What Is a Good Regex for Email Validation?
A practical email regex: ^[a-zA-Z0-9._%+-]+@[a-zA-Z0-9.-]+\.[a-zA-Z]{2,}$. This pattern covers the vast majority of real-world email addresses. A fully RFC 5322-compliant regex would be thousands of characters long and is rarely needed in practice.
Breaking Down the Pattern
| Part | Meaning |
|---|---|
^ | Start of string |
[a-zA-Z0-9._%+-]+ | Local part: letters, digits, dots, underscores, %, +, - |
@ | Literal @ separator |
[a-zA-Z0-9.-]+ | Domain: letters, digits, dots, hyphens |
\. | Literal dot before TLD |
[a-zA-Z]{2,}$ | TLD: 2+ letters (com, org, io, etc.) |
Usage Examples
JavaScript
const emailRegex = /^[a-zA-Z0-9._%+-]+@[a-zA-Z0-9.-]+\.[a-zA-Z]{2,}$/;
emailRegex.test('user@example.com'); // true
emailRegex.test('invalid@'); // falsePython
import re
pattern = r'^[a-zA-Z0-9._%+-]+@[a-zA-Z0-9.-]+\.[a-zA-Z]{2,}$'
bool(re.match(pattern, 'user@example.com')) # TrueBest Practice
Use regex for basic format checking, but the only true validation is sending a confirmation email. Also consider using <input type="email"> in HTML5 for browser-native validation.
Try It Yourself
Test this regex with our Regex Tester.
Frequently Asked Questions
Should I use regex alone to validate emails?
No. Regex can check the format, but the only way to truly validate an email is to send a confirmation email. Use regex for basic format checking, then verify by sending an actual message.
Does the HTML5 email input validate emails?
Yes. <input type="email"> uses a built-in regex following a subset of RFC 5322. It is a good first layer of validation but should still be combined with server-side checks.