An email address is a designation for an electronic mailbox that sends and receives messages, known as email, on a computer network. It identifies an email box to which messages are delivered. An email address consists of two parts: a local-part and a domain. The local-part is the name of the mailbox, which can be a name or a username. The domain is the part after the @ symbol, which can be a domain name or an IP address enclosed in brackets. For example, in the email address [email protected], "john.smith" is the local-part and "example.com" is the domain.

Email addresses follow a set of specific rules standardized by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) in the 1980s, and updated by RFC 5322 and 6854. Although the standard requires the local-part to be case-sensitive, it also urges that receiving hosts deliver messages in a case-independent manner. This means that the mail system in the domain example.com should treat John.Smith as equivalent to john.smith.

Email addresses are used for both professional and personal reasons. They are often requested as a means of communication and identification. Businesses and websites can purchase custom email addresses for their domain through email providers such as Gmail, Yahoo, Microsoft Outlook, and HubSpot. To create a personal email address that will not change as you change schools, jobs, or internet service providers, create an account with an email provider of your choosing, such as Gmail or Yahoo! Mail.