Wondering which characters you can use in your email address, and which you cannot? Find here the complete list of characters allowed in an email address (including symbols and special characters).
First, a Telephone Worker Burps
When telephone companies introduced the # key to their touch phones in the 1970s, there was apparently much talk about it—and no good name for it.
In one of the more unlikely etymologies to make it into Merriam-Webster’s dictionary, one employee emitted gas while talking about the symbol’s eight (“octo-“) spikes, and so it came to be known as the octothorpe.
Be that as it may. Let’s find out whether we can use the octothorpe in an email address.
Characters, Special Characters, and Symbols Allowed in an Email Address
The Complete List
Here’s the complete list of all characters you can safely use in the username of an email address (as defined in Request for Comments standard document RFC 5322: Internet Message Format):
| Lowercase | Uppercase | Numbers | Special |
|---|---|---|---|
| a | A | 0 | . |
| b | B | 1 | ? |
| c | C | 2 | ! |
| d | D | 3 | { |
| e | E | 4 | } |
| f | F | 5 | ~ |
| g | G | 6 | _ |
| h | H | 7 | – |
| i | I | 8 | + |
| j | J | 9 | / |
| k | K | = | |
| l | L | % | |
| m | M | $ | |
| n | N | # | |
| o | O | ‘ | |
| p | P | ` | |
| q | Q | | | |
| r | R | ^ | |
| s | S | * | |
| t | T | ||
| u | U | ||
| v | V | ||
| w | W | ||
| x | X | ||
| y | Y | ||
| z | Z |
Upper or lower case? Does Capitalization Matter in an Email Address?
Note: Email addresses using only these characters will reliably work even with
- legacy email servers and
- web forms using simple email address validation.
With up-to-date email infrastructure (and into the future), you can also safely use international characters as valid in email addresses, both the username and, of course, the domain name. See below.
Number at the start? Email Addresses Can Begin with a Number
Valid Characters, Special Characters, and Symbols for Email Addresses: FAQ
Can an email Address have special characters and symbols?
Yes, drawn from the list above there are a handful of characters other than numbers and letters that can be used in email addresses:
! __ exclamation mark? __ question mark# __ hash$ __ dollar sign% __ percent sign’ __ apostrophe` __ back quote+ __ plus sign- __ minus sign* __ star/ __ slash= __ equal sign~ __ tilde^ __ caret_ __ underscore{ __ left curly bracket} __ right curly bracket| __ pipe
Can I use encoding to include special characters in my email address?
No and yes.
No, you cannot use any encoding, special or international characters with RFC 5322 email addresses.
Yes, with email infrastructure that works with RFC 6530 addresses, you can use
- any Unicode character.
The email service or program will employ UTF-8 encoding.
Can I use emoji in an email address?
No, not normally.
Email addresses can only contain the characters above.
You can, however, use emojis and special characters in the display name part in the “From:” line—in Gmail, for instance, or use an email forwarding service that employs emoji in the domain or user name (like Mailoji).
How long can an email address be?
Email addresses can be some 4 to 254 characters in total.
Notable Characters Not Allowed in an Email Addresses
Here is a list of common characters that you cannot use when making up the username part of an email address following RFC 5322:
| @ | : | – | [ |
| ´ | ; | — | ] |
| & | , | < | ( |
| \ | “ | > | ) |
(Characters and symbols allowed in an email address: the complete list updated April 2024)