.ca

Overview

• .ca is the Internet country-code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Canada.
• The registry operator is the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA).
• The TLD was introduced in 1987 and is widely used by Canadian businesses, organizations and government entities. As of 4 September 2024 there were 3,383,905 registered .ca domains.
• Registrations are normally done at the second level (example.ca); third-level provincial registrations were previously used but new third-level registrations were discontinued in 2010.

History

• The .ca domain was allocated by Jon Postel (IANA) to John Demco at the University of British Columbia in 1987 (implemented/introduced in 1987/1988).
• The first .ca domain (upei.ca) was registered in January 1988 by the University of Prince Edward Island.
• In 1997 the Canadian Internet community initiated reform of .ca registry operations.
• The Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) was incorporated as a not-for-profit to manage .ca (incorporated 30 December 1998) and assumed operation of the ccTLD on 1 December 2000.
• On 15 April 2008 CIRA registered its one millionth .ca domain.

Usage and Audience

• Intended for entities connected with Canada: Canadian businesses, organizations, individuals and government bodies.
• Popular in Canada and considered advantageous for targeting a Canadian audience (including pricing/showing transactions in Canadian dollars).
• Historically used by universities, provincial and municipal bodies; the .gc.ca and .mil.ca second-level domains are used by federal government and Department of National Defence respectively.

Registration Rules

• Registrants must meet CIRA's Canadian Presence Requirements. Examples of eligible registrants include:

  • Canadian citizens and permanent residents
  • Legally recognized Canadian organizations
  • Inuit, First Nations, Métis and other peoples indigenous to Canada
  • Indian Bands as defined in the Indian Act
  • Foreign residents who hold a registered Canadian trademark
  • Executors, administrators or legal representatives of eligible persons/organizations
  • Divisions of government and the monarch of Canada

• Registration details and processes:

  • Domains are registered via CIRA-certified registrars.
  • Registrations are normally at the second level (example.ca). New third-level provincial registrations were discontinued on 12 October 2010; existing third-level names continue to be supported.
  • Expired domains enter a 30-day redemption period; after that they move to "to-be-released" (TBR) status and are offered via a weekly auction process; names receiving no bids are released for open registration.

• Naming restrictions and technical rules:

  • Length: 2 to 63 characters (the 63-character limit includes the xn-- prefix for IDNs).
  • Allowed characters: letters (a–z), digits (0–9), hyphen (cannot start or end a name), and a limited set of accented characters for French/other names (é, ë, ê, è, â, à, æ, ô, œ, ù, û, ü, ç, î, ï, ÿ).
  • Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) were introduced in January 2013; names with accented variants form administrative bundles and must be owned and managed by the same registrant and registrar.
  • Domain names beginning with the punycode prefix "xn--" are restricted for IDN use and otherwise not available.

• Reserved and restricted names:

  • The top-level ".ca" and certain generic three-letter TLD-like names (e.g., .com.ca, .org.ca, .net.ca, .edu.ca, .gov.ca, .int.ca, .mil.ca) are reserved.
  • Generic geographic/municipal terms (village.ca, hamlet.ca, town.ca, city.ca, ville.ca) and names of Canadian provinces, territories and many municipal names are reserved or restricted; municipal names can require that the registrant be the corresponding government entity.
  • Names matching existing names elsewhere in the .ca hierarchy (e.g., xyz.ca vs xyz.on.ca) are blocked from normal automated registration without permission from existing registrants; such cases require manual intervention and consent.

SEO and Brand Impact

• .ca is popular in Canada and is viewed as advantageous for businesses and organizations targeting Canadian audiences, helping signal a Canadian presence and enabling pricing in Canadian dollars.

Notable Cases or Examples

• First registered .ca domain: upei.ca (University of Prince Edward Island), January 1988.
• Early administration: John Demco (UBC) operated the registry before CIRA took over; Jon Postel (IANA) delegated the TLD originally.
• Government-related examples: gg.ca (Governor General) is a two-letter example in use; gc.ca is a standard second-level domain used by the Government of Canada (not a special delegated namespace), and mil.ca is registered to the Department of National Defence for internal use.
• Milestones: CIRA reached 1,000,000 .ca domains on 15 April 2008; as of 4 September 2024 there were 3,383,905 registered .ca domains.

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

domain:       CA

organisation: Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) Autorité Canadienne pour les enregistrements Internet (ACEI)
address:      979 Bank Street, Suite 400
address:      Ottawa ON K1S 5K5
address:      Canada

contact:      administrative
name:         Chief Information Officer
organisation: CIRA
address:      979 Bank Street, Suite 400
address:      Ottawa ON K1S 5K5
address:      Canada
phone:        +1 613 237 5335
fax-no:       +1 613 237 0534
e-mail:       chief.information.officer@cira.ca

contact:      technical
name:         DNS Admin
organisation: CIRA
address:      979 Bank Street, Suite 400
address:      Ottawa ON K1S 5K5
address:      Canada
phone:        +1 613 237 5335
fax-no:       +1 613 237 0534
e-mail:       admin-dns@cira.ca

nserver:      ANY.CA-SERVERS.CA 199.4.144.2 2001:500:a7:0:0:0:0:2
nserver:      C.CA-SERVERS.CA 185.159.196.2 2620:10a:8053:0:0:0:0:2
nserver:      D.CA-SERVERS.CA 2a0e:dbc0:0:0:0:0:0:101 45.142.220.101
nserver:      J.CA-SERVERS.CA 198.182.167.1 2001:500:83:0:0:0:0:1
ds-rdata:     18560 13 2 86ec28ed5bff076186306dc8ce3b4e3ec0433d9d5d34c7ca8dac7b1934e8b324

whois:        whois.cira.ca

status:       ACTIVE
remarks:      Registration information: http://www.cira.ca/

created:      1987-05-14
changed:      2023-09-19
source:       IANA