Here you will find all the information related to .org domains.
The .org domain was created in January 1985 and has been managed since 2003 by Public Interest Registry.
It was one of the original top-level domains, intended for organisations that did not fit into other categories. There are currently no specific requirements to register a .org domain.
They are commonly used by non-profit organisations, NGOs and open-source projects, as opposed to .com, which is typically used by companies.
European and American political parties, ecological groups, diplomatic missions and consulates also commonly use it.
Since December 1st, 2016, ICANN’s RAA policies apply to the .org extension. Therefore, to carry out an ownership change of .ORG domains, both the current and the new owner must accept the modification. Once the ownership change is completed, the domain cannot be transferred to another registrar for a period of 60 days. For more information about ICANN policies click here.
Motivation for registering a .org domain
Anyone can register a .org domain. It is one of the original TLDs, along with .com and .net. DNS propagation when changing DNS servers is under one minute. It is also one of the most secure extensions, since you can enable DNSSEC.
Registering a .org domain
Restrictions when registering .org domains
- .org domains can have a maximum of 63 characters and a minimum of 3.
- Accepted characters for registration are a-z, 0-9 and hyphen "-". The hyphen cannot appear at the beginning or end of the name.
Restrictions when renewing .org domains
- A .org domain can be renewed at any time.
- A .org domain can be renewed for a maximum period of up to 10 years.
Restrictions when transferring .org domains
- .org domains cannot be transferred if they are expired.
- .org domains cannot be transferred if they are in the clientTransferProhibited status.
- To begin the transfer of .org domains, the AUTHCODE is required.
Once transferred, .org domains extend their expiration by one year in addition to the remaining validity period. For more information on transferring domains click here.
Lifecycle of .org domains As they have an expiration date, domains have a lifecycle consisting of several phases or periods. This lifecycle is established by ICANN, the organisation responsible for the applicable regulations. In the following chart we show the lifecycle of a .ORG domain and its states.
- Available domain: the domain has not yet been registered, therefore it is free. When a registration request is submitted, it will be assigned to the first request received.
- Registered domain: when a request is submitted for an available domain, it is assigned to the requester. Registration can be for 1 to 10 years.
- Active domain: the domain will remain active for the number of years requested at registration. During this period, the registration period may be extended to avoid expiration.
- Grace period: the domain has expired and stops working. This period lasts 30 days and you can renew the domain without penalty.
- Redemption period: this period lasts 30 days, during which the domain has been deleted but can be restored and renewed at a higher cost than a normal renewal.
- Pending delete: the domain cannot be restored and will be released.
Multilingual .org domains - IDN special characters Registration of domains with special characters (IDN)
For .org domains, registration with special characters such as ñ is allowed. Also accented and umlauted vowels á, é, í, ó, ú and ü. When registering an IDN .org domain, you do not need to own the equivalent ASCII domain; they are independent. For example, lópez.org and lopez.org are two different domains.
How to register an IDN .org domain?
You must request the registration directly using the special character from the domain registration page. The system will show whether it is available so you can follow the steps.
Transfer of .org domains with special characters (IDN)
You can transfer your .org domain registered with another provider from our domain transfer page. You must enter the .org domain name with the special character. The system will indicate whether it can be transferred.