What is .smart?
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 .smart names for sale at any registrar.
.smart entered the DNS root zone on July 15, 2016, 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, .smart is served by 4 authoritative name servers, every one of them reachable over IPv6. It is also DNSSEC-signed: the root zone carries a DS record for .smart, which lets validating resolvers check its answers cryptographically. Registration data is published over RDAP and WHOIS (the WHOIS server is whois.nic.smart).
.smart FAQ
What country is .smart?
None. .smart is a generic top-level domain, so it isn't tied to any country.
Who owns the .smart domain extension?
Smart Communications, Inc. (SMART) operates .smart as its registry, under a registry agreement with ICANN.
When was .smart created?
.smart was delegated to the DNS root zone on July 15, 2016.
Is .smart a valid domain?
Yes. .smart is an active top-level domain in the DNS root zone, delegated in 2016, so .smart addresses work in every browser.
Can I buy a .smart domain?
No. .smart is a brand TLD under ICANN Specification 13, so names are reserved for Smart Communications, Inc. (SMART).
Is .smart DNSSEC-signed?
Yes, the root zone holds a DS record for .smart.
Sources
Data from IANA root zone version 2026102000. Last changed May 28, 2024. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.
