diff --git a/puppet/zulip/manifests/tornado_sharding.pp b/puppet/zulip/manifests/tornado_sharding.pp
index 5da3c310af..ded1e6a298 100644
--- a/puppet/zulip/manifests/tornado_sharding.pp
+++ b/puppet/zulip/manifests/tornado_sharding.pp
@@ -43,7 +43,7 @@ class zulip::tornado_sharding {
 
   # The ports of Tornado processes to run on the server; defaults to
   # 9800.
-  $tornado_ports = zulipconf_keys('tornado_sharding')
+  $tornado_ports = unique(zulipconf_keys('tornado_sharding').map |$key| { regsubst($key, /_regex$/, '') })
 
   file { '/etc/nginx/zulip-include/tornado-upstreams':
     require => [Package[$zulip::common::nginx], Exec['stage_updated_sharding']],
diff --git a/scripts/lib/sharding.py b/scripts/lib/sharding.py
index 48cb61c07b..cd5283c079 100755
--- a/scripts/lib/sharding.py
+++ b/scripts/lib/sharding.py
@@ -31,10 +31,8 @@ def write_updated_configs() -> None:
     config_file = get_config_file()
     ports = get_tornado_ports(config_file)
 
-    expected_ports = list(range(9800, max(ports) + 1))
-    assert (
-        sorted(ports) == expected_ports
-    ), f"ports ({sorted(ports)}) must be contiguous, starting with 9800"
+    expected_ports = list(range(9800, ports[-1] + 1))
+    assert ports == expected_ports, f"ports ({ports}) must be contiguous, starting with 9800"
 
     with open("/etc/zulip/nginx_sharding_map.conf.tmp", "w") as nginx_sharding_conf_f, open(
         "/etc/zulip/sharding.json.tmp", "w"
@@ -50,26 +48,33 @@ def write_updated_configs() -> None:
         nginx_sharding_conf_f.write("map $http_host $tornado_server {\n")
         nginx_sharding_conf_f.write("    default http://tornado9800;\n")
         shard_map: Dict[str, int] = {}
+        shard_regexes = []
         external_host = subprocess.check_output(
             [os.path.join(BASE_DIR, "scripts/get-django-setting"), "EXTERNAL_HOST"],
             text=True,
         ).strip()
-        for port in config_file["tornado_sharding"]:
-            shards = config_file["tornado_sharding"][port].strip()
-
-            if shards:
-                for shard in shards.split(" "):
+        for key, shards in config_file["tornado_sharding"].items():
+            if key.endswith("_regex"):
+                port = int(key[: -len("_regex")])
+                shard_regexes.append((shards, port))
+                nginx_sharding_conf_f.write(
+                    f"    {nginx_quote('~*' + shards)} http://tornado{port};\n"
+                )
+            else:
+                port = int(key)
+                for shard in shards.split():
                     if "." in shard:
                         host = shard
                     else:
                         host = f"{shard}.{external_host}"
                     assert host not in shard_map, f"host {host} duplicated"
-                    shard_map[host] = int(port)
+                    shard_map[host] = port
                     nginx_sharding_conf_f.write(f"    {nginx_quote(host)} http://tornado{port};\n")
             nginx_sharding_conf_f.write("\n")
         nginx_sharding_conf_f.write("}\n")
 
-        sharding_json_f.write(json.dumps(shard_map) + "\n")
+        data = {"shard_map": shard_map, "shard_regexes": shard_regexes}
+        sharding_json_f.write(json.dumps(data) + "\n")
 
 
 parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(
diff --git a/scripts/lib/zulip_tools.py b/scripts/lib/zulip_tools.py
index 02c3f500f5..0f6cf3cbff 100755
--- a/scripts/lib/zulip_tools.py
+++ b/scripts/lib/zulip_tools.py
@@ -593,7 +593,12 @@ def run_psql_as_postgres(
 def get_tornado_ports(config_file: configparser.RawConfigParser) -> List[int]:
     ports = []
     if config_file.has_section("tornado_sharding"):
-        ports = [int(port) for port in config_file.options("tornado_sharding")]
+        ports = sorted(
+            {
+                int(key[: -len("_regex")] if key.endswith("_regex") else key)
+                for key in config_file.options("tornado_sharding")
+            }
+        )
     if not ports:
         ports = [9800]
     return ports
diff --git a/zerver/tornado/sharding.py b/zerver/tornado/sharding.py
index 0cc38c823b..338a73aeaf 100644
--- a/zerver/tornado/sharding.py
+++ b/zerver/tornado/sharding.py
@@ -1,18 +1,34 @@
 import json
 import os
+import re
 
 from django.conf import settings
 
 from zerver.models import Realm
 
 shard_map = {}
+shard_regexes = []
 if os.path.exists("/etc/zulip/sharding.json"):
     with open("/etc/zulip/sharding.json") as f:
-        shard_map = json.loads(f.read())
+        data = json.loads(f.read())
+        shard_map = data.get(
+            "shard_map",
+            data,  # backwards compatibility
+        )
+        shard_regexes = [
+            (re.compile(regex, re.I), port) for regex, port in data.get("shard_regexes", [])
+        ]
 
 
 def get_tornado_port(realm: Realm) -> int:
-    return shard_map.get(realm.host, settings.TORNADO_PORTS[0])
+    if realm.host in shard_map:
+        return shard_map[realm.host]
+
+    for regex, port in shard_regexes:
+        if regex.match(realm.host):
+            return port
+
+    return settings.TORNADO_PORTS[0]
 
 
 def get_tornado_uri(realm: Realm) -> str: