FORMULA & SQL / TOTALS

Total of the top N values.
Tested, not guessed.

The Excel and Google Sheets formula and the SQL query, each run on the rows below. Open this with your own data ↗

The example rows

Row	A: Region	B: Rep	C: Amount	D: Order Date	E: Status	F: Customer
2	North	Ana	1,200	2026-03-01	Paid	Jo Smith
3	South	Ben	450	2026-03-15	Open	Raj Patel
4	North	Cy	300	2026-04-02	Paid	Lee Wong
5	East	Ana	980.50	2026-04-20	Paid	Mia Ross
6	North	Ben	75	2026-05-05	Open	Jo Smith
7	West	Dee	1,640	2026-05-18	Paid	Sam Okoro

Excel

=SUMPRODUCT(LARGE(C2:C7,SEQUENCE(3)))

The sum of LARGE(the Amount column (C2:C7), SEQUENCE(3) — which makes a list of numbers) — which finds the k-th largest value.

Run on the example rows:

Result3820.5

PostgreSQL

SELECT SUM(amount) AS total
FROM (
SELECT amount
FROM sales
ORDER BY amount DESC
LIMIT 3
) t

Run on the example rows:

total
3820.5

Other databases

MySQL

SELECT SUM(amount) AS total
FROM (
SELECT amount
FROM sales
ORDER BY amount DESC
LIMIT 3
) t

SQL Server

SELECT SUM(amount) AS total
FROM (
SELECT TOP 3 amount
FROM sales
ORDER BY amount DESC
) t

SQLite

SELECT SUM(amount) AS total
FROM (
SELECT amount
FROM sales
ORDER BY amount DESC
LIMIT 3
) t

BigQuery

SELECT SUM(amount) AS total
FROM (
SELECT amount
FROM sales
ORDER BY amount DESC
LIMIT 3
) t

Snowflake

SELECT SUM(amount) AS total
FROM (
SELECT amount
FROM sales
ORDER BY amount DESC
LIMIT 3
) t

Paste your rows into the free tool and it writes this for your columns, then runs it on your data before you copy it. Open the tool ↗