.org

Overview

• .org is a generic top-level domain (gTLD) in the DNS. The name is short for "organization."
• It was one of the original TLDs introduced in January 1985 and is commonly used by nonprofit organizations, open-source projects, communities, personal sites and some government websites.
• The Public Interest Registry (PIR) has operated the .org registry since January 1, 2003 (technical services provided by Afilias).

History

• Introduced: January 1985 as one of the original gTLDs (alongside .com, .edu, .gov, .mil, .net, etc.).
• First registered second-level domain: mitre.org (July 1985).
• Registry transition: PIR assumed operation from VeriSign on January 1, 2003.
• Milestones: the registry passed 10 million registrations in June 2012.
• Controversy and governance: in 2019 PIR (then connected to the Internet Society) proposed changes including abandoning a price cap and a proposed sale to a private equity firm (Ethos Capital); that proposed sale drew widespread criticism and ICANN blocked the transfer in April 2020.

Usage and Audience

• Intended use: originally intended for organizations that did not fit other categories, generally noncommercial or nonprofit entities.
• Actual use: widely used by nonprofits, open-source projects, communities, personal sites and some commercial or government sites.
• Composition: diverse registrant base including cultural institutions, associations, sports teams, religious and civic organizations, open-source projects, schools, environmental and health organizations, clubs and community groups.

Registration Rules

• Eligibility and restrictions: .org is an open gTLD. Anyone may register a second-level domain under .org; there are no special eligibility restrictions.
• Structure: registrations are at the second level (example: example.org).
• Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs): selected IDNs are permitted as second-level domains. IDN support expanded over time (German, Danish, Hungarian, Icelandic, Korean, Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish, Swedish since 2005; Spanish since 2007; additional scripts including Chinese and Cyrillic added later).
• DNSSEC and security: PIR announced DNSSEC signing of the .org zone in June 2009; DNSSEC for individual second-level domains was enabled beginning June 23, 2010.
• Cost and pricing controls: since 2003 PIR charged registrars a capped wholesale fee of US$9.05/year (registrars set retail prices). ICANN removed the formal price cap on .org in July 2019, a change that became part of the controversy around proposed ownership changes later that year.

SEO and Brand Impact

• Perception: .org is widely recognized as the legacy domain for organizations and nonprofits; it is commonly perceived as associated with non-commercial, community or public-interest activity.
• Trust and usage considerations: the suffix has been adopted by many types of organizations beyond nonprofits, and its broad use contributes to general recognition and trust among many users.
• Regulatory/ethical note: a 2001 Arizona ethics opinion cautioned that for-profit entities using .org could create a false impression of nonprofit status; that opinion was revisited in 2011 and modified, noting the risk of public confusion is remote provided no false or misleading affiliation is implied.

Notable Cases or Examples

• Registry operator and governance events: Public Interest Registry (PIR) operating the TLD since 2003; ICANN blocked the proposed sale of PIR to Ethos Capital in April 2020 after public criticism and concerns about fee increases and governance.
• Security adoption: .org was the first open gTLD and one of the largest registries to sign its DNS zone with DNSSEC (announcement in June 2009, delegated DNSSEC for SLDs in 2010).
• U.S. domain seizures: because PIR is U.S.-based, the U.S. government has asserted the ability to seize .org domain names by acting at the registry level; reports indicated hundreds of such seizures by early 2012.
• Early and scale examples: first .org registration by MITRE (1985); registry passed 10 million registrations in June 2012.

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

domain:       ORG

organisation: Public Interest Registry (PIR)
address:      11911 Freedom Drive,
address:      10th Floor, Suite 1000
address:      Reston VA 20190
address:      United States of America (the)

contact:      administrative
name:         Director of Operations, Compliance and Customer Support
organisation: Public Interest Registry (PIR)
address:      11911 Freedom Drive,
address:      10th Floor, Suite 1000
address:      Reston VA 20190
address:      United States of America (the)
phone:        +1 703 889 5778
fax-no:       +1 703 889 5779
e-mail:       ops@pir.org

contact:      technical
name:         Senior Director, DNS Infrastructure Group
organisation: Identity Digital Limited
address:      c/o Identity Digital Inc.
address:      10500 NE 8th Street, Suite 750
address:      Bellevue WA 98004
address:      United States of America (the)
phone:        +1.425.298.2200
fax-no:       +1.425.671.0020
e-mail:       tldtech@identity.digital

nserver:      A0.ORG.AFILIAS-NST.INFO 199.19.56.1 2001:500:e:0:0:0:0:1
nserver:      A2.ORG.AFILIAS-NST.INFO 199.249.112.1 2001:500:40:0:0:0:0:1
nserver:      B0.ORG.AFILIAS-NST.ORG 199.19.54.1 2001:500:c:0:0:0:0:1
nserver:      B2.ORG.AFILIAS-NST.ORG 199.249.120.1 2001:500:48:0:0:0:0:1
nserver:      C0.ORG.AFILIAS-NST.INFO 199.19.53.1 2001:500:b:0:0:0:0:1
nserver:      D0.ORG.AFILIAS-NST.ORG 199.19.57.1 2001:500:f:0:0:0:0:1
ds-rdata:     26974 8 2 4fede294c53f438a158c41d39489cd78a86beb0d8a0aeaff14745c0d16e1de32

whois:        whois.publicinterestregistry.org

status:       ACTIVE
remarks:      Registration information:
remarks:      http://publicinterestregistry.org

created:      1985-01-01
changed:      2025-08-14
source:       IANA