The official address
.gov was one of the original TLDs created in 1985, and it has always been American: it's reserved for U.S. government organizations. Other countries put their government sites under their ccTLD (gov.uk, gouv.fr, gov.au).
Since April 2021, the .gov registry has been run by CISA, the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, following the DOTGOV Act of 2020. CISA made .gov domains free for qualifying organizations and pushes security practices like HTTPS and DNSSEC across the zone. For residents, a .gov address is one of the clearest signs that a site is the real thing.
Good for
- Federal agencies, states, counties, cities and towns
- Federally recognized tribal governments
Watch out for
- Only bona fide U.S. government organizations qualify
- Other countries use second-level names like gov.uk instead
.gov by the numbers
.gov stands for "government". It's a generic top-level domain (gTLD), today used for government & institutions. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency runs the registry under a contract with ICANN.
Under the hood, the root zone points to 4 name servers for .gov, every one of them reachable over IPv6. The delegation is DNSSEC-signed, so resolvers can verify that answers for .gov haven't been tampered with on the way. Registration data is published over RDAP and WHOIS (the WHOIS server is whois.nic.gov).
.gov FAQ
Who can get a .gov domain?
U.S.-based government organizations — federal, state, territorial, county, city and town governments, and federally recognized tribes — plus some public-sector entities they control.
Who manages .gov?
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), which took over from the General Services Administration in 2021 under the DOTGOV Act.
What does .gov stand for?
.gov stands for "government".
What is .gov used for?
.gov is mostly used for government & institutions. Like most gTLDs, it's a label of intent rather than a guarantee — check the site, not just the ending.
What country is .gov?
Formally none — but in practice .gov is reserved for United States institutions.
Who owns the .gov domain extension?
Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency operates .gov as its registry, under a registry agreement with ICANN.
Is .gov a valid domain?
Yes. .gov is an active top-level domain in the DNS root zone, so .gov addresses work in every browser.
Is .gov DNSSEC-signed?
Yes, the root zone holds a DS record for .gov.
Sources
Data from IANA root zone version 2026102000. Last changed October 21, 2026. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.
