
  • Park

Graphical User Interface

Check out our other travel add-on, TripTally, for menus and buttons instead of formulas.

Video Tutorials

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Install Travel Formulas
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Use Travel Formulas

Pricing

Travel Formulas is free for seven days, then $57 for a lifetime license. No subscription is needed.

Multiple User Pricing

We offer the following discounts for multiple users in the same organization. Contact us before you checkout.

QuantityUnit Price
2 – 10$37
11 – 50$22
51 – 200$12
201 +$7

FAQ

How many addresses can Travel Formulas process?

Travel Formulas functions per the daily quotas Google imposes on all add-ons and apps. These quotas limit the app’s to 1,000 or 10,000 direction requests per day (depending on the type of Google account), and an overall daily run time. Contact me for a discount on your first year of Google Workspace if you live in the US or Canada.

The limits are the same in Travel Formulas’ free and paid versions. If you use TripTally, both add-ons count toward the same quota.

You can reduce automatic recalculations by going to the File menu, then Settings, choosing the Calculation tab, and ensuring it is set to “On change.” Also, copy the results of the formulas and paste them as values. This ensures they won’t recalculate.

Does Travel Formulas work with Place Chips?

Yes, any address that Google Maps™ recognizes will work in the add-on. The chip’s formatting does not impact the validity of an address.

How do I prevent the #NAME? Error and “Loading….”?

Cause #1 – Google Sheets does not recognize your custom travel formula. Ensure you have enabled the add-on on every sheet you use. Go to the Extensions menu, choose Travel Formulas, then Enable in workbook.

Cause # 2 – You are using a spreadsheet created with Travel Formulas by another user, but you don’t have the add-on installed.

Solution # 1: Copy and paste the output from your Travel Formulas as values. This will prevent any future recalculation.

Solution # 2: Use TripTally for one-time calculations instead of live formulas.

How do I prevent “please click Enable in Workbook in the menu to confirm you are licensed'”

If you have clicked the menu option to enable the add-on and you are still receiving the enable message, create a new Google Sheet and try the add-on inside that new Sheet.

How do I solve the Permission Denied error code?

The error message “We’re sorry, a server error occurred while reading from storage. Error code PERMISSION_DENIED.” occurs when a user is logged into multiple Google accounts. Log out of all other Google accounts, restart your browser, and start the add-on again.



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