Pattern

Regex for PAN (Permanent Account Number)

10-character tax ID issued by India's Income Tax Department.

The PAN (Permanent Account Number) regex is ^[A-Z]{5}[0-9]{4}[A-Z]$ — copy it below, or open it in the explainer for a token-by-token breakdown.

The pattern

^[A-Z]{5}[0-9]{4}[A-Z]$

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What it matches

ABCDE1234F
BNZAA2318J
PQRST5678U

What it doesn't match

abcde1234f
ABC1234567
ABCDE12345
ABCDEF1234

Notes & gotchas

Format: 5 uppercase letters + 4 digits + 1 uppercase letter. 4th letter encodes the holder type (P=individual, C=company, H=HUF, F=firm, A=AOP, T=trust, B=BOI, L=local authority, J=judicial, G=government). Used as universal taxpayer ID in India.

Code in your language

Use the explainer's Code tab to generate ready-to-paste snippets in JavaScript, Python, Java, .NET, Go, Ruby, and PHP for this pattern.

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Token-by-token breakdown

Every part of the pattern, left to right:

Token	Meaning
`^`	start of string (or line in multiline mode)
`[A-Z]{5}`	exactly 5 times: any of: uppercase letters
`[0-9]{4}`	exactly 4 times: any of: digits
`[A-Z]`	any of: uppercase letters
`$`	end of string (or line in multiline mode)

About this pattern

India-specific identifiers are governed by various authorities (UIDAI for Aadhaar, Income Tax Dept for PAN, RBI for IFSC, GSTN for GSTIN, etc.). Regex confirms format; for definitive validation, integrate with the issuing authority's verification API.

Quick usage in different languages

This exact pattern — with the correct escaping and idioms for each language:

JavaScript: /^[A-Z]{5}[0-9]{4}[A-Z]$/.test(value)
Python: re.match(r"^[A-Z]{5}[0-9]{4}[A-Z]$", value)
Java: Pattern.compile("^[A-Z]{5}[0-9]{4}[A-Z]$").matcher(value).matches()
C# / .NET: Regex.IsMatch(value, @"^[A-Z]{5}[0-9]{4}[A-Z]$")
Go: regexp.MustCompile(`^[A-Z]{5}[0-9]{4}[A-Z]$`).MatchString(value)
Ruby: /^[A-Z]{5}[0-9]{4}[A-Z]$/.match?(value)
PHP: preg_match('~^[A-Z]{5}[0-9]{4}[A-Z]$~', $value)

The explainer’s Code tab regenerates these for any pattern you paste, and the downloadable cheat sheet bundles the breakdown, all seven snippets, and the pitfalls below onto one printable page.

Common pitfalls

Anchored to the whole string. This pattern uses ^ and $, so it requires the entire input to match. To find it inside a longer text, drop the anchors and use the global (g) flag.
Uppercase only. Ranges like [A-Z] won't match lowercase. Add a-z (or the i flag) if lowercase input should be accepted.
Validate beyond format. Matching the format doesn't guarantee the value is real. Confirm the pan (permanent account number) against a source of truth (database, API, or checksum) where it matters.

Standards & sources

This pattern is based on the following authoritative specification(s) and issuing authorities. Formats can change — always confirm against the primary source.

Income Tax Department, Government of India

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