Regex for MAC Address

Validates MAC addresses in colon or hyphen-separated format.

Pattern

/^([0-9A-Fa-f]{2}[:-]){5}([0-9A-Fa-f]{2})$/i

Live Tester

Enter a string to test

Examples

The i flag makes the pattern case-insensitive.

✓ 00:1A:2B:3C:4D:5E

✓ AA-BB-CC-DD-EE-FF

✓ 01:23:45:67:89:ab

✗ 00:1A:2B:3C:4D

✗ GG:HH:II:JJ:KK:LL

✗ 001A2B3C4D5E

Pattern Breakdown

([0-9A-Fa-f]{2}[:-]){5} — five hex pairs with separator

([0-9A-Fa-f]{2})$ — final pair

Code Snippets

Javascript

/^([0-9A-Fa-f]{2}[:-]){5}([0-9A-Fa-f]{2})$/i.test("00:1A:2B:3C:4D:5E"); // true

Python

bool(re.match(r"^([0-9A-Fa-f]{2}[:-]){5}([0-9A-Fa-f]{2})$", "00:1A:2B:3C:4D:5E", re.I))  # True

Php

preg_match('/^([0-9A-Fa-f]{2}[:-]){5}([0-9A-Fa-f]{2})$/i', "00:1A:2B:3C:4D:5E"); // 1

Related Patterns

Email Address /^[a-zA-Z0-9._%+-]+@[a-zA-Z0-9.-]+\.[a-zA-Z]{2,}$/ URL /^https?:\/\/(www\.)?[a-zA-Z0-9@:%._+~#=]{1,256}\.[a-zA-Z0-9()]{1,6}\b([a-zA-Z0-9()@:%_+.~#?&/=-]*)$/ Phone Number (International) /^\+?[1-9]\d{1,14}$/ Phone Number (US) /^$?[2-9]\d{2}$?[-.\s]?\d{3}[-.\s]?\d{4}$/ Phone Number (EU) /^\+?[1-9][0-9]{0,3}[\s.-]?$?[0-9]{1,5}$?[\s.-]?[0-9]{1,5}[\s.-]?[0-9]{1,5}$/ IPv4 Address /^((25[0-5]|2[0-4]\d|[01]?\d\d?)\.){3}(25[0-5]|2[0-4]\d|[01]?\d\d?)$/

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the regex for MAC Address?▾

The regex pattern for MAC Address is /^([0-9A-Fa-f]{2}[:-]){5}([0-9A-Fa-f]{2})$/i. Validates MAC addresses in colon or hyphen-separated format.

How do I use the MAC Address regex in JavaScript?▾

In JavaScript you create the pattern with a regex literal or the RegExp constructor and call .test() to check a string against it. A ready-to-copy example is shown in the Code Snippets section above, alongside Python and PHP versions.

What does the MAC Address pattern match?▾

It matches strings like 00:1A:2B:3C:4D:5E; it rejects strings like 00:1A:2B:3C:4D. See the Examples section above for the full list of matching and non-matching cases.