<address>: The Contact Address element

The HTML <address> element indicates that the enclosed HTML provides contact information for a person or people, or for an organization.

The contact information provided by an <address> element's contents can take whatever form is appropriate for the context, and may include any type of contact information that is needed, such as a physical address, URL, email address, phone number, social media handle, geographic coordinates, and so forth. The <address> element should include the name of the person, people, or organization to which the contact information refers.

<address> can be used in a variety of contexts, such as providing a business's contact information in the page header, or indicating the author of an article by including an <address> element within the <article>.

Content categories Flow content, palpable content.
Permitted content Flow content, but with no nested <address> element, no heading content (<hgroup>, <h1>, <h2>, <h3>, <h4>, <h5>, <h6>), no sectioning content (<article>, <aside>, <section>, <nav>), and no <header> or <footer> element.
Tag omission None, both the starting and ending tag are mandatory.
Permitted parents Any element that accepts flow content, but always excluding <address> elements (according to the logical principle of symmetry, if <address> tag, as a parent, can not have nested <address> element, then the same <address> content can not have <address> tag as its parent).
Implicit ARIA role No corresponding role
Permitted ARIA roles Any
DOM interface HTMLElement Prior to Gecko 2.0 (Firefox 4), Gecko implemented this element using the HTMLSpanElement interface

Attributes

This element only includes the global attributes.

Usage notes

  • It used to be the case that an <address> element was only supposed to be used to represent the contact information of the document's author. In the latest spec versions however, its definition has been updated so it can now be used to mark up arbitrary addresses.
  • This element should not contain more information than the contact information, like a publication date (which belongs in a <time> element).
  • Typically an <address> element can be placed inside the <footer> element of the current section, if any.

Examples

This example demonstrates the use of <address> to demarcate the contact information for an article's author.

  <address>
    You can contact author at <a href="http://www.somedomain.com/contact">
    www.somedomain.com</a>.<br>
    If you see any bugs, please <a href="mailto:webmaster@somedomain.com">
    contact webmaster</a>.<br>
    You may also want to visit us:<br>
    Mozilla Foundation<br>
    331 E Evelyn Ave<br>
    Mountain View, CA 94041<br>
    USA
  </address>

Result

Although it renders text with the same default styling as the <i> or <em> elements, it is more appropriate to use <address> when dealing with contact information, as it conveys additional semantic information.

Specifications

Specification Status Comment
HTML Living Standard
The definition of '<address>' in that specification.
Living Standard
HTML5
The definition of '<address>' in that specification.
Recommendation
HTML 4.01 Specification
The definition of '<address>' in that specification.
Recommendation

Browser compatibility

DesktopMobile
ChromeEdgeFirefoxInternet ExplorerOperaSafariAndroid webviewChrome for AndroidFirefox for AndroidOpera for AndroidSafari on iOSSamsung Internet
addressChrome Full support YesEdge Full support 12Firefox Full support 1IE Full support YesOpera Full support YesSafari Full support 1WebView Android Full support YesChrome Android Full support YesFirefox Android Full support 4Opera Android Full support YesSafari iOS Full support YesSamsung Internet Android Full support Yes

Legend

Full support
Full support

See also