HTML Guides for contact

The autocomplete attribute helps browsers autofill form fields with previously saved user data. The HTML specification defines a strict set of valid values, and each one maps to a specific type of information (like a name, email address, phone number, or street address). The string "contact" by itself is not a valid autofill field name — it’s a contact type token, which is a modifier meant to be combined with a field name to distinguish between different types of contact information.

The HTML spec defines two contact type tokens: "home", "work", "mobile", "fax", and "pager" (for phone-related fields), as well as the broader "shipping" and "billing" scoping tokens. The token "contact" doesn’t exist as a standalone value at all. You may have confused it with a contact type prefix pattern like "home email" or "work tel", or you may have intended to use a specific field name entirely.

Getting the autocomplete value right matters for several reasons. Browsers rely on these exact tokens to offer relevant autofill suggestions. Screen readers and assistive technologies may also use this information to help users understand what data a field expects. An invalid value means the browser will likely ignore the attribute entirely, degrading the user experience — especially on mobile devices where autofill is heavily used.

To fix the issue, determine what kind of information the input field is collecting and use the appropriate autofill field name. Common valid values include "name", "email", "tel", "street-address", "postal-code", "organization", and "username". If you want to indicate that this is specifically a contact email or phone (as opposed to, say, a billing one), you don’t use "contact" — instead, you can omit the modifier entirely or use a section-scoping approach.

Examples

❌ Invalid: Using “contact” as the autocomplete value

<label for="email">Contact Email</label>
<input type="email" id="email" name="email" autocomplete="contact">

The value "contact" is not a recognized autofill field name, so the browser cannot determine what to autofill.

✅ Fixed: Using a valid autofill field name

<label for="email">Contact Email</label>
<input type="email" id="email" name="email" autocomplete="email">

The value "email" is a valid autofill field name that tells the browser to suggest saved email addresses.

✅ Fixed: Using a valid combination with a section or contact type token

If you need to differentiate between types of phone numbers, you can use tokens like "home", "work", or "mobile" as prefixes:

<label for="work-tel">Work Phone</label>
<input type="tel" id="work-tel" name="work-tel" autocomplete="work tel">

<label for="home-email">Personal Email</label>
<input type="email" id="home-email" name="home-email" autocomplete="home email">

Common valid autocomplete values

Here are some frequently used valid autofill field names:

For the complete list of valid values and their permitted combinations, refer to the WHATWG autofill specification.