There are two broad types of TLDs: generic TLDs (gTLDs) such as .com and country-code TLDs (ccTLDs) such as .uk. IANA's root zone database splits them further into 6 types: generic, country-code, sponsored, generic-restricted, infrastructure and test. On September 26, 2026 the root zone held 1,438 TLDs: 1,111 generic, 309 country-code, 14 sponsored, 3 generic-restricted and 1 infrastructure.
Two classes, 6 IANA types
ICANN's glossary draws the first line: "TLDs fall into two classes: generic top-level domains (e.g., .com, .net, .edu) and country code top-level domains (e.g., .jp, .de, .in)." Generic is "The class of top-level domains that includes general-purpose domains such as .com, .net, .edu, and .org", and "ICANN coordinates the development of the rules and policies that govern the registration of domain names within gTLDs." Country-code is "The class of top-level domains reserved for use by countries, territories, and geographical locations identified in the ISO 3166-1 Country Codes list."
IANA's Root Zone Database, which "represents the delegation details of top-level domains", records a finer type for every entry. Counting the 1,595 entries in the database fetched on September 26, 2026 gives 6 values. 1,438 entries are in the root zone; the other 157 are listed as not assigned, which means they were removed or never delegated.
| IANA type | What it covers | In the root zone | Not assigned | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Genericgeneric | General-purpose TLDs, including new gTLDs and brand TLDs | 1,111 | 139 | .com, .org, .net, .app and .xyz |
| Country-codecountry-code | ISO 3166-1 two-letter codes and country names in local scripts | 309 | 7 | .us, .uk, .de, .io and .рф |
| Sponsoredsponsored | Run for a defined community by a sponsor | 14 | 0 | .gov, .edu, .aero and .museum |
| Generic-restrictedgeneric-restricted | Generic TLDs that IANA labels restricted | 3 | 0 | .biz, .name and .pro |
| Infrastructureinfrastructure | Reserved for Internet infrastructure | 1 | 0 | .arpa |
| Testtest | Evaluation labels from 2007, not in the root | 0 | 11 | .测试, .परीक्षा and .испытание |
TLD type checker
Type any extension or domain name to see its IANA type, whether it is in the root zone, who manages it and whether ICANN's registry agreement marks it as a brand or community TLD. Works with Unicode extensions too.
Browse TLDs by type
No TLD of this type matches the filter.
Source: IANA root zone database and TLD list, and ICANN registry agreements, fetched September 26, 2026. Machine-readable: tld-types-20260926.json.
Generic TLDs: open, brand and community
Generic TLDs are the largest group, with 1,111 in the root zone, and 90 of them are internationalized names. ICANN calls a new gTLD "A gTLD that is introduced through the New Generic Top-Level Domains Program (New gTLD Program)." Of the 1,111 generic TLDs, 1,104 appear on ICANN's list of strings delegated under that program; the 7 that do not are .com, .info, .merck, .mobi, .net, .org and .web.
The registry agreements add a second layer. Among the 1,111 generic TLDs, ICANN's agreement list marks 361 as brand TLDs (Specification 13), 51 as community TLDs (Specification 12, with 10 carrying both), and 702 with neither designation. Specification 12 also appears in the agreements of 7 sponsored TLDs (.asia, .cat, .coop, .jobs, .museum, .tel and .travel), so the community list in the browser above has 58 entries. ICANN describes a brand TLD as "a designation for a TLD that is operated by and for an entity under its trademarked name" and a community-based gTLD as "a gTLD that is operated for the benefit of a clearly delineated community". 7 more generic TLDs are still in the root although their agreements are terminated (.desi, .nowruz, .pars, .shia, .tci, .wed and .همراه). The full list of dot-brands is on the brand TLD list.
Country-code TLDs: two letters or a local script
There are 309 country-code TLDs in the root zone: 248 two-letter ASCII codes such as .us, .jp or .io, and 61 internationalized ones. ICANN notes that ccTLDs can base their names on the ISO codes "or they can represent a country or territory name in a script other than US-ASCII characters", like .рф for Russia or .中国 for China. Each registry sets its own rules: "Because ccTLDs are managed locally, the rules and policies for registering domain names vary across ccTLDs." IANA files .io, .co, .ai, .tv and .me as country-code TLDs like any other; the generic ccTLDs page covers how search engines handle such codes.
7 country-code entries in the database are not in the root: .an, .bl, .bq, .eh, .mf, .tp and .um. IANA's records include reports such as "Removal of the .TP top-level domain representing Portuguese Timor" (January 26, 2015) and "Report on Revocation of the .UM Top-Level Domain" (January 10, 2007). The full list by country is on the country-code TLD list, and every two-letter code on 2-letter TLDs.
