A voltage regulator permits reduced current consumption by promptly and timely stopping the operation of an inrush current protection circuit immediately after the voltage regulator is started up. The voltage regulator has an output voltage detection circuit, which issues a detection signal to actuate the inrush current protection circuit when a low voltage at an output terminal is detected at the time of starting up the voltage regulator. When it is detected that the voltage at the output terminal has reached a predetermined level, the operation of the inrush current protection circuit is stopped and a power path of the output voltage detection circuit is cut off.