What is .cm?
Outside Cameroon, plenty of people know .cm for a different reason: it reads as catching .com typos. That second meaning doesn't change who's in charge, though. The domain still belongs to Cameroon, and its registry sets the rules.
A little context on Cameroon: the capital is Yaoundé, languages include English and French, the currency is the Central African CFA franc (XAF) and the international dialing code is +237.
Next door on the map, you'll find .cf for Central African Republic, .td for Chad, .cg for Congo, .gq for Equatorial Guinea, .ga for Gabon and .ng for Nigeria.
IANA lists Agence Nationale des Technologies de l'Information et de la Communication (ANTIC) as the manager of .cm, with an address in Cameroon. The registry's website is https://www.nic.cm. ccTLD managers set their own policies — who can register, which second-level names exist, pricing to registrars — so those rules differ from country to country.
Under the hood, the root zone points to 7 name servers for .cm, 4 of them reachable over IPv6. The delegation is DNSSEC-signed, so resolvers can verify that answers for .cm haven't been tampered with on the way. Registration data is published over RDAP and WHOIS (the WHOIS server is whois.nic.cm).
.cm FAQ
What country is .cm?
.cm is the country-code top-level domain for Cameroon, in Middle Africa. Online it's also used for catching .com typos.
What does .cm mean?
Officially, .cm is simply the ISO 3166-1 code for Cameroon. Online, it's also used for catching .com typos — a "domain hack" that uses the letters for what they spell.
What does .cm mean in an email address?
Only that the sender's domain is registered under .cm. Because .cm is also used for catching .com typos, it doesn't necessarily mean the person is in Cameroon.
Who owns the .cm domain?
IANA lists Agence Nationale des Technologies de l'Information et de la Communication (ANTIC) as the manager of .cm: it runs the registry and sets the rules for Cameroon's ccTLD. Individual .cm names belong to whoever registers them.
Can I register a .cm domain from the US?
It depends on Agence Nationale des Technologies de l'Information et de la Communication (ANTIC)'s policy. Some ccTLDs are open to anyone in the world, while others require a local address, company or trademark. Check the registry (https://www.nic.cm) or an accredited registrar before you buy.
Is .cm DNSSEC-signed?
Yes. The root zone has a DS record for .cm, so DNSSEC validation works all the way down from the root.
How do I look up who owns a .cm domain?
Query the registry's registration data service: the WHOIS server is whois.nic.cm, and RDAP lookups go to https://rdap.nic.cm/. Many registrants use privacy services, so personal details may be hidden.
Sources
Data from IANA root zone version 2026102000. Last changed July 15, 2025. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.
