Google-sheets – RATE function gives #NUM! error for a valid interval of period values

google sheets

We are using the financial functions of Google Sheets, and for some number of periods, the RATE function is in error #NUM!, with the following message:

RATE attempted to compute the internal rate of return for a series of
cash flows, but it was not able to.

This is notably the case for:

=rate(75; -1500; -150000; 500000)

Which is in error when the period values is in the range [70; 99]

Is this a bug in Google Sheet, or a known limitation?

Best Answer

Maybe Google Sheets' RATE function works in a similar way than the function of the same name in Excel. Excel documentation says (emphasis mine):

Returns the interest rate per period of an annuity. RATE is calculated by iteration and can have zero or more solutions. If the successive results of RATE do not converge to within 0.0000001 after 20 iterations, RATE returns the #NUM! error value.

But, Excel 2016 for Windows doesn't return error.