July 16th, 2026
How to Collapse Rows in Google Sheets: Step by Step
By Tyler Shibata · 11 min read
Learning how to collapse rows in Google Sheets starts with grouping the rows you want to hide, then clicking a small icon to tuck them away. After working through this feature on a few different datasets, I'll walk you through the setup, expanding and collapsing, and what to do when Sheets won't let you group rows.
What does collapsing rows in Google Sheets do
Collapsing rows in Google Sheets hides a group of rows behind a small icon, so you can shrink a busy sheet down to just the parts you need to see. The rows aren't deleted. Instead, they're tucked out of view until you click to bring them back.
💡 Note: This is different from hiding a single row. Hiding works on one row at a time and doesn't give you an expand or collapse icon. Collapsing works on a group of rows, with a small minus sign that you can click to show or hide the whole group at once.
How to collapse rows in Google Sheets: step by step
You can collapse rows in Google Sheets in 3 steps. Select the rows, group them, then click the minus icon to collapse them.
Follow these steps to collapse your rows:
Step 1: Select the rows you want to group
Step 2: Group the selected rows
Step 3: Collapse the group
How to group nested rows (collapse within a collapse)
Nested rows in Google Sheets let you group a smaller set of rows inside a larger group, so you get two layers of collapsing instead of one. This works well when you've got detail rows that roll up into a subtotal, and subtotals that roll up into a bigger total.
Here’s what to do to group nested rows:
Step 1: Create the inner group first
Step 2: Select the full range and group again
Step 3: Collapse each level separately
How to ungroup or remove all row groups
Ungrouping rows in Google Sheets removes the grouping, and the plus or minus icon disappears from the row numbers. The rows themselves stay exactly where they are, since only the collapsible group is removed.
Here’s how to ungroup your rows:
Click and drag across the row numbers that are currently grouped. This works the same whether the group is collapsed or expanded.
Common problems when collapsing rows
Grouping and collapsing rows is usually simple, but a few things can trip you up along the way. Here are the most common issues people run into when grouping and collapsing rows:
Group option is grayed out: This usually means the rows you selected aren't next to each other. Google Sheets only groups consecutive rows, so check that your selection doesn't skip a row or include a frozen row at the top of the sheet.
Rows won't group at all: Make sure you selected entire rows and not just a range of cells. Click directly on the row numbers on the left side of the sheet, not inside the cells themselves.
Collapsed rows reappear after refreshing or reopening the sheet: Groups are saved with the file, but the collapsed or expanded state can sometimes reset depending on how the sheet was shared or duplicated. If this happens often, I’d check whether multiple people are editing the sheet at once, since simultaneous edits can affect the group state.
Can't remove all groups on a sheet in one step: Google Sheets doesn't currently offer a single command to strip every group from a sheet at once. You'll need to select and ungroup each set of rows individually.
Grouping works, but the minus icon is missing: Try clicking directly next to the row numbers where the icon should appear. On some screen sizes, the icon can be easy to miss since it sits in a narrow strip to the left of the row numbers.
Want to understand your data better? Try Julius
Collapsing rows in Google Sheets helps you organize a busy spreadsheet, but it doesn't get you any closer to actual answers hiding in that data. If you want insights instead of just a tidier view, Julius can help.
Here's how Julius can help:
Data search: Julius can search the web for public datasets or pull structured financial data for 17,000+ companies through its Financial Datasets integration, so you can start with a question instead of a spreadsheet.
Direct connections: Connect databases like PostgreSQL, Snowflake, and BigQuery, or link tools like Google Ads. You can also upload CSV or Excel files. Your analysis can reflect live data, so you're less likely to work off an outdated export.
On-the-fly data cleaning: Remove duplicates, standardize date formats, fill or flag missing values, rename columns, and reshape tables just by describing the change you need. Julius runs the transformation in the background, so you don't have to manually rebuild formulas or sort through rows by hand.
Repeatable Notebooks: Save an analysis as a Notebook and run it again with fresh data whenever you need. You can also schedule notebooks to send updated results to email or Slack.
Smarter over time: Julius includes a Learning Sub Agent, an AI that adapts to your database structure over time. It learns table relationships and column meanings as you work with your data, which can help improve result accuracy.
Ready to spend less time organizing rows and more time getting answers? Try Julius for free today.