Sponsored and generic-restricted TLDs
ICANN's glossary says: "Some gTLDs, known as sponsored gTLDs, represent a specific community of Internet users." IANA files 14 TLDs as sponsored. 4 of them (.edu, .gov, .int and .mil) have no entry in ICANN's registry agreement list, and for 5 (.cat, .museum, .tel, .travel and .xxx) the current ICANN agreement is recorded as non-sponsored, while IANA keeps the sponsored label.
| Sponsored TLD | Manager (IANA) | ICANN agreement type |
|---|---|---|
| .aero | Societe Internationale de Telecommunications Aeronautique (SITA INC USA) | Sponsored |
| .asia | DotAsia Organisation Ltd. | Base, Community (Spec 12), Sponsored |
| .cat | Fundacio puntCAT | Base, Community (Spec 12), Non-Sponsored |
| .coop | DotCooperation LLC | Community (Spec 12), Sponsored |
| .edu | EDUCAUSE | no ICANN agreement listed |
| .gov | Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency | no ICANN agreement listed |
| .int | Internet Assigned Numbers Authority | no ICANN agreement listed |
| .jobs | Employ Media LLC | Base, Community (Spec 12), Sponsored |
| .mil | DoD Network Information Center | no ICANN agreement listed |
| .museum | Museum Domain Management Association | Community (Spec 12), Non-Sponsored |
| .post | Universal Postal Union | Sponsored |
| .tel | Telnames Ltd. | Base, Community (Spec 12), Non-Sponsored |
| .travel | Dog Beach, LLC | Base, Community (Spec 12), Non-Sponsored |
| .xxx | ICM Registry LLC | Base, Non-Sponsored |
The generic-restricted type holds just 3 names:
| Generic-restricted TLD | Manager (IANA) | ICANN agreement type |
|---|---|---|
| .biz | Registry Services, LLC | Base, Non-Sponsored |
| .name | VeriSign Information Services, Inc. | Non-Sponsored |
| .pro | Identity Digital Limited | Base, Non-Sponsored |
For the eligibility rules behind these and other extensions, see sponsored TLDs and restricted TLDs.
Infrastructure and test TLDs
The only infrastructure TLD is .arpa, registered in the IANA database on January 1, 1985. IANA says the .arpa domain "is designated to be used exclusively for Internet-infrastructure purposes". Its second-level domains include in-addr.arpa, which IANA lists "For mapping IPv4 addresses to Internet domain names", and ip6.arpa, which does the same for IPv6. Its manager is the Internet Architecture Board (IAB).
The 11 test entries are internationalized labels in different scripts, registered on October 19, 2007 under the IANA "Report on Delegation of Eleven Evaluative Internationalised Top-Level Domains": .测试, .परीक्षा, .испытание, .테스트, .טעסט, .測試, .آزمایشی, .பரிட்சை, .δοκιμή, .إختبار and .テスト. None is in the root zone today.
Names such as .test or .local are not a TLD type at all. IANA keeps them in a separate Special-Use Domain Names registry, whose note says the designation "applies to both the listed domains and their subdomains." That registry lists 7 single-label names, .alt (RFC 9476), .example (RFC 6761), .invalid (RFC 6761), .local (RFC 6762), .localhost (RFC 6761), .onion (RFC 7686) and .test (RFC 6761), and none of them appears in the root zone database. The type checker above flags them. For how to use these names in documentation and test networks, see reserved TLDs for testing.
Types of TLDs: frequently asked questions
What are the main types of TLDs?
How many types of TLDs are there?
What is the difference between a gTLD and a ccTLD?
Is .io a gTLD or a ccTLD?
What is a sponsored TLD?
What is .arpa used for?
Sources and method
- IANA Root Zone Database (type and manager of all 1,595 entries) and IANA TLD list (Version 2026092600, Last Updated Sat Sep 26 07:07:01 2026 UTC), fetched September 26, 2026; IANA delegation records of .arpa, the test TLDs and the unassigned country codes.
- ICANN registry agreements CSV (agreement types: Brand (Spec 13), Community (Spec 12), Sponsored, Non-Sponsored), fetched September 26, 2026.
- ICANN glossary: top-level domain, generic TLD, country code TLD, new gTLD, brand TLD, community-based gTLD.
- IANA Special-Use Domain Names registry, fetched September 26, 2026; IANA: .ARPA Zone Management; ICANN: New gTLD Program delegated strings, fetched September 26, 2026.
- Method: types are the values in the IANA database type column; brand and community flags come from ICANN's agreement types. Every count is computed by script from the saved files.