What is .afl?
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 .afl names for sale at any registrar.
.afl entered the DNS root zone on March 28, 2015, 11 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, .afl 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 .afl, which lets validating resolvers check its answers cryptographically. Registration data is published over RDAP and WHOIS (the WHOIS server is whois.nic.afl).
.afl FAQ
What country is .afl?
None. .afl is a generic top-level domain, so it isn't tied to any country.
Who owns the .afl domain extension?
Australian Football League operates .afl as its registry, under a registry agreement with ICANN.
When was .afl created?
.afl was delegated to the DNS root zone on March 28, 2015.
Is .afl a valid domain?
Yes. .afl is an active top-level domain in the DNS root zone, delegated in 2015, so .afl addresses work in every browser.
Can I buy a .afl domain?
No. .afl is a brand TLD under ICANN Specification 13, so names are reserved for Australian Football League.
Is .afl DNSSEC-signed?
Yes, the root zone holds a DS record for .afl.
Sources
Data from IANA root zone version 2026102000. Last changed November 30, 2023. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.
