Excel
XLOOKUP vs VLOOKUP: Which Should You Use in 2026?
21 September 2026 · INFYNAL Editorial
If you work in Excel 365, XLOOKUP is almost always the better choice. It looks in any direction, defaults to exact match and lets you set a friendly not-found value.
The formulas
=VLOOKUP(A2, Prices!A:C, 3, FALSE)\n=XLOOKUP(A2, Prices!A:A, Prices!C:C, "Not found")
Why XLOOKUP wins
- Looks left or right
- No fragile column index numbers
- Returns multiple columns at once
When VLOOKUP still makes sense
When sharing files with people on Excel 2016 or earlier, where XLOOKUP is unavailable.
Want ready-made lookup templates? Browse our Excel templates.
FAQ
Does XLOOKUP work in Excel 2016?
No. It requires Excel 2021 or Microsoft 365.