.ac Domain
Ascension Island's Domain With Academic Appeal
Register your .ac domain from just £82.99/yr. Free DNS management, email forwarding, and 10GB mailbox included with every domain.
This domain has registration restrictions
Second-level .ac names are open to anyone anywhere, but third-level names under zones such as com.ac require Ascension Island residency. Read the full eligibility rules.
What is a .ac domain?
The .ac domain is the country code for Ascension Island, a tiny British Overseas Territory in the South Atlantic. Its popularity comes from a different association: "ac" reads as "academic". Worth knowing that the registry does not encourage that use, and publishes the line that academic institutions are advised to register in other extensions instead. Open registration means anyone can grab one, and the short two-letter format makes it attractive for tech companies and startups too.
Who should register .ac?
Tech startups, domain-hack brands, and businesses with ties to British Overseas Territories. UK academic institutions are better served by .ac.uk.
Why choose .ac?
- Two letters with strong academic connotation
- Open registration with no residency rules
- British Overseas Territory heritage
- Short format popular with tech companies
Who runs .ac, and since when
Registry data from the .ac delegation record held by IANA, which maintains the internet's root zone. Eligibility comes from the registry's own policy, and the prices are ours.
- Extension type
- Country-code (ccTLD)
- Registry operator
- Internet Computer Bureau Limited
- The organisation that runs the extension
- In the root zone since
- 1997
- Delegated 19 December 1997
- Who can register
- Open to anyone at the second level; third-level names need Ascension Island residency
- Checked against the registry's own policy
- Our price
- £82.99 a year
- Ex VAT. Renews at the same price
What .ac really is, and what .ac.uk is not
The .ac domain belongs to Ascension Island and is run from Kent. Internet Computer Bureau Limited, the manager recorded in IANA's root zone database since December 1997, is a British company registered for VAT in the UK. Registration is open, and the registry says so in rule 3.1 of its own allocation rules: an applicant may reside in any legal jurisdiction.
The academic association is real but thinner than it looks, and the registry itself says so. The nic.ac home page carries the line "It is advisable that academic institutions register in other TLDs." British universities do not use .ac. They use .ac.uk, a restricted namespace inside .uk that is a separate thing entirely, and a .ac gives you none of the standing that .ac.uk implies.
Where .ac earns its keep is as a two-letter ending that still has short names left. Brevity is the product. Budget for it, though: at the price on this page it is one of the more expensive extensions we sell, and there is nothing technical behind the premium. You are paying for the letters.
Who is allowed to register .ac?
Second-level .ac names are open to anyone anywhere, but third-level names under zones such as com.ac require Ascension Island residency.
- The second level is open
- Rule 3.1 of the registry's allocation rules states that an applicant may reside in any legal jurisdiction. There is no residency test, no documentation and no academic requirement for a name registered directly under .ac.
- The third level is not
- Rule 4.1 requires an applicant for a name under a third-level zone such as com.ac to be resident in Ascension Island, and rule 4.7 requires at least one of the domain's nameservers to be physically located there. That is a hosting condition as well as a residency one.
- Appropriate use
- Rule 5 bars any .ac domain from being used, directly or indirectly, for anything sexual or pornographic or contrary to the statutory laws of any nation. The registry reserves the right to deactivate an offending registration immediately, without a dispute process first.
- It is not .ac.uk
- A .ac registration confers no academic status and no connection to the restricted .ac.uk namespace British education uses. The registry advises academic institutions on its own home page to register in other extensions.
Rules taken from the nic.ac allocation rules. Registry policy can change, so check before you buy if the answer matters to you.
Not sure whether you qualify? Ask us before you order and we will check the registry rules with you. We would rather answer the question than take an order the registry will refuse.
Is .ac the right choice for you?
We would rather sell you the right extension once than the wrong one twice.
.ac works well if
- You want a two-letter ending and the short name you are after is still free there, which is rarely true in .com or .co.uk.
- You are running an academic side project, a reading list, a conference or a personal research page, where "ac" reads as a nod rather than a claim.
- You have a real connection to Ascension Island or the wider South Atlantic territories and want the address to carry it.
Look elsewhere if
- You are a school, college or university in the UK. Your sector recognises .ac.uk, and the .ac registry itself advises academic institutions to register elsewhere.
- Price matters. At the figure on this page a .ac costs several times a .co.uk every year, and the renewal never gets cheaper.
- Customers need to reach you after hearing the address once. "Dot A C" is fine spelled out and hopeless said quickly, and plenty of people will reach for .com instead.
Running a UK business rather than an academic project? A .co.uk does more for local search at a fraction of the annual cost. See .co.uk pricing.
.ac vs .io: which should you register?
These two share a biography. Both are country-code extensions for small British territories in the middle of an ocean, both were delegated in 1997, both were adopted by people who liked what the two letters spelled rather than where they came from, and both are priced accordingly. .io picked up the technology sector. .ac picked up a weaker link to the word academic and never built the same momentum.
Recognition is where that shows. A .io address is read as a deliberate choice by the audience it aims at. A .ac address is more often read as a typo for .co, or as the ending someone settled for. If the two letters are the point and your readers are technical, .io is the better known of the pair. If the specific word matters more than the crowd, .ac has more short names left.
.ac domain questions, answered
What people ask us before registering a .ac domain.
Can't find what you're looking for?
Ask us directlyNo, and the difference matters. .ac.uk is a restricted namespace inside .uk that British education and research bodies use, with eligibility rules behind it. .ac is the country-code extension for Ascension Island, open to anyone in any jurisdiction. Registering a .ac gives you none of the standing a .ac.uk implies. The registry that runs .ac makes the point on its own home page, advising academic institutions to register in other extensions instead.
No. The registry's allocation rules state that an applicant may reside in any legal jurisdiction, and there is no academic test, no documentation and no proof of purpose for a name at the second level. The one real restriction sits a level down: a name under a third-level zone such as com.ac requires the applicant to be resident in Ascension Island and requires at least one nameserver to be physically located on the island.
Because the registry prices it that way and the supply of two-letter endings is fixed. Nothing technical differs: DNS resolution, DNSSEC support and the record types are identical to any other extension, so you are paying for the letters. Check the annual figure on this page against a .co.uk before committing, and remember it recurs every year. Every domain we sell includes free DNS management and email forwarding whatever the registry charges.
Included with Your .ac Domain
DNS Management
Full DNS zone editor to manage A, CNAME, MX, TXT, and all record types.
Email Forwarding
Set up professional email addresses and forward to any inbox.
Auto-Renewal
Never lose your domain with automatic renewal protection.
Free 10GB Mailbox
One 10GB mailbox (POP3/IMAP) included with every domain, on any TLD.
Other Geographic Domains Extensions
Register your .ac domain today
Secure your .ac domain from just £82.99/yr. Free DNS management, email forwarding, and 10GB mailbox included.
