.br is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Brazil. It was administered by the Brazilian Internet Steering Committee until 2005 when it started being administered by Brazilian Network Information Center. A local contact is required for any registration. Registrations of domain names with Portuguese characters are also accepted.
With the exception of universities, the second-level domain is fixed and selected from a list that defines the category. For example, is in the art (music, folklore etc.) category, and is in the non-governmental organization category. Institutions of tertiary education were allowed to use the ccSLD , although some use and others (mainly public universities) use . There are also some other few exceptions that were allowed to use the second level domain until the end of 2000. As of April 2010, most domain registrations ignore categories and register in the domain, which has over 90% of all registered domains. The (Judiciary), and (banks) domains have mandatory DNSSEC use.
Created and delegated to Brazil in 1989 by Jon Postel, initially the domain was operated manually by Registro.br and administered by the Fundação de Amparo àPesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP). Originally, only researchers and institutions to which they belonged had the interest and ability to adopt the new system and register domains under .br.
At the time, networks prevalent in the Brazilian academic setting were the BITNET ("Because It's Time NETwork"), the HEPnet ("High Energy Physics Network") and the UUCP ("Unix-to-Unix Copy Program"). As such, even before Brazil officially connected to the Internet in 1991, the .br domain was used to identify the machines participating in networks already in use by academics.
In 1995 the Brazilian Internet Steering Committee (, or simply CGI.br) was created with an objective to coordinate the allocation of Internet addresses (IPs) and the registration of .br domain names. There were 851 domains registered with the Brazilian DNS by the beginning of 1996, thereafter experiencing rapid growth with the mass arrival of companies, Internet providers and media onto the Internet. The registration system was automated in 1997 and was developed using open source software.
In 2005, CGI.br created its own executive arm, the Brazilian Network Information Center (, or simply NIC.br), which currently serves in both administrative and operational capacity for the registry.
In 2017, accounts associated with DNS records of Brazilian banks were hacked. Kaspersky's researchers pointed out to a vulnerability in NIC.br's website and suggested its infrastructure had been compromised. NIC's director at the time, Frederico Neves, denied that NIC.br was "hacked", although NIC.br admitted the vulnerability.
To register any domains under .br, it is necessary to enter into contact with Registro.br. Entities legally established in Brazil as a company ("pessoa jurÃÂdica") or a physical person ("profissional liberal" and "pessoas fÃÂsicas") that has a contact within Brazil can register domains. Foreign companies that have a power-of-attorney legally established in Brazil can also do it by following specific rules.
The registration of domains including non-ASCII Portuguese characters (à, á, â, ã, é, ê, ÃÂ, ó, ô, õ, ú, ü and ç) is accepted since 2005.
In 1991, it was decided that universities and research institutes would be allowed second-level .br domains directly. For example: Federal University of Rio de Janeiro got ufrj.br; University of São Paulo got usp.br; National Institute for Space Research got inpe.br; and so on.
In late 2000, the Brazilian Internet Steering Committee reported abuse in this system, and called for all institutions directly under .br to be moved to .edu.br â so, for example, ufrj.br would become ufrj.edu.br. During a meeting in early 2001, however, the Committee decided it would be of public interest to not move every second-level domain as to avoid confusion, but instead established rules regarding their registration:
As of September 2024, Registro.br reports 1207 domains registered directly under .br.
As of August 2025, there are 147 different second-level domains of .br under which custom domains can be registered, and they are divided into eleven categories: "Generic", "Business", "Culture", "Education", "Personals", "Entertainment", "Public Authority", "Locations", "Professions", "Technology" and "Third Sector". They are the following:
From 2000 until 2009, during election cycles, electoral candidates could register domains under CAN.br, with the format [name][number].can.br â where the name is the registered candidate name, and the number is the identification number for that candidate in the election (related to the party's identification number). The second-level domain was in a category of its own, called "natural persons, special".
As an example, during the 2004 elections for mayor of Aracaju:
Domains were free for registered candidates. Additionally, domains were automatically cancelled at the end of the first round if the candidate lost, and remaining ones were cancelled after the end of the second round.
No new .can.br domains have been registered since 2009.
In late 2024, legislation regulating online gambling in Brazil â usually referred to simply as "bets" in the country â was passed. Among the stipulations was that, from January 2025 onward, such companies must operate under a BET.br domain. By definition, any online gambling websites not operating under a .bet.br domain are operating illegally.
There are multiple agencies registered directly under .br, as second-level domains, that are not higher education or research institutions. The following list might not be exhaustive:
Most of these agencies are subsidiaries of CGI.br and, as such, they follow a similar corporate identity. The "logos" are combinations of the names of the agencies with the logo for .br, all of which are simply typed out with Brandon Schoech (Tepid Monkey)'s freeware font "Qhytsdakx":
There are multiple networks registered directly under .br, usually of academic nature. Again, this list may not be exhaustive:
As of September 2024, .BR is the 9th most used TLD in the world and the 6th most used ccTLD, accounting for approximately 1.5% of all domain names. It is also the most used Portuguese language TLD.
As of 9 September 2024, Registro.br's statistics page reported the following:
The "Education" category also includes ( of the total) custom second-level domains registered directly under .BR â for example, the National Observatory at ON.BR.