This list of Internet top-level domains (TLD) contains

top-level domain A top-level domain (TLD) is one of the domains at the highest level in the hierarchical Domain Name System of the Internet after the root domain. The top-level domain names are installed in the root zone of the name space. For all domains ...

s, which are those domains in the

DNS root zone The DNS root zone is the top-level DNS zone in the hierarchical namespace of the Domain Name System (DNS) of the Internet. Before October 1, 2016, the root zone had been overseen by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICAN ...

of the Domain Name System of the Internet. A list of the top-level domains by the

Internet Assigned Numbers Authority The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) is a standards organization that oversees global IP address allocation, autonomous system number allocation, root zone management in the Domain Name System (DNS), media types, and other Intern ...

(IANA) is maintained at the Root Zone Database. IANA also oversees the approval process for new proposed top-level domains for

ICANN The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN ) is an American multistakeholder group and nonprofit organization responsible for coordinating the maintenance and procedures of several databases related to the namespaces ...

. , their root domain contains 1502 top-level domains. , the IANA root database includes 1589 TLDs. That also includes 68 that are not assigned (revoked), 8 that are retired and 11 test domains. Those are not represented in IANA's listing and are not in root.zone file (root.zone file also includes one

root domain The DNS root zone is the top-level DNS zone in the hierarchical namespace of the Domain Name System (DNS) of the Internet. Before October 1, 2016, the root zone had been overseen by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICA ...

Types

IANA distinguishes the following groups of top-level domains: * infrastructure top-level domain (ARPA) *

generic top-level domain Generic top-level domains (gTLDs) are one of the categories of top-level domains (TLDs) maintained by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) for use in the Domain Name System of the Internet. A top-level domain is the last level of e ...

s (gTLD) * generic-restricted top-level domains (grTLD) *

sponsored top-level domain A sponsored top-level domain (sTLD) is one of the categories of top-level domains (TLDs) maintained by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) for use in the Domain Name System of the Internet, alongside country-code top-level domain A c ...

s (sTLD) * country code top-level domains (ccTLD) * test top-level domains (tTLD)

Original top-level domains

Seven generic top-level domains were created early in the development of the Internet, and predate the creation of

in 1998. * Name: DNS names * Entity: intended use * Notes: general remarks * IDN: support for internationalized domain names (IDN) * DNSSEC: presence of DS records for

Domain Name System Security Extensions The Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC) are a suite of extension specifications by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) for securing data exchanged in the Domain Name System (DNS) in Internet Protocol (IP) networks. The protocol ...

Infrastructure top-level domains

Country code top-level domains

As of 20 May 2017, there were 255 country-code top-level domains, purely in the Latin alphabet, using two-character codes. , the number was 316, with the addition of internationalized domains.

Proposed internationalized ccTLDs

Internationalised domain names have been proposed for Japan and Libya.

ICANN-era generic top-level domains

* Name: DNS name * Target market: intended use * Restrictions: restrictions, if any, on who can register, and how the domain can be used * Operator: entity the registry has been delegated to * IDN: support for internationalized domain names (IDN) * DNSSEC: presence of DS records for

English

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

K

L

M

N

O

P

Q

R

S

T

U

V

W

X

Y

Z

Chinese

French

German

Hindi

Italian

Portuguese

Spanish

Internationalized generic top-level domains

All of these TLDs are internationalized domain names (IDN) and support second-level IDNs. * Notes: general remarks and intended use * DNSSEC: presence of DS records for

Arabic script The Arabic script is the writing system used for Arabic and several other languages of Asia and Africa. It is the second-most widely used writing system in the world by number of countries using it or a script directly derived from it, and the ...

Chinese characters Chinese characters () are logograms developed for the writing of Chinese. In addition, they have been adapted to write other East Asian languages, and remain a key component of the Japanese writing system where they are known as ''kanji' ...

Cyrillic script

Japanese characters

Other script

Geographic top-level domains

* Name: DNS name * Entity: Target geographic area * Notes: general remarks * IDN: support for internationalized domain names (IDN) * DNSSEC: presence of DS records for

Africa

Asia

Europe

North America

Oceania

South America

Internationalized geographic top-level domains

Brand top-level domains

* Name: DNS name * Entity: company and/or brand * Notes: general remarks * IDN: support for internationalized domain names (IDN) * DNSSEC: presence of DS records for

Internationalized brand top-level domains

Special-Use Domains

ICANN/IANA has created some Special-Use domain names which are meant for special technical purposes. ICANN/IANA owns all of the Special-Use domain names.

Non-IANA domains

Besides the TLDs managed (or at least tracked) by IANA or ICANN, other independent groups have created, or had attempted to create, their own TLDs with varying technical specifications, functions, and outcomes.

Blockchain-registered

Blockchain-based domains are registered and exchanged using a public

blockchain A blockchain is a type of distributed ledger technology (DLT) that consists of growing lists of records, called ''blocks'', that are securely linked together using cryptography. Each block contains a cryptographic hash of the previous block, ...

Ethereum Ethereum is a decentralized, open-source blockchain with smart contract functionality. Ether (Abbreviation: ETH; sign: Ξ) is the native cryptocurrency of the platform. Among cryptocurrencies, ether is second only to bitcoin in market capi ...

. Often times, these domains serve specific functions such as creating

human-readable A human-readable medium or human-readable format is any encoding of data or information that can be naturally read by humans. In computing, ''human-readable'' data is often encoded as ASCII or Unicode text, rather than as binary data. In most ...

references to

smart contract A smart contract is a computer program or a transaction protocol that is intended to automatically execute, control or document events and actions according to the terms of a contract or an agreement. The objectives of smart contracts are the r ...

addresses used in DApps or personal wallet addresses. Generally, these non-standard domains are unreachable through the normal DNS resolution process and instead require clients to use some sort of transparent web proxy or gateway to access them

Alternate roots

In the case of

alternative DNS root The Internet uses the Domain Name System (DNS) to associate numeric computer IP addresses with human-readable names. The top level of the domain name hierarchy, the DNS root, contains the top-level domains that appear as the suffixes of all Intern ...

s, organizations or projects make use of the same mechanisms of the DNS but instead take on the role of ICANN in managing and administering an entirely separate root zone, thus having the ability to create new TLDs independently. However, this doesn't make these domains any less isolated from the rest of the internet, though the ability for clients to resolve them theoretically only requires switching to a

recursive DNS resolver The Domain Name System (DNS) is a hierarchical and distributed naming system for computers, services, and other resources in the Internet or other Internet Protocol (IP) networks. It associates various information with domain names assigned ...

that recognizes and serves records underneath the alternate root zone.

Explanatory notes

Citations

External links

IANA's list of TLDs in machine-readable format

The Internet Domain Survey

The Public Suffix List / PSL – Maintained by Mozilla

Registry Agreements
at

Registry Agreement Termination Info Page
at

{{Generic top-level domains Country codes International telecommunications Top-level domains

Top-level domains A top-level domain (TLD) is one of the domains at the highest level in the hierarchical Domain Name System of the Internet after the root domain. The top-level domain names are installed in the root zone of the name space. For all domains ...