Using the phone number extractor
Paste text and every phone number in it is listed on the right, once each. The sample shows the point: an order number, a timestamp and a range of years sit beside the two real numbers, and only the real ones come out.
Write as keeps each number as it was written, or rewrites it. E.164 is the international form a phone system or a CRM expects, like +12125550147. US style gives (212) 555-0147. Extensions such as x204 are kept unless you set Extensions to Drop.
It recognises numbers in two ways. A US or Canadian number can be written any of the usual ways, with or without the +1. Any other number needs its + and country code, because without one there's no way to tell 020 7946 0958 from a string of digits.
How it tells a phone number from other numbers
North American numbers follow a pattern: a three-digit area code, a three-digit exchange and four digits, written NXX NXX-XXXX, where N is any digit from 2 to 9. Neither an area code nor an exchange can start with 0 or 1. That rule alone throws out every 10-digit Unix timestamp, since they all start with 1. 1727611200 is a Unix timestamp from September 2024, and its would-be area code, 172, starts with a 1.
International numbers are checked by length. E.164, the international numbering standard, allows at most 15 digits, so anything longer is rejected. Before 1997 the limit was 12.
The tool doesn't check that a number is in service or which country's rules it follows. For that you need a full numbering database like Google's libphonenumber, whose smallest build is 36.8 KB compressed, more than this site's whole remaining budget for code.
Related conversions
The email extractor and URL extractor do the same job for addresses and links. To turn the list into one quoted, comma-separated line, use the comma separator.
Questions
How do I extract phone numbers from text?
Paste the text on the left. Each phone number appears on the right, one per line, with repeats listed once.
What is E.164 format?
The international way to write a phone number: a plus sign, the country code and the number, with no spaces or punctuation. +12125550147 is a New York number.
Why was my number missed?
If it isn't a US or Canadian number, it needs its + and country code. A North American number is also skipped if its area code or exchange starts with 0 or 1, since no real one does.
Does it look numbers up?
No. It works entirely in your browser from the text you paste, and nothing is sent anywhere.