Which duplicate row does Excel keep?

Excel keeps the first occurrence in row order and deletes every later match, so sort your data the way you want before running Remove Duplicates if the kept row matters.

Is Remove Duplicates case sensitive?

No — Excel treats "Apple" and "apple" as the same value and removes one of them. For a case-sensitive dedupe, add a helper column with =EXACT comparisons and filter on that instead.

Can I remove duplicates based on one column only?

Yes. In the Remove Duplicates dialog, untick every column except the one you want to match on, and Excel will delete rows that repeat in that single column regardless of the other fields.

How do I undo a Remove Duplicates that deleted the wrong rows?

Press Ctrl+Z right away to restore the deleted rows. Undo only works until you save, close, or make other edits, so always copy the sheet first when the data matters.

How to Remove Duplicates in Excel

Last updated June 2026

Quick answer

To remove duplicate rows in Excel, select any cell in your data, go to the Data tab, and click Remove Duplicates. In the dialog, tick the columns Excel should compare — rows that match on every ticked column are treated as duplicates and deleted in place, leaving the first occurrence. To review before deleting, highlight duplicates with conditional formatting first, or extract a clean list non-destructively with =UNIQUE.

How do you remove duplicates from the Data tab?

Click inside your data
Select any single cell within the range. Excel auto-detects the full block of contiguous data, so you do not have to highlight it manually — but if your data has gaps, select the exact range first.
Open Remove Duplicates
On the Data tab, in the Data Tools group, click Remove Duplicates. The dialog lists every column and asks which ones to compare.
Confirm the header checkbox
Tick My data has headers if your first row is column titles — otherwise Excel treats that row as data and may delete or keep it incorrectly.
Choose the matching columns
Tick only the columns that define a duplicate. Leave all columns ticked to delete fully identical rows; tick a single column (say Email) to dedupe on that field alone, ignoring the rest.
Run it and read the count
Click OK. Excel reports how many duplicate values it removed and how many unique values remain. The matched rows are gone in place — press Ctrl+Z immediately if the result is wrong.

How do you find duplicates without deleting them?

Highlight duplicates with conditional formatting
Select the column, then go to Home → Conditional Formatting → Highlight Cells Rules → Duplicate Values and keep the default red fill. Now you can eyeball every repeat before deleting anything.
Or extract a clean list with =UNIQUE
In an empty cell, spill a duplicate-free copy of the range into new cells without touching the original. This needs Excel for Microsoft 365 or Excel 2021+.
=UNIQUE(A2:A100)
Flag rows with a helper column
Add a column beside your data and count how many times each value appears. Anything greater than 1 is a duplicate you can filter and inspect.
=COUNTIF($A$2:$A$100,A2)

Method	Destructive?	Keeps the source?	Availability
Remove Duplicates (Data tab)	Yes — deletes in place	No	All Excel versions
Conditional formatting Duplicate Values	No — only colors cells	Yes	All Excel versions
`=UNIQUE` formula	No — spills a separate list	Yes	Microsoft 365 / Excel 2021+

Three ways to handle duplicates, compared.

Make a copy of the sheet before running Remove Duplicates on anything important. The action is undoable only until you do something else — once you save, close, or run more edits, the deleted rows are gone for good.

Frequently asked questions

Which duplicate row does Excel keep?: Excel keeps the first occurrence in row order and deletes every later match, so sort your data the way you want before running Remove Duplicates if the kept row matters.
Is Remove Duplicates case sensitive?: No — Excel treats "Apple" and "apple" as the same value and removes one of them. For a case-sensitive dedupe, add a helper column with =EXACT comparisons and filter on that instead.
Can I remove duplicates based on one column only?: Yes. In the Remove Duplicates dialog, untick every column except the one you want to match on, and Excel will delete rows that repeat in that single column regardless of the other fields.
How do I undo a Remove Duplicates that deleted the wrong rows?: Press Ctrl+Z right away to restore the deleted rows. Undo only works until you save, close, or make other edits, so always copy the sheet first when the data matters.