Basics Updated November 2026

Filter a pivot table

Click the dropdown arrow on a row or column header and untick the items you do not want, or drag a field into the Filters area to get a dropdown above the table. Label Filters and Value Filters on the same dropdown filter by text patterns or by the totals.

Syntax

Row Labels dropdown > untick items > OK, or drag a field to Filters > pick an item

Part	What it is
`Label dropdown`	Tick or untick items of a field that is in Rows or Columns
`Filters area`	A field above the table; the pivot only includes the chosen item(s)
`Label Filters`	Begins With, Contains, Between and so on, applied to the labels
`Value Filters`	Greater Than, Top 10 and so on, applied to the totals
`Select Multiple Items`	Checkbox in a Filters dropdown to pick more than one item

Examples

Filters: Status (choose Approved)
Rows: Department
Values: Sum of Amount

Result: Only approved spending, totaled per department.

Rows: Location
Values: Count of Employee ID
Location dropdown > untick Remote

Result: Headcount for office locations only; Remote disappears from the rows and from the Grand Total.

Rows: Assignee
Values: Count of Ticket
Filters: Priority = High, Status = Open

Result: Open high-priority tickets per person.

You can put more than one field in Filters; they combine with AND.

Common mistakes

The Grand Total still includes filtered-out items: it does not, but a Filters field set to (All) is not filtering anything, so pick an item.
A new item from refreshed data is hidden: it was excluded by the ticked list, so open the dropdown and tick it, or use a Label Filter instead of ticking.
Filtering one pivot does not filter another: pivots are independent unless you connect a slicer to both.

Practice Filter a pivot table

These drills check your answer on live data, free, no account needed.

Approved spending onlyShow total Amount by Category, counting only claims whose Status is Approved.
Office staff headcountCount the people in each Department, leaving out anyone whose Location is Remote.
High priority workloadCount tickets by Team with Status across the top, but only tickets whose Priority is High or Urgent.

Questions

How do I filter a pivot table by multiple items?

In a row dropdown, untick Select All and tick what you want. In a Filters dropdown, tick Select Multiple Items first.

How do I clear all filters in a pivot table?

PivotTable Analyze, Clear, Clear Filters removes every filter. A single field clears from its own dropdown.

What is the difference between a filter and a slicer?

A slicer is a visible button panel that filters one or more pivots at once; a Filters field is a dropdown inside the pivot that filters only that pivot.

Value filtersFilter pivot table rows by their totals: only regions with revenue over 10,000, counts below 5, or totals between two numbers. Steps and what gets tested.
Top 10 filterUse Value Filters, Top 10 to keep only the top 5, the bottom 3 or the items that make up 80 percent of a total. Steps, the Items, Percent and Sum modes.
SlicersInsert a slicer to filter a pivot table with clickable buttons, connect one slicer to several pivots with Report Connections, select several items, clear it.
Rows, Columns, Values and FiltersThe four pivot table areas: Rows make the row labels, Columns spread categories across the top, Values hold the numbers, Filters restrict the whole table.