How to remove a stuck or broken light bulb

Turn the power off at the breaker - not at the light switch - and check the fitting is dead before you touch it. Then work out which of the two problems you have: an intact bulb that will not turn, or a base left behind after the glass broke. They need different tools.

The breaker point is worth being blunt about, because it is the one place people cut a corner. A light switch breaks a single conductor. In older or sloppy work that conductor can be the neutral rather than the live, which means the threaded shell of the socket stays energized with the switch off and the lamp apparently dead. The principle behind every electrical safety standard - isolate the energy source, then verify - exists precisely because the switch is not a guarantee.

Once power is genuinely off, this stops being a risky job and becomes a fiddly one. Everything below assumes you have done it.

An intact bulb that will not turn is a friction problem. A dry rubber glove, a rubber jar opener or a wide rubber band around the glass gives you grip without squeezing. Turn counter-clockwise with slow, even pressure and keep your hand low on the glass, near the base, where it is strongest. If you hear the glass creak or feel it flex, stop - you are a second away from the harder version of this job.

A base left in the socket is a different task. There is no glass to grip, just a thin brass shell, often with jagged remains attached. This is what a broken bulb extractor is made for, and it is the point at which a few dollars of purpose-made tool beats improvising.

For a broken base: the Saillong broken bulb extractor. Pushes into what is left of the base, grips the shell, and turns it out - with a safety shield between your hand and the glass, which is the feature that distinguishes it from pliers. It threads onto a standard extension pole, so it also handles a ceiling fitting.
Who it is for: anyone facing a shattered bulb in a standard threaded socket. Who should skip it: anyone whose bulb is intact - this needs a broken base to grip - and anyone with a pin-base or small track bulb, which it is not sized for.
Cons: standard bases only; no published material or load figure; a tool you may use twice in a decade; and it does nothing about a socket that is already damaged.

For an intact track or downlight bulb: the Ourtroness suction cup tool. Two cup sizes for MR16 and GU10 heads - the bulbs that sit flush in a track fitting or a range hood with no rim to get a finger behind.
Who it is for: track lighting, downlights and range hoods where the bulb face is all you can reach. Who should skip it: anyone with a broken bulb - a suction cup has nothing to stick to once the glass is gone - and anyone with standard A19 or BR30 bulbs, which these cups are not sized for.
Cons: intact bulbs only; MR16 and GU10 only; needs a clean, dry, smooth face to grip at all; no published pull rating.

When the real problem is height: the Allyplay 12 ft changer pole. Interchangeable baskets and a suction cup on a 12-foot pole. Worth saying plainly: on a stairwell or a double-height room, the ladder is the dangerous part of this job, not the bulb.
Who it is for: high ceilings, stairwells, and anyone who should not be up a ladder. Who should skip it: anyone dealing with a shattered base - the heads here are for intact bulbs, and a broken base still needs an extractor.
Cons: a pole trades feel for reach and is fiddly on a stiff bulb; no published load figure; the most expensive tool here for a job most people do rarely.

When the socket is the casualty: the DiCUNO UL Listed replacement socket. A bulb that shattered under heat, or one corroded into an outdoor fitting, often takes the socket with it. UL Listed, and the cheapest part in this whole job.
Who it is for: a lamp whose socket is scorched, loose or no longer grips. Who should skip it: anyone whose damaged socket is in a hardwired ceiling fixture - that is work on the building, not on a lamp.
Cons: socket only, no cord or harp; one per pack; plain on/off, so it will not preserve a 3-way lamp's brightness steps.

Two pieces of folk advice turn up constantly for this exact problem, and both are worth addressing directly rather than leaving to the internet.

The potato. Cut a potato, push it onto the broken bulb, twist. It is the most-repeated trick for this job and it is a poor one. A potato is wet - moisture is the single thing you least want near a socket, even an isolated one. It grips the remaining glass rather than the brass shell, which is the part that actually has to turn. And it leaves food debris inside a fitting you then have to clean out. An extractor is purpose-built, costs a few dollars, and does not introduce water.

Doing it live. This appears in searches constantly - how to get a broken bulb out without turning the power off. There is no safe version of that. The socket shell can be live with the switch off, you are working with broken glass and metal tools, and the failure mode is electric shock. The breaker takes ten seconds.

And one real exception: CFLs. A broken compact fluorescent is not ordinary broken glass - it contains a small amount of mercury, and the EPA publishes a specific procedure: people and pets out of the room, air it for five to ten minutes, shut off forced-air heating or cooling, and scoop the fragments rather than vacuuming, because a vacuum disperses it. That guidance is linked in the sources below and is worth following rather than improvising.

Do not over-tighten. A bulb needs to seat and make contact, nothing more. Most seized bulbs were installed with an extra quarter turn that felt like diligence at the time.

Watch enclosed and outdoor fittings. Trapped heat is what welds a base into a socket over a few years, and it is the same mechanism that shortens bulb life in those fittings - covered in the best LED bulbs for enclosed fixtures. An outdoor fitting adds corrosion to the same problem.

Change bulbs less often. The most reliable prevention is simply opening the fitting fewer times, which is an argument for buying bulbs with a rated life you can believe - how long LED bulbs actually last covers which figures mean anything.

Know what you are holding. If you are unsure whether the fitting takes an E26, an E12 or a pin base - which changes every tool choice above - bulb shapes and bases explained names all of them, and the parts of a light fixture names the socket components themselves.