Extract the email address from text in a cell, in Excel or Google Sheets
In short: Paste a column whose cells mix names, notes, mailto: links or brackets with an address: get the clean address for each row (or every address in the cell) as a column that pastes back in place, and the Sheets, Microsoft 365 and older-Excel formulas, with what each returns on your cells. Limit: It finds text shaped like an address; it can't tell whether the mailbox exists.
To extract an email address from text in a cell, use =REGEXEXTRACT(A2,"[A-Za-z0-9._%+-]+@[A-Za-z0-9.-]+\.[A-Za-z]{2,}") in Google Sheets or Microsoft 365. Older Excel needs a longer formula that keeps brackets and commas. Or paste the column here and get one clean, lowercased address per row, ready to paste back next to the original.
Price: this tool is free. Checking a whole email list is from $9/mo, and the first 100 checks are free with Google, no card. See pricing
Sample result
Jane Doe <[email protected]> becomes [email protected], on the same row.
- Classic formula
- <[email protected]>
What this means for you
The classic Excel formula would keep the brackets; the regex and this tool don't.
- Paste a column from Sheets or Excel
- One address per row, blanks kept
- First or every address
- REGEXEXTRACT and classic formulas
- REGEXEXTRACT
- Excel
- Sheets
By SimpleVerifier Team · Last updated · Runs in your browser; nothing you paste is sent to us
The addresses are out of the text. Now see which ones still work.
- Use the extracted column, one address per row.
- Upload or paste it at /verify. The first 100 email checks are free with a Google sign-in, no card.
- For every list after that, Pro includes unlimited email verification. Fair use: the first 100,000 checks a month at full speed, then slower, never cut off.
How do I extract an email address from a text string in Excel?
- Copy the column in Excel or Google Sheets, from the first row you want to the last.
- Paste it here and choose the first address per cell or every address in it.
- Press Extract. Each row gets its address; rows without one stay blank so nothing shifts.
- Copy the column and paste it next to the original, or copy the formula for your version and fill it down yourself.
Example
- You enter
- Pasted cells:
Contact,Jane Doe <[email protected]>,Email me at [email protected] today, a blank,mailto:[email protected],"Kim Lee" <[email protected]>, Bob <[email protected]>,no email in this one. - You get
- One line per row: blank,
[email protected],[email protected], blank,[email protected],[email protected](or[email protected], [email protected]with Every address), blank. The classic Excel formula returns<[email protected]>,mailto:[email protected]and<[email protected]>,for the same cells. - Limits
- Runs in your browser with no row cap.
What is the formula to extract an email address from text?
In Google Sheets and Microsoft 365, REGEXEXTRACT returns the first part of the cell that matches a pattern; Excel added its own REGEXEXTRACT to Microsoft 365 with the same idea. Wrapped in IFERROR and LOWER, a cell with no address gives a blank instead of an error.
Excel 2021 and earlier have no regex. The classic formula finds the @, takes the text up to the next space and keeps the last word before it. It works for Email me at [email protected] today but returns <[email protected]>, with the brackets and comma when the cell holds Jane Doe <[email protected]>, Bob. The tool shows what each formula returns on your own cells.
What if a cell has more than one email address?
A formula returns the first. Choose Every address and the tool writes all of them into the row, separated by commas, with repeats inside the cell dropped. To give each address its own row, use split multiple emails in a cell.
mailto: prefixes, angle brackets, quotes and trailing full stops are left out, and every address is lowercased.
Which method should I use?
| REGEXEXTRACT (Sheets, Microsoft 365) | Classic Excel formula | This tool | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Name <email> cells | Clean address | Address with < > and commas | Clean address |
| Several addresses | First only | First only | First or every address |
| Excel 2021 and earlier | No | Yes | Any version (paste) |
| Paste back in place | Formula in the sheet | Formula in the sheet | One line per row |
Who uses this tool, and for what?
- Sales ops
- Pull the address out of a CRM export's "Contact" column that reads
Jane Doe <[email protected]>before import. - Community managers
- Get addresses out of a form's free-text answer column where people typed "my email is …".
- Recruiters
- Clean the email column of a sheet built from copied email signatures.
What can’t this tool tell you?
- It finds text shaped like an address; it can't tell whether the mailbox exists.
- Addresses with accented letters, or obfuscated ones like
jane at example dot com, aren't found. - For whole files (every sheet and cell of an .xlsx), use extract emails from Excel instead.
Common questions
- How do I extract an email address from a cell in Google Sheets?
- Use =REGEXEXTRACT(A2,"[A-Za-z0-9._%+-]+@[A-Za-z0-9.-]+\.[A-Za-z]{2,}"). Wrap it in IFERROR(...,"") so cells without an address stay blank.
- How do I extract email addresses from text in Excel without REGEXEXTRACT?
- Use the classic formula from this page, which finds the @ and returns the word around it. Brackets and commas next to the address stay in the result.
- Can I extract all email addresses from a cell?
- Yes. Choose Every address and each row gets all of them, separated by commas.
- Is my data uploaded?
- No. The pasted column is read in your browser.
Sources
A tidy list can still be full of dead addresses.
Extracting, deduplicating and syntax checks all work on the text of an address. None of them can tell whether the mailbox exists. Only the server that hosts it can answer that, through an SMTP check, and that is what the paid product does.
- Upload the cleaned file as it is: CSVs up to 100,000 rows
- A real SMTP mailbox check on every row, with catch-all detection
- Small list? Starter at $9/mo covers 2,500 emails a month, cancel anytime
Plans from $9 a month, cancel anytime, no contract. Sign in with Google and your first 100 email checks are free, no card. The free tools stay free either way.