State abbreviation converter: state names to codes and back, for a whole column
In short: Turns a state or province column into two-letter codes or full names: US states, DC and territories, Canadian provinces and territories, Australian states. Reads AP-style abbreviations (Calif., Mass., N.Y.), uses the row's country column for shared codes like WA, and leaves other countries' regions alone. Limit: It covers the US, Canada and Australia only; other countries' regions are left as written.
Paste your states, or a CSV with a state column, choose abbreviations or full names, and press Convert. California, calif. and Cal. all become CA (or California); Ontario becomes ON and New South Wales NSW. If the file has a country column, it decides whether WA means Washington or Western Australia; otherwise the default country you pick does.
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
WA is Washington and Western Australia; NT is in Canada and Australia. A country column, if the file has one, decides first.
Sample result
8 states read: 6 converted to codes, WA kept as Western Australia, Bavaria left alone.
- States
- 6 converted
- Countries
- US, Canada, Australia
- Shared codes
- By the country column
What this means for you
One code per state, so territory, time-zone and calling-hour rules catch every row.
- Names to codes and back
- Calif., N.Y., D.C. read
- Provinces and Australian states
- WA and NT decided by country
- States
- Provinces
- CSV
By SimpleVerifier Team · Last updated · Runs in your browser; nothing you paste is sent to us
How do I check the addresses before I import the list?
- Download the converted CSV here; every original column is kept.
- Upload it at /verify. Every address gets a live mailbox check, and valid, risky and invalid download as separate files. The first 100 email checks are free with a Google sign-in, no card.
- Import or segment the valid file by state_code.
How do I convert a column of state names to abbreviations?
- Export the list with its state or province column, and its country column if there is one.
- Paste it here or upload the CSV, choose abbreviations or full names, and the country to read shared codes as.
- Press Convert states and look over the rows marked not recognised.
- Download the CSV: state_clean holds the chosen form, state_code the code and state_country US, CA or AU.
Example
- You enter
- 8 rows with state and country columns: California,
calif.,N.Y., Washington DC, Ontario, Québec, WA with Australia as the country, and Bavaria in Germany, output as abbreviations. - You get
- 6 converted (CA, CA, NY, DC, ON, QC); WA stays WA and is read as Western Australia because of the row's country; Bavaria is left as written because the row is in Germany.
- Limits
- Runs in your browser with no row cap; an uploaded file can be up to 25 MB.
Why convert state names before an import or send?
A CRM or sending tool treats California, CA, Calif. and Cali as four states, so a territory, a time-zone send or a state-by-state compliance rule only catches the rows written the way you expected. Import templates and address fields usually want the two-letter USPS code; copy reads better with the full name ("teams in California").
Spreadsheet formulas need a 50-row lookup table and still miss AP-style abbreviations, DC written five ways and Canadian or Australian regions. This reads them all and says which rows it couldn't.
What does it cover, and how are shared codes handled?
Covered: the 50 US states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, the US Virgin Islands, American Samoa and the Northern Mariana Islands (USPS codes); Canada's 10 provinces and 3 territories (Canada Post codes, with French names like Québec); Australia's 6 states and 2 territories (NSW, VIC, QLD, WA, SA, TAS, NT, ACT).
WA, SA and NT are codes in more than one country. When the file has a country column, the row's country decides. When it doesn't, the default country you pick decides and the row is noted; choose "No default" to flag them instead. A row whose country is somewhere else, like Bavaria in Germany, is left as written.
Who uses this tool, and for what?
- Cold emailers
- Make a state column consistent before splitting a campaign by region or time zone.
- Real estate and local services
- Clean a lead list's state field before importing it into a CRM that wants two-letter codes.
- RevOps
- Collapse state spellings so territory assignment and reports add up.
- SMS teams
- Get a clean state column before applying state-by-state calling-hour rules.
What can’t this tool tell you?
- It covers the US, Canada and Australia only; other countries' regions are left as written.
- It reads a state column, not full addresses or cities.
- Shared codes without a country column follow the default country you choose.
- It can't tell whether the email addresses on the list exist.
Common questions
- How do I convert state names to abbreviations in Excel?
- With a lookup table of 50 states and their codes and a VLOOKUP or XLOOKUP, which fails on Calif., N.Y. or a trailing space. Paste the column here and download state_clean instead.
- Does it work for Canadian provinces?
- Yes: Ontario becomes ON, Quebec or Québec QC, British Columbia BC, and back again with full names chosen.
- Can it read a city and state together, like Austin, TX?
- Not in this tool, which expects a state column. The country name normalizer reads full locations like "Austin, TX, United States" and adds the country.
- Is my list uploaded?
- No. It is read in your browser and nothing is sent anywhere.
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.