Abstract In this paper, we present a single-shot transverse emittance measurement for 125 ± 3 MeV electron beam using pepper-pot technique. A normalised transverse emittance as low as 1.1 ± 0.1 -mm-mrad was measured using this method. Considering 60 consecutive shots, an average normalised emittance of ε rms,x,y =2.2 ± 0.7, 2.3 ± 0.6 -mm-mrad was obtained, which is comparable to a conventional linear accelerator. We also obtained high energy monoenergetic electron beam with relative energy spread less than 1%. The measured transverse emittance characterises the quality of an electron beam generated from laser-driven accelerator. Brightness, parallelism and focusability are all functions of the emittance. The low emittance and energy spread indicates that this type of accelerator is suitable for compact free electron laser driver
