.com.au Domain
Australia's Most Established Commercial Domain
Register your .com.au domain from just £16.99/yr. Free DNS management, email forwarding, and 10GB mailbox included with every domain.
This domain has registration restrictions
Only Australian commercial entities may hold a com.au, and the domain name itself has to match or relate to that entity, its trade mark or what it sells. Read the full eligibility rules.
What is a .com.au domain?
The .com.au domain has been the standard for Australian businesses since the internet's early years. Managed by auDA (the .au Domain Administration), it requires registrants to have an Australian presence, which keeps the namespace clean and credible. While the shorter .au became available in 2022, .com.au remains far more widely used and recognised by Australian consumers. For UK businesses with Australian operations, it's the domain that builds trust Down Under.
Who should register .com.au?
Australian businesses, UK companies with Australian branches, and international brands targeting the Australian market.
Why choose .com.au?
- Australia's most widely used business domain
- Requires Australian presence (trusted namespace)
- More established than the newer .au
- Strong consumer recognition across Australia
Who runs .com.au, and since when
Registry data from the .com.au 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)
- Registered under the .au zone
- Registry operator
- .au Domain Administration (auDA)
- The organisation that runs the extension
- .au delegated
- 1986
- The date belongs to the .au zone, not to .com.au itself
- Who can register
- Australian commercial entities only, and the name must connect to your business
- Checked against the registry's own policy
- Our price
- £16.99 a year
- Ex VAT. Renews at the same price
How com.au eligibility works and what auDA checks
Most extensions with a rule ask one question: are you allowed to be here. .com.au asks two. You must be an Australian commercial entity, and the name you choose must connect to you. The second half is what catches UK buyers out, because hardly anything else on the market works that way.
Under the .au Licensing Rules, an applicant in the com.au namespace has to be a Commercial Entity: a company under the Corporations Act, an entity or person holding an Australian Business Number, a registrable body with an ARBN, an incorporated association, a trading statutory body or co-operative, an incorporated limited partnership, government, or a foreign legal entity holding an Australian trade mark. Then the name has to be a match or acronym of your company, business, statutory or personal name, your Australian trade mark, or a related body corporate, partnership or trust. There is one broader route: a match or synonym of a service you provide, goods you sell, an event you run, an activity you teach or premises you operate, and you must be providing it when you apply.
If an Australian trade mark is your only route to Australian presence, the rule tightens rather than relaxes. The domain then has to be an exact match to the words of the mark, in the order they appear, with DNS identifiers, punctuation, articles and ampersands set aside. auDA closed the older "close and substantial connection" wording on 12 April 2021 for precisely this reason, and a trade mark registered outside Australia has never counted on its own.
What .au direct changed, and what it did not
Second-level .au names commenced on 24 March 2022. Existing holders got a priority window to claim the matching short name, applications closed on 20 September 2022, and everything unclaimed went to the general public from 3 October. That produced a lot of commentary about com.au being finished. It was not: auDA's position was that .au direct complements com.au, net.au and org.au rather than replacing them. Check whether your matching .au went to somebody else in 2022 before you build a brand on the com.au, because that window is closed for good.
One last point, because auDA states it plainly and few registrars repeat it. A .au name is a licence, not property: you hold the right to use the DNS with that name for one to five years, conditional on staying eligible throughout. Lose the ABN and the licence can be suspended or cancelled.
In a mobile-first digital economy, registrants recognise the benefit of shorter, simpler .au direct domain names that help unlock new online opportunities for Australian businesses, organisations and individuals.
What that means if you are buying one
That is the registry making the case for its new namespace, not a verdict on com.au. The same statement said .au direct complements com.au rather than replacing it, and the two now sit side by side. If you are choosing today, look up whether the matching .au is taken before you commit, because holding one and not the other is where a lot of Australian businesses quietly ended up.
Who is allowed to register .com.au?
Only Australian commercial entities may hold a com.au, and the domain name itself has to match or relate to that entity, its trade mark or what it sells.
- Who qualifies
- The applicant must be a Commercial Entity under the .au Licensing Rules: a company under the Corporations Act, an entity or natural person with an ABN, a registrable body with an ARBN, an incorporated association, a trading statutory body or co-operative, an incorporated limited partnership, government, or a foreign legal entity holding or applying for an Australian trade mark.
- The name must connect to you
- A com.au cannot be any available string. It must be a match or acronym of your company, business, statutory or personal name, a match of your Australian trade mark, a match or acronym of a related body corporate, partnership or trust, or a match or synonym of a service you provide, goods you sell, an event you run, an activity you teach or premises you operate. For that last group you must be providing it when you apply.
