The invention discloses a method for extracting 2,6-dimethylphenol from crude phenol and a device applied to the method. A two-stage distillation technology is adopted for the method, primary distillation treatment is performed on crude phenol firstly to remove light components lighter than 2,6-dimethylphenol, the light components are prevented from affecting the effect of follow-up secondary distillation treatment, and product yield and quality of 2,6-dimethylphenol are improved; then secondary distillation treatment under specific operation conditions is performed, especially, the operationpressure of the secondary distillation treatment is controlled to be not higher than 5 KPa, so that on one hand, the relative volatility of 2,6-dimethylphenol and other components in a primary distillation product is improved and high-concentration 2,6-dimethylphenol can be obtained by extraction, on the other hand, 2,6-dimethylphenol cannot have an isomerism change in the distillation processes,and the 2,6-dimethylphenol separation effect is guaranteed. Tests prove that the yield of 2,6-dimethylphenol is as high as 99.98%, and the purity is as high as 99.9%.