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Sum GravityMath values for today, a custom date range, or a rolling window

Estimated reading: 5 minutes

Updated on April 23, 2026

Use this pattern when you need the sum of a field’s values over a specific time period — for example, “total revenue entered today” or “total hours logged between 2026-04-15 and 2026-04-20.” The [gravitymath]  shortcode’s filter  parameter only accepts one condition per field, so you can’t express “between two dates” directly. Instead, you nest two shortcodes and subtract.

Before you start #

Why you need two shortcodes #

The filter  parameter can only hold one condition per field. You cannot write filter_date_created=2026-04-15&filter_date_created=2026-04-20  and have GravityMath interpret that as a range — the second condition overwrites the first.

The workaround is to compute two running totals and subtract them:

  1. The sum of all entries created before the end boundary.
  2. The sum of all entries created before the start boundary.

Subtracting (1) minus (2) leaves only the entries inside the range.

Both sums use op_date_created=lt  (“less than”), which excludes the boundary itself. Because lt  is exclusive, the end boundary must be the day after the last date you want to include.

Sum only today’s entries #

This example sums field ID 6  for all entries submitted today, based on each entry’s creation date. Replace id="4"  with your form ID and {Your Field:6}  with the merge tag for the field you’re summing.

[gravitymath]
[gravitymath2 scope="form" id="4" filter="filter_date_created=tomorrow&op_date_created=lt"] {Your Field:6} [/gravitymath2]
-
[gravitymath2 scope="form" id="4" filter="filter_date_created=today&op_date_created=lt"] {Your Field:6} [/gravitymath2]
[/gravitymath]

How this works:

  • The first inner shortcode sums every entry created before tomorrow (midnight) — i.e. everything up to and including today.
  • The second inner shortcode sums every entry created before today (midnight) — i.e. everything from yesterday and earlier.
  • The outer [gravitymath]  subtracts the second from the first, leaving only entries created today.

The today  and tomorrow  tokens resolve to midnight on their respective days, so the math lines up cleanly at the day boundary.

Sum entries between two specific dates #

Use this pattern when you need a fixed date range — for example, a monthly report or a custom reporting window. This example covers 2026-04-15 through 2026-04-20 inclusive:

[gravitymath]
[gravitymath2 scope="form" id="4" filter="filter_date_created=2026-04-21&op_date_created=lt"] {Your Field:6} [/gravitymath2]
-
[gravitymath2 scope="form" id="4" filter="filter_date_created=2026-04-15&op_date_created=lt"] {Your Field:6} [/gravitymath2]
[/gravitymath]

Note two things:

  • The end boundary is 2026-04-21, not 2026-04-20. Because lt  is exclusive, you need to pass the day after your last included date.
  • The start boundary is 2026-04-15 — the first date you want to include. lt 2026-04-15  excludes entries from that day, which is then cancelled out because those entries are also excluded from the end-boundary total.

Date format: use YYYY-MM-DD #

When passing explicit dates into the filter  parameter, use YYYY-MM-DD  format (e.g. 2026-04-21 ). Other formats such as d/m/Y  (e.g. 21/04/2026 ) may not parse reliably, even when that format is what your form’s date field displays to users. The filter_date_created  comparison runs against the stored entry timestamp, not the displayed format.

The today  and tomorrow  relative tokens also work and resolve to midnight of the matching day.

Filtering by a date field in the form, not the submission date #

The examples above filter on filter_date_created , which is Gravity Forms’ built-in entry creation timestamp. If you want to filter on a date field inside the form itself (for example, an “Event date” field with ID 12 ), swap the key:

filter="filter_12=2026-04-21&op_12=lt"

Use the field ID in place of date_created , and date values in YYYY-MM-DD  format.

Troubleshooting #

Symptom: The shortcode outputs 0  or a blank value.

Cause: Most often the date format. The filter  parameter silently fails when it can’t parse the date.

Fix: Re-enter the date in YYYY-MM-DD  format. If it still fails, enable GravityMath debugging to see how the shortcode is being parsed.

Symptom: The result is off by one day’s worth of entries.

Cause: The end boundary is set to the last day you want included, not the day after.

Fix: Because op_date_created=lt  excludes the boundary, the end date must be the day after your last included date. For “through 2026-04-20,” use 2026-04-21 .

Symptom: The filter parameter is ignored entirely.

Cause: Missing or incorrect scope set.

Fix: The filter  parameter only works with scope="form"  or scope="view" . Pick one and specify the matching form or View id .

Related #

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