.int domain — the restricted extension for international treaty organizations

What does .int mean?

The .int extension is short for international, but that word undersells just how narrow it is. It was introduced in 1988 for a very particular kind of body: an international treaty organisation — an institution created by a formal treaty between two or more sovereign nations. Not an international company, not a global charity, not a worldwide brand. A treaty organisation in the strict diplomatic sense.

That makes .int one of the smallest and most exclusive top-level domains in existence. It is administered directly by IANA, the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority, rather than a commercial registry, and the number of names ever registered under it is tiny — a few hundred at most, against the hundreds of millions on .com. Where most extensions exist to be sold, .int exists to mark a specific class of organisation under international law.

Who uses .int?

Intergovernmental organisations and treaty bodies, almost exclusively in fields like health, defence, diplomacy and cross-border cooperation. The best-known examples are who.int (the World Health Organization), nato.int (the North Atlantic Treaty Organization) and the various un.int permanent missions associated with the United Nations system. These are bodies whose authority comes from agreements between governments, and the .int address quietly confirms that status.

Who doesn't use it is most of the world. A multinational corporation operating "internationally" uses .com. A global non-profit or NGO — even a very large one — uses .org, because being international is not the same as being intergovernmental. The distinction is the whole point of .int, and it is enforced rather than assumed.

Who can register a .int domain?

Eligibility here is about as tight as it gets on the internet. A .int can be granted only to an organisation established by a treaty between two or more nations — a true intergovernmental body — and the applicant has to prove that treaty basis to IANA as part of the application. There is no first-come, first-served, no registrar shopping, and no shortcut for organisations that merely operate across borders.

For practically every reader, the honest answer is that you cannot get a .int and never will, because the threshold is not money or speed but a founding treaty between nations. If you run an international charity, an NGO, an industry body or a globally-minded business, the right home is .org, which has long been the conventional choice for international and non-profit organisations that aren't treaty-based — or a .com if you're a company. Reaching for .int when you don't qualify simply isn't an option the registration process allows.

How much does a .int cost?

There is no price to quote because .int isn't a commercial product. Eligible treaty organisations apply to IANA on the strength of their legal status rather than buying a name through a registrar, so the meaningful "cost" is the eligibility bar itself, not a yearly fee. For everyone outside that small circle, the domain is unavailable at any price. If you came here to compare what an international web address might cost, the realistic comparison is among the open options — see .org, .com, or browse our compare TLDs page.

Is .int good for SEO and trust?

Within its niche, .int carries serious institutional trust: a .int address tells visitors and journalists that the organisation behind it holds genuine intergovernmental standing, which is why these sites are widely cited and linked from authoritative sources. But as with .edu and .gov, none of that is an SEO trick. Google and Bing don't rank a page higher merely for ending in .int; the credibility comes from what the organisation is and the link patterns that follow, not the three letters. And since you can't obtain a .int unless you're a treaty body, it isn't a tactic anyone can choose — it's a marker of a status you either have or you don't. For the bigger picture on how extensions affect search, see our guide on comparing TLDs.

.int vs alternatives

The most useful comparison for almost everyone is .int versus .org. They get confused because both feel "official and international", but they are worlds apart: .int is restricted to treaty-based intergovernmental bodies, while non-profits and NGOs often use /tld/org instead of .int precisely because .org is open and carries no eligibility test. If you are a global charity, association or campaign, .org is the established choice. A commercial venture operating worldwide should look at .com for recognition. Reserve any thought of .int for the rare bodies that were literally created by treaty between nations.