Can an email address have a space in it? Want to be sure before creating an email address or have seen an address with whitespace online? Find out here how email addresses can (but should not) contain whitespace ⤓.
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Can an Email Address Have a Space? (Whitespace Rules Explained)
⚡ Quick Fix
For practical purposes, email addresses cannot contain spaces.
No, email addresses cannot include whitespace in a manner that is useful or practicable for day-to-day use.
The space (whitespace) is not a valid character to use in standard email addresses. An email address is always a continuous stream of characters not interrupted by whitespace.
Important: Never use spaces in an email address.
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Space in Email Address Examples
Email addresses that are broken up with spaces are quite obviously impossible: they turn into different addresses immediately, only comprising the part that precedes the domain name and ‘@’ character immediately.
The immediate solution of traditionally escaping the space character (using a backslash) does not work either.
ex ample@ladedu.com is not a valid email address as such; when plain text is trimmed, it becomes ample@ladedu.com."ex ample"@ladedu.com is not a valid email address either.ex\ ample@ladedu.com is not a valid email address in its totality; that also turns into ample@ladedu.com.
This works: Can I Use Periods in Email Addresses?
How to Use a Whitespace Character in an Email Address
Using special encoding, it is still possible to include a whitespace character in an email address. With this workaround, an email address can have space as part of its “quoted” username.
Time needed: 3 minutes
To include space in an email address:
- Make the username part of the email address begin and end with double quotation marks.
Example:
""@ladedu.com. - In between the quotation marks, you can use a few characters more than are allowed in standard email addresses — including space.
Example:
"ex ample "@ladedu.com
Important: this is not yet a valid email address. - Immediately preceding every whitespace character, insert a backslash to “escape” the space.
Example:
"ex\ ample\ "@ladedu.com.
Finally: This is now a valid email address including space.
Their word: RFC 5322 includes information on quoted strings in section 3.2.4.
Caution: While addresses such as "ex\ ample\ "@ladedu.com are technically valid, they are not useful in any practical manner, of course. The exceptions are hypothetical cases where the username needs to transmit information (including whitespace) in some way.
What works: Characters and Symbols Allowed in an Email Address — the Complete List
How much: The Maximum and Minimum for Email Address Length
Whitespace Characters in an Email Address: FAQ
Can I use other space characters in email addresses?
No.
Both the ASCII whitespace character (ASCII 32, Unicode U+0020) and other whitespace characters cannot be part of an email address, and only the ASCII space character has a defined role (see above).
The following space-like characters will not work in email addresses:
| Unicode Name | Unicode Codepoint | Display |
|---|---|---|
| Tab | U+0009 | |
| Non-breaking space | U+00A0 | |
| Thin space | U+2009 | ׅׅ |
| Hair space | U+200A | |
| Narrow non-breaking space | U+202F | |
| En space | U+2002 | |
| Em space | U+2003 | |
| Mid space | U+2005 | |
| Thick space | U+2004 | |
| Figure space | U+2007 | |
Can spaces appear in the display name?
Yes.
Unlike the email address itself, the display name can, of course, contain whitespace.
Example: Heinz Tschabitscher <heinz@ladedu.com>
(First published April 2020, last updated November 2026)