Search Text in Excel Files Online
Search for text across all string columns in Excel files directly in your browser. Filter rows to only those containing your search term and download the results — no upload required.
How to search Text in Excel files
- Drop your file onto the upload area. It is loaded in your browser and the first 200 rows are shown.
- Type the text to look for in the Search term box. The tool matches it anywhere inside a value, so "refund" also finds "refunds" and "Refund policy".
- Pick the columns to search. Every text column is selected by default. Use All or None, or click a column name to toggle it. Number and date columns are not listed.
- Tick Case sensitive if capitalisation matters, then click Search or press Enter. The tool reports how many rows matched out of the total.
- Click Download to save only the matching rows in the same format you uploaded.
Your file is processed locally in your browser and is never uploaded. The free limit is 50 MB per file; larger files work if your device has the memory for them.
Worked example
A support lead exports the helpdesk queue and wants every ticket that mentions refunds, whatever the capitalisation, before a finance review.
Input (Excel)
Excel workbook, first sheet (Sheet1)
| ticket_id | subject | product | status |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4101 | Refund not received after cancellation | Billing | open |
| 4102 | App crashes on login | Mobile | open |
| 4103 | Partial REFUND for duplicate charge | Billing | closed |
| 4104 | Password reset email missing | Account | open |
| 4105 | Question about refunds policy | Billing | pending |
Settings
- Search term: refund
- Columns: subject, product, status (all text columns)
- Case sensitive: off
Result
| ticket_id | subject | product | status |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4101 | Refund not received after cancellation | Billing | open |
| 4103 | Partial REFUND for duplicate charge | Billing | closed |
| 4105 | Question about refunds policy | Billing | pending |
Three of five rows match. The search is a substring match, so "refunds" in ticket 4105 counts, and with Case sensitive off "REFUND" in ticket 4103 counts too. ticket_id is a number column, so it is not searched. With Case sensitive on, only ticket 4105 would match, because it is the only one with a lowercase "refund".
Working with Excel files
Only the first sheet of the workbook is loaded. Each cell is read as the text Excel displays, and the engine then works out column types from that text. A price shown as "$1,200.00" therefore arrives as text and can be searched, including the dollar sign and comma. A plain number with General formatting arrives as a number and is not offered in the column list.
Formulas are not searched. The tool sees the last value Excel calculated, so a cell containing =CONCAT(A2," refund") is searched by its result. Cell comments, colours and hyperlink targets are not loaded, so a cell that shows "Click here" is searched as "Click here", not as the URL behind it. The matching rows are written to a new .xlsx file on a sheet named Sheet1. Formatting from the original workbook is not carried over. If the sheet has a title block above the real header, delete it first, or the title text becomes the column names and the search list looks wrong.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I search every sheet of my Excel workbook at once?
No. Only the first sheet is loaded. Use the Excel Sheet Extractor to pull out another sheet, then search that file.
Is this different from Ctrl+F in Excel?
Ctrl+F jumps between matching cells one at a time. This tool returns every matching row as a new file, searches several columns in one pass, and tells you the match count.
Does the search support wildcards or regular expressions?
There is no regular expression mode. The term is matched as a substring with SQL LIKE (or ILIKE when Case sensitive is off). Because of that, % in your term matches any run of characters and _ matches any single character. Use Regex Extract or the SQL Query tool for pattern matching.
How are multiple columns combined?
A row is kept if the term appears in any selected column. There is no AND mode across columns. To require a match in two columns, run the search twice, once per column.
Can I search for more than one word at a time?
The whole term is matched as one string, including spaces. "late fee" only finds rows containing those two words next to each other. For either-or searches, run separate searches or use the SQL Query tool.
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