Remove Numbers From Text

How to use it

1. Paste your text into the box, or click Open file to load a .txt or .csv file. Example loads a short sample.
2. Decide whether Keep digits inside words (MP3, B2B, 4K) stays ticked. It is on by default, so product names, codes and ordinals keep their digits.
3. Leave Tidy the spaces left behind ticked unless you need the original spacing kept exactly.
4. The result updates as you type. Click Copy or Download .txt, or Use as input to keep working on it. The links under the result send the text straight to Extract numbers, Remove extra spaces or Remove punctuation.

With both options on, the sample text changes like this:

Call 555-0134 before 5 pm.
Order 2 MP3 players and 3 cables (12.99 each).
1. First item
2. Second item

Call before pm.
Order MP3 players and cables (each).
First item
Second item

The two options

Here is the same line under all four combinations:

In both modes a number with dots, commas, colons, slashes or hyphens inside it is removed as one piece, so 12.99 and 1,234,567 leave no stray separators behind. The one other difference: with Keep off, a + or - sign is not part of the number, so -5 degrees leaves - degrees until Tidy drops the lone dash.

What counts as a number

With the default setting, a number is a run of decimal digits (0-9, or the digits of another script such as Arabic-Indic ١٢٣) that:

• may start with a + or - sign, so -5 and +3 go completely;
• may contain dots, commas, colons, slashes or hyphens between digits, so 3.14, 1,234,567, 10:30, 12/05, 2026-10-21 and 555-0134 are each removed as one piece;
• is not directly attached to a letter on either side, and is not joined to a word by one of those separators: it does not follow a letter or digit plus separator, and is not followed by a separator plus letter (so the 19 in COVID-19 and 19-COVID and the 0.1 in v2.0.1 are part of a word and stay).

Symbols are not numbers. Currency signs, % and # stay, which is why $12.99 leaves $. Run the result through the special characters remover if you want those gone as well. Spelled-out numbers (five), Roman numerals (XIV), fractions such as ½, superscripts such as ² and circled numbers such as ① are not digits, so they are kept in both modes.

Edge cases to know about

• Lines that held only a number become empty lines. The tool does not delete lines, so Lines 1, an empty line, 2 and keep come out as Lines, two empty lines and keep. Use Remove empty lines afterwards.
• Codes with a hyphen or dot are kept whole with Keep on, whichever side the number is on: COVID-19, A-1, v2.0.1, 19-COVID and 3.x stay. A separator only protects a number when a letter follows it directly, so a full stop at the end of a sentence does not: Room 101. still becomes Room.
• Underscores are not letters, so phone_123 becomes phone_, while user123_ is kept.
• Lone dashes and slashes are removed by Tidy wherever they stand between spaces, even when no number was next to them: yes - no / maybe becomes yes no maybe. Untick Tidy if your text uses spaced dashes you want to keep.
• Lists numbered “1)” work like “1.” lists when the number starts the line: 1) First and 2) Second become First and Second, each on its own line. In the middle of a line the ) is not removed: Step 1) mix becomes Step) mix; fix those with Replace text.
• Indentation is lost when Tidy is on, because every line is trimmed. Untick it for code or indented outlines.
• Digits from other scripts, such as Arabic-Indic ١٢٣ or Devanagari digits, are numbers in both modes and are removed like 0-9.

When people need it

• Cleaning names exported with IDs or phone numbers. A CRM or spreadsheet export such as John Smith 07700 900123 becomes John Smith, one name per line, ready to sort or deduplicate.
• Turning a numbered list into a plain list before pasting it into a document or slide that adds its own numbering.
• Preparing text for word analysis. Removing years, prices and counts keeps them out of a word frequency table so the words themselves stand out.
• Removing page and line numbers from copied PDF text, where stray numbers end up in the middle of sentences. Join broken lines afterwards with Remove line breaks.
• Anonymizing a sample before sharing it, by stripping order numbers, amounts and dates while keeping the wording.

If you want the numbers rather than the words, the number extractor does the opposite job and lists every number it finds.

Questions