What is .tab?
Brand TLDs operate under Specification 13 of ICANN's registry agreement. It lets a trademark owner keep every second-level name for itself, so you won't find .tab names for sale at any registrar.
.tab entered the DNS root zone on November 13, 2015, 10 years ago. It came out of ICANN's New gTLD Program, the 2012 application round that grew the root from 22 generic TLDs to well over a thousand.
On the technical side, .tab is served by 6 authoritative name servers, every one of them reachable over IPv6. It is also DNSSEC-signed: the root zone carries a DS record for .tab, which lets validating resolvers check its answers cryptographically. Registration data is published over RDAP and WHOIS (the WHOIS server is whois.nic.tab).
.tab FAQ
What country is .tab?
None. .tab is a generic top-level domain, so it isn't tied to any country.
Who owns the .tab domain extension?
Tabcorp Holdings Limited operates .tab as its registry, under a registry agreement with ICANN.
When was .tab created?
.tab was delegated to the DNS root zone on November 13, 2015.
Is .tab a valid domain?
Yes. .tab is an active top-level domain in the DNS root zone, delegated in 2015, so .tab addresses work in every browser.
Can I buy a .tab domain?
No. .tab is a brand TLD under ICANN Specification 13, so names are reserved for Tabcorp Holdings Limited.
Is .tab DNSSEC-signed?
Yes, the root zone holds a DS record for .tab.
Sources
Data from IANA root zone version 2026102000. Last changed November 30, 2023. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.
