lookahead regex in nginx location -

i'm trying match /category/anything, except /category/paid in nginx location.

i have following regex, it's not working. google tells me can use lookahead in nginx. doing wrong?

location ^/category(?!/paid)/ {  } 

you either need slash before or escaped slash.

location ~ (category/(?!paid)) { .. } location ~ (category\/(?!paid)) { .. }