Regex for phone numbers

8 Mar 2026

Phone numbers in the US and Canada consist of ten digits: a three-digit area code, a three-digit central office code, and a four-digit line number. These components may be separated by dashes, spaces, or dots; the area code is often written in parentheses:

619-555-0167
(619) 555-0167
619.555.0167

There are some limits on the area code:

• the area code cannot start with 0 or 1 (these digits are used for long-distance calls);
• the N11 codes are used for special services (most people remember 911 for emergencies);
• 988 is a suicide crisis helpline.

Taking these restrictions into account, we can put together this regular expression to match a 10-digit US phone number:

^[ \t]*\(?(?!988)[2-9](?!11)\d\d\)?[ .-]?\d{3}[ .-]?\d{4}[ \t]*$

We use a negative lookahead here to skip the N11 codes and 988, so this regex is a bit more fool-proof than other solutions floating on the Internet. For example, it won't match 123-456-7890 or 911-123-4567.

The [ \t]* part skips optional whitespace before or after the phone number. The regex starts with ^ and ends with $, so it will match the whole string or a line (in multi-line mode). If you want to find phone numbers in the text rather than verify that the string is a phone number, please use \b to match word boundaries:

\b\(?(?!988)[2-9](?!11)\d\d\)?[ .-]?\d{3}[ .-]?\d{4}\b

Another useful addition to this regex is allowing the initial +1 or 1 for long-distance calling:

^[ \t]*(?:\+1 ?|1 ?)?\(?(?!988)[2-9](?!11)\d\d\)?[ .-]?\d{3}[ .-]?\d{4}[ \t]*$

Now the regex also matches:

+1 619-555-0167
+16195550167
1 619-555-0167

International phone numbers consist of a plus sign, a country code (1 to 3 digits), and the national phone number. The total phone number length is limited to a maximum of 15 digits. The minimum length is not specified in the standard, but I found Niue, an island country with a three-digit country code and four-digit national numbers. Five digits are more common, see Tokelau, Tonga, Solomon Islands, or Vanuatu. This gives us the following regex:

^[ \t]*\+(?:\d\)?[ .-]?\(?){6,14}\d[ \t]*$

We first match the plus sign, then a digit. After each digit, there can be a closing parenthesis, then a space, dot, or dash, then an opening parenthesis. The last digit is matched separately; the total number of digits is from 7 to 15.

Restricting the phone number length for each country would be complicated and the numbering plans change sometimes, so I recommend allowing some freedom here.

The regular expressions above also don't try to balance parentheses; for example, +1 (214 555-0198 would match, but this is rarely a problem.

Finally, if you want to match either an international phone number or a US/Canadian number, you can combine both regexes:

^[ \t]*(?:(?:\+|011 ?)(\d\)?[ .-]?\(?){6,14}\d|\(?(?!988)[2-9](?!11)\d\d\)?[ .-]?\d{3}[ .-]?\d{4})[ \t]*$

In this combined regex, we also allow international phone numbers to start with 011 instead of the plus.

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