Can you validate mailing addresses in Google Sheets™?
Sheets can help you clean an address list, and a geocoder can return coordinates and a normalized address. Neither a tidy address nor a map location proves postal deliverability. If you need to check a delivery point, including an apartment or suite, use an address-validation service with postal coverage for the destination country.
Google distinguishes address validation from geocoding: geocoding finds a location; address validation checks individual components and provides feedback on missing or unconfirmed parts. Google explicitly says that even a rooftop or interpolated geocode does not necessarily establish that the address exists.
Sources checked 18 October 2026. GeoFill is the add-on I make; it performs geocoding, not postal deliverability verification.
What GeoFill’s results mean
GeoFill can fill a formatted address, postcode, city, region, country and coordinates from your address columns. Its Match column translates the geocoder’s location precision:
| Match | What it describes |
|---|---|
| Exact | Google’s rooftop/street-address-level location precision. It does not certify a postal delivery point. |
| Street | An interpolated position, usually along a road between known points. |
| Area | The center of a geographic feature, such as a street or region. |
| Approximate | A less precise geocoded location. |
| Not found | No usable geocoding result; this alone does not prove an address is undeliverable. |
GeoFill adds (partial) when Google flags a partial match. Review that result against the original address. A returned postcode or a confident-looking pin can still belong to a broader area or a different interpretation of the text. GeoFill does not return USPS delivery-point verification, apartment confirmation or a “safe to mail” verdict.
A practical review workflow
- Keep the original and a row ID. Work in a copy or separate result columns, preserving the recipient, street, apartment/suite, locality, postcode and country. Format postcodes as text before importing values with leading zeros.
- Clean obvious text problems first. Sheets’ free Trim whitespace and Remove duplicates tools can help with spacing and repeated records. Trimming does not remove non-breaking spaces. Do not deduplicate by address alone if several legitimate recipients share it. A rule that checks postcode length or characters checks the text’s shape, not whether a postal service recognizes it; use country-specific rules for an international list.
- Use geocoding to find inconsistencies. In Extensions > GeoFill > Geocode addresses, choose your address columns in address order. Tick Full address, Postcode, City, Region and Country, plus coordinates if useful. Check the joined example, then click Geocode. Input columns stay as they are; results go into output columns.
- Compare before replacing anything. Filter for partial, Street, Area, Approximate and Not found results; also review unexpected countries, localities and changed street details. A missing postcode needs interpretation for that country, not automatic rejection. Keep apartment/suite information even when the geocoder’s formatted result omits it.
- Resolve mailing questions separately. Ask the recipient to confirm missing or changed details, or use a postal-validation service. Record its result separately from GeoFill’s Match. Check changed suggestions before promoting them into your mailing list.
The GeoFill sidebar is free for 100 addresses a day, with no API key required. It shows
pending rows and remaining free allowance before a job; an over-limit job requires an explicit
partial-run choice or cancellation. That is a geocoding allowance, not 100 postal validations.
Google’s own geocoding quota also applies. Postcode results are plain text so 02139 stays
02139; preserve that text format when copying or importing elsewhere.
See extracting city, region and postcode for the field meanings and free Apps Script geocoding examples if you prefer maintaining your own script. Those scripts also geocode; they do not add postal deliverability checks.
Free individual checks and postal-validation services
For a few US addresses, the free USPS ZIP Code Lookup lets you look up an address with its city/state or ZIP, including an apartment/suite field. It is an individual lookup workflow, not a spreadsheet batch validator. USPS also warns that a ZIP result does not confirm a person or company is at the address.
For repeat mailing or shipping batches, choose a service that checks the components you need in the countries you serve. Google’s Address Validation API is one example: it checks components and standardizes mailing addresses. Review its country coverage before choosing it. It is a separate service from the geocoder GeoFill uses.
For US addresses, Google’s
USPS delivery-point documentation
distinguishes confirmation of the primary address from missing or unconfirmed secondary units:
D means secondary information is missing, S means it was supplied but not confirmed, and
Y confirms the primary and applicable secondary numbers. USPS data is not populated for every
response; Google says to consider the validation verdict and components too.
An API integration needs its own billing-enabled project and authenticated requests. Check current usage and billing and pricing/free usage caps rather than assuming it is included in GeoFill Free or Pro. A postal-validation result also does not establish that your intended recipient currently lives there.
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