Ever wanted to filter or sort your Google Sheets data based on font color or cell background color? Maybe you’ve highlighted overdue tasks in red or marked approved entries in green — and now you want to organize your sheet around those colors.

Good news: Google Sheets now lets you filter or sort by font color or cell fill color — no add-ons, scripts, or hacks required. This built-in feature makes it super easy to tidy up your data and focus on what matters most.

In this guide, I’ll show you exactly how to use it — with simple steps and practical examples.

How to Filter by Font or Cell Color in Google Sheets

I’ve used a sample list showing employee advance amount requests — names in column A and amounts in column B.

Cells highlighted in green indicate approved requests, while those in orange are still under consideration.

Filter by Cell Color

See how I’m filtering the approved advance amounts based on the cell fill color:

1. Select the data range A1:B (or as needed for your dataset).
2. Go to Data > Create a filter.
3. Click the filter dropdown from cell B1.
4. Click Filter by color > Fill color, then choose the color to filter by (in this case, green).

That’s it! You can now filter a dataset by cell color in Google Sheets.

Filter by Font Color

To filter by font color, follow the same steps, but select Text color instead of Fill color.

Note: If the menu option “Text color” is disabled, it means there’s no font color applied to any cells in that column.

How to Sort by Font or Cell Color in Google Sheets

As mentioned earlier, Google Sheets also lets you sort data by cell or font color. Compared to filtering, sorting has one clear advantage: it helps you prioritize how data appears instead of hiding rows.

Note: Sorting changes the default order of your data. If you want to restore the original order later, it’s a good idea to include a helper column with manually entered sequential numbers. That way, you can always sort by that column to return to the original layout.

Sort by Cell Color

1. Click the filter dropdown from cell B1.
2. Click Sort by color > Fill color, then choose the color to sort by.

Sort by Font Color

To sort by font color, follow the same steps, but select Text color instead of Fill color.

Why Sorting by Color Might Be Better Than Filtering

Filtering hides everything that doesn’t match the criteria. But sorting allows you to bring the colored rows (like approved requests) to the top while still showing the rest of the data.

You can even apply multiple sorts to further prioritize your view.

Example: Sort by Font Color Priority in Google Sheets

Let’s say you want to sort font-colored entries in this order: Green > Blue > Red.

Here’s how to do it (important: sort from last to first in your desired order):

1. Click the filter dropdown > Sort by color > Text color > Red.
2. Then again > Sort by color > Text color > Blue.
3. Finally, sort by Text color > Green.

Because each sort reorders the data, you’ll need to sort in reverse priority order. That means: Red first, then Blue, and finally Green — so that Green ends up on top.

Conclusion

Filtering or sorting by font or cell color has been one of the most requested features in Google Sheets — and it’s great to see it available natively.

Currently, this feature is only available via:

• Data > Create a filter, and
• Data > Filter view.

It’s not yet supported in other filter tools like Slicers or Pivot Tables.

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