Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Excel in Microsoft 365. If you are using an earlier version (Excel 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Excel, click here: Extracting E-mail Addresses from Hyperlinks.

Extracting E-mail Addresses from Hyperlinks

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated November 13, 2025)

Do you have a worksheet that has a bunch of e-mail addresses in it, as a series of hyperlinks? If so, you may be interested in a way to pull out those addresses and put them into cells as plain text. There are a few ways you can perform this task.

The first method is to remember that the hyperlinks for e-mail addresses all start with the text "mailto" followed by a colon. Thus, you can use a formula that will strip out the first part of the hyperlink. For instance, if the e-mail hyperlink is in cell A1, you can use this formula:

=RIGHT(A1,LEN(A1)-7)

This checks the length of the cell contents, and then extracts all of it except the first seven characters, which is the "mailto:" portion. You could also use a formula that relies on the SUBSTITUTE function:

=SUBSTITUTE(A1,"mailto:","")

If you prefer, you can use a macro to do the conversion from hyperlink to text-only e-mail address. The following single-line macro is a user-defined function that returns the converted hyperlink:

Function ExtractEmailAddress(rCell As Range)
    ExtractEmailAddress = _
      Mid(rCell.Hyperlinks(1).Address, 8)
End Function

In order to use the macro, all you need to do is use the function in some cell of your worksheet, in this manner:

=ExtractEmailAddress(A1)

Note:

If you would like to know how to use the macros described on this page (or on any other page on the ExcelTips sites), I've prepared a special page that includes helpful information. Click here to open that special page in a new browser tab.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (12000) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Excel in Microsoft 365. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Extracting E-mail Addresses from Hyperlinks.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

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