diff --git a/messages/display.json b/messages/display.json
index 23017d32..43e19bdf 100644
--- a/messages/display.json
+++ b/messages/display.json
@@ -1,4 +1,6 @@
 {
   "description": "displays information about a user of a scratch org",
-  "examples": ["sfdx force:user:display", "sfdx force:user:display -u me@my.org --json"]
+  "examples": ["sfdx force:user:display", "sfdx force:user:display -u me@my.org --json"],
+  "accessTokenError": "This command does not accept an access token for a username",
+  "accessTokenAction": "Use a username or an alias"
 }
diff --git a/src/commands/force/user/display.ts b/src/commands/force/user/display.ts
index 2d13350e..35b9f2ee 100644
--- a/src/commands/force/user/display.ts
+++ b/src/commands/force/user/display.ts
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@
 
 import * as os from 'os';
 import { SfdxCommand } from '@salesforce/command';
-import { Aliases, AuthFields, AuthInfo, Connection, Logger, Messages } from '@salesforce/core';
+import { Aliases, AuthFields, AuthInfo, Connection, Logger, Messages, SfdxError, sfdc } from '@salesforce/core';
 import { getString } from '@salesforce/ts-types';
 
 Messages.importMessagesDirectory(__dirname);
@@ -34,7 +34,11 @@ export class UserDisplayCommand extends SfdxCommand {
 
   public async run(): Promise<Result> {
     this.logger = await Logger.child(this.constructor.name);
-
+    if (sfdc.matchesAccessToken(this.flags.targetusername)) {
+      throw new SfdxError(messages.getMessage('accessTokenError'), 'accessTokenError', [
+        messages.getMessage('accessTokenAction'),
+      ]);
+    }
     const username: string = this.org.getUsername();
     const userAuthDataArray: AuthInfo[] = await this.org.readUserAuthFiles();
     // userAuthDataArray contains all of the Org's users AuthInfo, we just need the default or -u, which is in the username variable
diff --git a/test/commands/user/display.test.ts b/test/commands/user/display.test.ts
index 717787ce..c0e25a46 100644
--- a/test/commands/user/display.test.ts
+++ b/test/commands/user/display.test.ts
@@ -114,4 +114,20 @@ describe('force:user:display', () => {
       const result = JSON.parse(ctx.stdout).result;
       expect(result).to.deep.equal(expected);
     });
+
+  test
+    .stdout()
+    .command([
+      'force:user:display',
+      '--json',
+      '--targetusername',
+      '00D54000000GxYk!ARwAQOZEBxYvKxKlNJfvJEGyj7fNj6TA61Fn5RxJzaYm79hR9IYjx2x147a2GH2DGtne21DW.g_8DD0rzNF.COIAXcmq0FfJ',
+      '--targetdevhubusername',
+      'devhub@test.com',
+    ])
+    .it('should throw when username is an accessToken', (ctx) => {
+      const response = JSON.parse(ctx.stdout);
+      expect(response.status).to.equal(1);
+      expect(response.name).to.equal('accessTokenError');
+    });
 });