How Many Top Level Domains Are There?

Number of TLDs or Top Level Domains on the Web

There are more than 1,200 top-level domains, or TLDs, available across the internet. A TLD is the final part of a web address, appearing after the last dot. In example.com, for instance, “.com” is the TLD. The exact total depends on what is being counted and can change as new domain endings are added or older ones are removed. The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) maintains the official list of active TLDs.

Many people know the familiar endings, such as .com, .org, and .net. These are general-purpose TLDs: they can be used by a wide range of people and organizations. There are also country-code TLDs, such as .ca for Canada and .jp for Japan, which are linked to particular countries or territories.

The growth in the number of TLDs has given website owners many more choices. Some endings describe a place, an industry, or an interest. Examples include .berlin for a city, .bank for financial organizations, and .eco for environmental themes. Others are created for a specific company or brand, such as .microsoft. More than 1,200 new general-purpose TLDs were introduced following the application round that began in 2012.

Not every TLD is open to everyone. Some have eligibility rules: a particular ending may be limited to members of an industry, residents of a region, or people who meet other requirements. Brand TLDs are generally managed for the brand’s own use rather than offered for public registration. So, while the list is large, the number of endings an individual or business can actually register under may be smaller.

Having more options can make a web address easier to remember or better suited to a business, group, or location. But a distinctive ending does not automatically make a website more trustworthy, and it does not guarantee that the matching name is available. Registration rules and prices also vary.

In short, the internet has well over 1,200 TLDs in 2026, spanning familiar endings, country codes, specialist options, and private brand domains. The total is not fixed: it can shift as the domain-name system changes. For the current count, check the official IANA root-zone list, which records the TLDs recognized in the internet’s domain-name system.

Legacy and Original gTLDs

These are the most widely recognized and open to anyone.

• .com (Commercial)
• .net (Network)
• .org (Organization)
• .info (Information)
• .biz (Business)

Industry and Professional gTLDs

These are designed to tell the visitor exactly what the site is about.

Lifestyle, Interest, and Community gTLDs

These are used for hobbies, passions, and niche communities.

• Creative/Arts: .art, .studio, .photography, .design, .music, .gallery
• Social/Life: .life, .social, .club, .community, .blog, .me, .family
• Media: .media, .news, .press, .video, .live
• Travel/Place: .travel, .vacations, .guide, .city, .hotel

Sponsored and Restricted gTLDs

These are gTLDs that are not “brand” names but are restricted to specific types of organizations.

• .edu (Accredited educational institutions)
• .gov (U.S. government entities)
• .mil (U.S. military)
• .int (International treaty-based organizations)
• .aero (Air-transport industry)
• .museum (Museums)
• .travel (Travel industry)

Internationalized gTLDs (IDNs)

There are also hundreds of gTLDs in non-Latin scripts (such as Arabic, Chinese, and Cyrillic) that serve the same generic purposes as those listed above but in their native languages.

Note on Brand gTLDs: To follow your request, I have excluded “Brand TLDs” (like .google, .apple, or .microsoft), which are owned and operated by single corporations for their own use.

What is a Top Level Domain name?

A Top Level Domain (TLD) is the part of the domain name located to the right of the dot (” . “). The most common TLDs are .com, .net, and .org. Some others are .info, .ai domains and .biz domains. These common TLDs all have certain guidelines, but are generally available to any registrant, anywhere in the world.