.org

.org

Introduced	January 1, 1985; 39 years ago (1985-01-01)
TLD type	Generic top-level domain
Status	Active
Registry	Public Interest Registry (technical service by Afilias)
Sponsor	Not technically sponsored, but PIR is connected with the Internet Society
Intended use	Miscellaneous organizations not fitting in other categories (generally noncommercial)
Actual use	Nonprofits; personal sites; open-source projects; some government websites; mostly used by non-commercial entities
Registration restrictions	None
Structure	Registrations at second level permitted
Documents	RFC 920; RFC 1591; ICANN registry agreement
Dispute policies	UDRP
DNSSEC	Yes
Registry website	Public Interest Registry

The domain name .org is a generic top-level domain (gTLD) of the Domain Name System (DNS) used on the Internet. The name is truncated from 'organization'. It was one of the original domains established in 1985, and has been operated by the Public Interest Registry since 2003. The domain was originally "intended as the miscellaneous TLD for organizations that didn't fit anywhere else."^[1] It is commonly used by non-profit organizations, open-source projects, and communities, but is an open domain that can be used by anyone. The number of registered domains in .org has increased from fewer than one million in the 1990s, to ten million in 2012, and held steady between ten and eleven million since then.