.at

Overview

• .at is the country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Austria.
• It is administered and operated by nic.at (nic.at GmbH).
• Registrations are possible directly at the second level (example.at) or at third level beneath several second-level labels (example.co.at, example.ac.at).
• As of December 2022 there were 1,468,838 registered .at domains.

History

• Introduced / delegated: 20 January 1988.
• Registry / Sponsor: nic.at (nic.at GmbH).
• DNSSEC: .at started using DNSSEC in 2011 to help guarantee authenticity and integrity of DNS data.
• Dispute policy: none since October 2008.

Usage and Audience

• Intended use: entities connected with Austria.
• Actual use:
  • Very popular within Austria for local businesses, organisations and individuals.
  • Widely used for English-language "domain hacks" because many English words end with "-at" (e.g., arrive.at).
• Typical registrants: private individuals, companies, associations and other organisations (domestic and international parties may register under the rules below).

Registration Rules

• Eligibility:
  • In general, anyone may register a .at domain.
  • The domain holder must be either a natural person (private individual) or an organisation (legal entity).
  • Private individuals must be of full legal age and legally capable of entering contracts.
  • Organisations must provide their full legal name and legal form; for organisations without separate legal personality a natural person must be specified as domain holder.
• Structure and reserved second-level domains:
  • Registrations are allowed directly at second level (example.at).
  • Common second-level labels include:
    • .ac.at — reserved for academic institutions (universities, schools) and administered via ACOnet.
    • .gv.at — reserved for government use and registrable via the Austrian Federal Chancellery.
    • .co.at — intended for commercial companies (managed by nic.at).
    • .or.at — intended for organisations (managed by nic.at).
    • .priv.at — intended for private Austrian individuals.
• Name length and characters:
  • A .at domain can be between 1 and 63 characters long.
  • Valid characters include letters (a–z), numbers (0–9), hyphens (-) and Internationalized Domain Name (IDN) characters.
  • A name must not start or end with a hyphen, and for technical reasons must not contain two hyphens at the third and fourth positions.
  • IDNs (internationalized domain names) are accepted.
• Other technical and policy points:
  • Since 2007 numeric-only domain names have been allowed.
  • Registrations may be subject to nic.at terms and conditions.

SEO and Brand Impact

• Popularity and perception:
  • .at is widely used and trusted within Austria for local presence.
  • Because of many English words ending in "-at", .at is commonly used for memorable domain hacks and branding.
• Security and trust signals:
  • Adoption of DNSSEC (since 2011) improves DNS authenticity for .at domains.

Notable Cases or Examples

• Examples of English-language domain hacks and notable .at usages:
  • donteat.at — a service associated with Foursquare.
  • hailst.at — used as the official website for Mississippi State Bulldogs athletics.

% IANA WHOIS server
% for more information on IANA, visit http://www.iana.org
% This query returned 1 object

domain:       AT

organisation: nic.at GmbH
address:      Jakob-Haringer-Strasse 8
address:      Salzburg 5020
address:      Austria

contact:      administrative
name:         Geschaeftsfuehrer NIC.AT
organisation: nic.at GmbH
address:      Jakob-Haringer-Strasse 8
address:      Salzburg 5020
address:      Austria
phone:        +43 662 4669-14
fax-no:       +43 662 4669-19
e-mail:       gf@nic.at

contact:      technical
name:         Technik NIC.AT
organisation: nic.at GmbH c/o Vienna University Computer Center
address:      Universitaetsstrasse 7
address:      Vienna 1010
address:      Austria
phone:        +43 1 4277 14035
fax-no:       +43 1 4277 9140
e-mail:       tech-nic-at@nic.at

nserver:      D.NS.AT 2a02:568:20:1:0:0:0:d 81.91.161.98
nserver:      J.NS.AT 194.146.106.50 2001:67c:1010:12:0:0:0:53
nserver:      N.NS.AT 2a02:568:281:0:0:0:0:130 81.91.173.130
nserver:      NS1.UNIVIE.AC.AT 2001:628:2030:4301:0:0:0:2 78.104.144.2
nserver:      NS2.UNIVIE.AC.AT 192.92.125.2 2001:678:1c:0:0:0:0:2
nserver:      R.NS.AT 194.0.25.10 2001:678:20:0:0:0:0:10
nserver:      U.NS.AT 185.102.12.2 2a02:850:ffff:0:0:0:0:2
ds-rdata:     1253 13 2 ba17c1bacb3fb49f7760ad1f7e71e17ab39ee0df3e9d3bf23fd3d70d6cf1719e
ds-rdata:     60960 13 2 a00073dd75c499465fe829381ce3f5488fc353d06e68c7f90a04d26a0d71a694

whois:        whois.nic.at

status:       ACTIVE
remarks:      Registration information: http://www.nic.at/

created:      1988-01-20
changed:      2025-05-14
source:       IANA