How to Print Labels from Google Sheets™ (Step by Step)

You have a list of addresses in Google Sheets and a pack of label sheets by the printer. This guide gets one onto the other: prepare the sheet, choose the label layout, check a preview and print the PDF with the right settings.

Google Sheets has no label feature of its own, so the steps use our add-on, Peelstack Label Maker. You also need the product number printed on your label box, for example Avery® 5160 on US Letter paper or L7160 on A4. Further down you will find the two common ways to do this without an add-on, and where they fall short.

Step 1: Prepare your sheet

Use one header row. Put column names in row 1 (Name, Address, Address 2, City, State, ZIP) and one person or household per row below it.
Keep ZIP codes as plain text. Select the ZIP column and choose Format, Number, Plain text before you type or paste. If zeros are already gone (2134 instead of 02134), choose Format, Number, Custom number format and enter 00000. The add-on prints what the cell shows.
Remove blank rows in the middle of the list.
Leave empty cells empty. If someone has no Address 2, leave that cell blank.

Step 2: Open the add-on and pick your label code

In your sheet, go to Extensions, Peelstack Label Maker, Create labels. The sidebar opens on the right.
In "Type the number on your label box", type the code from your packet, such as 5160, 8160, 5163 or L7163.
Pick the match. The sidebar shows labels across and down, label size and paper size, so you can compare it with your sheet.

Codes are matched to compatible layouts: 5160, 8160 and 18160 share one layout, for example. There are 38 verified layouts on US Letter and A4, listed on our template list. If yours is not there, open "My labels are not listed: enter the size" and type the measurements from the packet.

Step 3: Check what goes on each label

Each box under "What goes on each label" is one printed line. The add-on suggests lines from your column names, and you can edit them. Put column names in braces and add your own spaces and commas:

{Name}
{Address}
{Address 2}
{City}, {State} {ZIP}

A line whose columns are all empty is left out, so an address without Address 2 closes up with no gap. Each line also has Bold and Capital letters options. For more on combining columns, copies and numbering, see mail merge labels from Google Sheets.

Step 4: Choose rows and look at the preview

Under "Which rows", choose All rows, Rows I selected in the sheet, or Rows shown by the filter.
Look at the live preview. It shows your real data on a picture of the sheet, page by page.
Read any warnings. Long text is shrunk to fit its label, and rows printed smaller or shortened are listed by row number. A label never grows and pushes the others out of place.
For a closer look, click "Full-size preview" to open the PDF with grey label outlines in a new tab.

Step 5: Download the PDF and print

Click Download PDF. The PDF is made at the exact size of your label sheet. Most label problems start in the print dialog, so check these three settings:

Paper size: Letter for US sheets such as 5160, A4 for sheets such as L7160. Check it in the print dialog and in your printer's own preferences.
Scale: Actual size or 100%.
Fit off: turn off "Fit to page", "Fit to paper" and "Fit to printable area".

For the most dependable result, print the saved PDF from Adobe Acrobat Reader rather than the browser. Test one page on plain paper against a label sheet before loading labels.

Printing on a partly used sheet

Some labels already peeled off? In the preview, click the first empty label. Printing starts there and continues on fresh sheets. Click "Start at label 1" to go back.

If the labels do not line up

If every label is off by the same amount, your printer places the page slightly off, and the add-on's test page and offset fix that. If the error grows down the page, the page is being resized: recheck Actual size and paper size. Our guide to fixing misaligned labels covers both, with settings for Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Mac.

Can you print labels from Google Sheets without an add-on?

Yes. Both options below work; both take more steps.

Avery Design & Print Online with a Google Drive import

Avery's free web tool can import your sheet from Google Drive through "Import Data/Mail Merge", and it is good at design. The limits, according to Avery's own help pages:

You leave Google Sheets and work on Avery's website.
There is no text wrap for merged data, so you cannot press Enter to start a new line inside a merged field.
It cannot fill in blank spaces for you, so an empty Address 2 is a manual fix.
For copies, you repeat the row in your spreadsheet as many times as you want the label.
To start on a partly used sheet, you add filler rows to the spreadsheet or use a print range.
For misalignment in Chrome, Avery suggests downloading the PDF and printing it from Adobe Acrobat Reader at Actual size.

Word mail merge from a downloaded CSV

Download the sheet with File, Download, Comma separated values (.csv), then run a label mail merge in desktop Word. Known problems:

If you skip the "Update Labels" step, only the first label fills and the rest stay blank.
ZIP codes can lose their leading zero.
Skipping an empty Address 2 needs an IF field typed by hand.
Labels can drift further off down the sheet, usually from scaling or the wrong paper size.

If you know Word mail merge well, it remains a solid choice. For a once a year job, staying in Google Sheets is usually quicker.

What it costs

Peelstack Label Maker is free with every feature for up to 30 labels per run, one full sheet of Avery 5160 address labels, and you can run it as often as you like. A longer list prints its first 30 labels on the free plan, and the preview shows exactly those. Test pages are always free. Every plan reads up to 10,000 rows of a sheet at a time and makes up to 50,000 labels per run. A paid plan removes the 30 label limit: $29 for one year or $59 once. No subscription, nothing renews.

Avery® is a trademark of Avery Products Corporation. Taskivator is not affiliated with Avery.

How to print labels from Google Sheets