Extract emails from a Word document, in your browser
In short: Drop a Word file to pull every email address from its text, links, headers, footers, footnotes and comments, listed once each and ready to download as CSV. Limit: It reads one document at a time and finds addresses that are written in the file; it can't tell you whether any mailbox still exists.
To extract emails from a Word document, drop the .docx into the box. The file is unpacked in your browser and every address is pulled from the body, headers, footers, footnotes, comments and mailto: links, then listed once with where it was found. Download a CSV or copy the list. Older .doc files are scanned as text.
By SimpleVerifier Team · Last updated · Runs in your browser; nothing you paste is sent to us
How do I extract all email addresses from a Word document?
- Choose the document: a Word .docx or .docm, an OpenDocument .odt, an .rtf or an older .doc file, up to 25 MB. Or paste text copied out of Word.
- Press Extract emails. The file is opened in your browser; nothing is uploaded.
- Check the Found in column to see whether each address came from the body, a header or footer, a footnote, a comment or only a link.
- Download the CSV or copy the list, one per line or semicolon-separated for Outlook.
Example
- You enter
- A .docx contact sheet whose body says
Contact jane@acme.example or bob [at] acme [dot] example, an "Email us" link tomailto:sales@acme.example, andinfo@acme.examplein the footer. - You get
- 4 unique emails:
jane@acme.exampleandbob@acme.examplefound in Body,sales@acme.examplein Body marked (link), andinfo@acme.examplein Footer, with a CSV of email, domain, found_in, times_found and from_link_only. - Limits
- One document at a time, up to 25 MB, read in your browser; .doc files are scanned as text without link or position details.
How does it pull email addresses out of a .docx file?
It opens the document the way Word stores it and reads every part that can hold text. A .docx is a zip archive of XML files in the Office Open XML format: the body is word/document.xml, and headers, footers, footnotes, endnotes and comments each have their own file. The archive is unpacked with the browser's built-in decompression, the text of each part is rebuilt paragraph by paragraph, and addresses are found with the same rules as our email extractor, including written-out forms like jane [at] acme [dot] com.
Links are read too. A name or "Email us" in a document often hides the address in a mailto: link, stored in the part's relationships file rather than in the text. Those addresses are listed with "(link)" so you know they weren't visible on the page. Word often splits one word across several formatting runs, so runs are joined without spaces and an address in two fonts still comes out whole.
Can I extract emails from an old .doc file?
Yes, as a text scan. Word 97-2003 .doc files are a binary format, not XML, so the tool decodes the file's raw text both as 8-bit and as UTF-16 characters and finds addresses in what is printable. That catches addresses typed into the document, but not ones that only exist behind a link, and it can't say which part of the document an address came from. For a complete read, open the file in Word or LibreOffice and save it as .docx first.
Password-protected documents are encrypted and can't be read without the password; the tool says so instead of returning nothing. Addresses inside pictures, such as a pasted screenshot of a contact list, aren't text at all and need OCR first.
Should I email everyone I extract from a document?
Not before checking. A Word file with a contact list, a sign-up sheet or a directory is a snapshot from the day it was written, and contact data decays as people change jobs. Extraction proves an address is well formed, not that its mailbox still exists, and sending to dead addresses raises your bounce rate.
An address in a document also isn't automatically yours to market to. Laws such as GDPR in the UK and EU and CAN-SPAM in the US set rules on how you contact people; our guides to GDPR and B2B cold email and CAN-SPAM cover the basics.
Is this faster than Find in Word?
| This tool | Find or copy in Word | |
|---|---|---|
| Addresses found | All of them at once | One match at a time |
| Headers, footers, footnotes, comments | Read | Searched separately or missed |
| Addresses behind mailto links | Read and marked | Only by opening each link |
| Duplicates merged | Yes, with a count | No |
| Output | CSV, or a copied list | Whatever you paste together |
Who uses this tool, and for what?
- Event organisers
- Turn a sign-up sheet or attendee list typed into Word into a clean list of addresses, then check they still exist before the reminder goes out.
- Recruiters
- Pull the contact addresses out of a folder of CVs or reference letters saved as .docx, one file at a time, without copying them by hand.
- Office managers
- Rebuild a mailing list from an old staff or member directory kept as a Word document, including addresses hidden behind name links.
- Agencies
- Extract the client contacts from a brief or a proposal and merge them with other lists in the duplicate remover.
What can’t this tool tell you?
- It reads one document at a time and finds addresses that are written in the file; it can't tell you whether any mailbox still exists.
- Older .doc files are scanned as text, so addresses that only exist behind a link, and where each address sits in the document, are not found.
- Addresses inside images, such as a pasted screenshot or a scanned page, aren't text and need OCR first.
- Password-protected documents can't be read until the password is removed.
- Deleted tracked changes are skipped, but comments are read, so an address mentioned only in a comment is listed too.
Common questions
- How do I extract email addresses from a Word document?
- Choose the .docx above and press Extract emails. Every part of the document is read, including headers, footers, footnotes, comments and mailto links, and each address is listed once. Download the list as CSV or copy it.
- Can I extract emails from a Word document for free?
- Yes. This free tool runs in your browser, so the document is opened on your device rather than uploaded. There's no sign-up, and files up to 25 MB work.
- Does it find email addresses in hyperlinks?
- Yes. Addresses that only exist as the target of a mailto: link, such as a name or "Email us" that opens a new message, are read from the document's link records and marked "(link)".
- Does it work with .doc files from older versions of Word?
- Mostly. A .doc file is binary, so it's scanned as text: typed addresses are found, but link-only addresses and the part of the document each came from are not. Saving the file as .docx gives a complete read.
- Can I extract emails from Google Docs?
- Yes, by downloading it first: in Google Docs choose File › Download › Microsoft Word (.docx), then drop that file here. Links and headers come through in the download.
- Is my document uploaded anywhere?
- No. The file is unpacked and read by your browser. The page doesn't send its contents to our server or anywhere else.
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
One plan, 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.