Email, Messaging, & Video Calls > Email 133 133 people found this article helpful What Is the Maximum Email Address Length? There's an upper limit on the number of characters in an email address By Heinz Tschabitscher Heinz Tschabitscher Writer University of Vienna A former freelance contributor who has reviewed hundreds of email programs and services since 1997. lifewire's editorial guidelines Updated on February 25, 2020 TARIK KIZILKAYA / Getty Images Email Yahoo! Mail Gmail Close In early email systems, several email formats were tried. Only one survived, though, and that's the familiar [email protected] (with TLD being the top-level domain such as .com, .org, .net, and .gov) format used today. The maximum length of an email address based on this format is 254 characters, although that wasn't always the case. Character Limitations in an Email Address Every email address consists of two parts. The username comes before the @ sign, and the domain name follows it. In "[email protected]," the username is "person" and the domain name is "company.com." The total length of an email address in the original standard was 320 characters. The standard limited the username to 64 characters and the domain name to 255 characters. (If you're doing the math, that adds up to 319. The final character is the @ symbol in between.) This 320-character limit is different from the 254 figure because the current standard limits the total length of an email address to 256 characters, including punctuation. Some addresses, however, use angle brackets (<>), which take up two characters, leaving the maximum number of characters used in an email address at 254. So, when creating a new email address, limit your username to 64 or fewer characters, and the total number of characters to 254. Just remember that the shorter the email address is, the easier it is for people to remember. Was this page helpful? Thanks for letting us know! Get the Latest Tech News Delivered Every Day Subscribe Tell us why! Other Not enough details Hard to understand Submit