- Trade mark holders
- Where an Australian trade mark is the only thing giving you Australian presence, the domain must be an exact match to the words of that mark, in the same order, ignoring DNS identifiers such as com.au, punctuation, articles and ampersands. These rules commenced on 12 April 2021 and replaced an earlier test that accepted a close and substantial connection to those words.
- What you supply
- You give your ABN, ACN, ARBN or Australian trade mark number when you order, and it is recorded against the licence. It is checked against the relevant Australian register rather than taken on trust, so a number belonging to a different entity from the named registrant will not pass.
- If you stop qualifying
- Eligibility has to be maintained for the whole licence period, not just at the point of sale, and the rules say the licence may be suspended or cancelled by the registrar or by auDA if you are no longer eligible. You must also tell your registrar about any change to the information used to apply or renew, within fourteen calendar days.
Rules taken from the .au Licensing 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 .com.au the right choice for you?
We would rather sell you the right extension once than the wrong one twice.
.com.au works well if
- You hold an ABN or an ACN and you sell to Australian customers, who read the extension before they read the brand.
- You are a UK company with an Australian subsidiary. Register in that entity's name and the eligibility test is settled on the order form.
- Your business name, or a service you actually provide, is still free in com.au and you would rather have it than explain a longer alternative.
- You want a country signal in Google Australia, which matters more now that the Search Console country targeting setting has been withdrawn.
Look elsewhere if
- You have no Australian entity, no ABN and no Australian trade mark. There is no route in, and no privacy or nominee arrangement creates one.
- The name you want has nothing to do with your business or what you sell. The connection rule blocks it even when the name is free and you are eligible.
- You are relying on an Australian trade mark alone. The domain is then locked to an exact match of the mark, so a shorter or catchier variation is out.
- You sell to the UK. A com.au points Google at the wrong country, and it is seven characters longer than the .au you would otherwise weigh up.
No ABN and no Australian entity? Register the .com and serve Australian visitors from it until you have one. See .com pricing.
.com.au vs .au: which should you register?
This is the comparison Australian buyers have been having since March 2022, and the short version is that they are not really rivals. Both require an Australian presence. Only one of them also polices the name you pick.
Where com.au wins: recognition. It has been the Australian commercial address for decades, and it is what customers, invoices and printed material already assume. Where .au wins: length, and little else of substance. It is seven characters shorter, and it has no name-connection rule, so anyone with a validated Australian presence can register any available string.
The awkward part is history. If your matching .au was claimed by another party in the priority window that closed in September 2022, it is gone. Check before you commit rather than after.
| .com.au | .au | |
|---|---|---|
| Who may register | Australian Commercial Entities only | Anyone with a validated Australian presence |
| Name connection rule | Required | None |
| Available since | Long established | 24 March 2022 |
| Length | Seven characters longer | Shorter |
| Recognition | The Australian default | Newer, still bedding in |
| Annual cost | Slightly higher | Slightly lower |
.com.au domain questions, answered
What people ask us before registering a .com.au domain.
Can't find what you're looking for?
Ask us directlyNot as a UK company on its own. The applicant has to be an Australian Commercial Entity, which a company registered only at Companies House is not. Two routes work: register in the name of an Australian subsidiary or other entity holding an ABN, ACN or ARBN, or register on the strength of an Australian trade mark you hold or have applied for. The trade mark route restricts the domain to an exact match of the mark.
You need an ABN or one of the equivalents auDA accepts. An ACN, an ARBN for a registrable body, an incorporated association number or an Australian trade mark each satisfy the Australian presence test in their own right. What you cannot do is register without any of them. The number goes on the licence record and is checked against the relevant Australian register.
It has to connect to you, which is broader than matching your registered name but narrower than free choice. A match or acronym of your company, business, statutory or personal name works, as does a match of your Australian trade mark or the name of a related body corporate, partnership or trust. So does a match or synonym of a service you provide, goods you sell, an event you run or premises you operate, provided you are doing it when you apply.
Register the com.au if you have to choose one, because it is what Australian customers recognise and expect on a business. The shorter .au has no name-connection rule and reads well, but it arrived in March 2022 and carries less weight with a cautious buyer. If both are free, take both and redirect one. If your matching .au was claimed during the priority window that closed on 20 September 2022, that decision has been made for you.
You stop being eligible, and the licence becomes cancellable. The rules require eligibility to be maintained throughout the licence period rather than only at registration, and they say a licence may be suspended or cancelled by the registrar or by auDA where the holder no longer qualifies. You are also obliged to tell your registrar within fourteen calendar days. If the business is being restructured, move the licence to the surviving entity first.
Yes. The .au Licensing Rules state that a registrant is not required to pay a fee to transfer a licence between registrars, which is unusual and is why the transfer price shown here is nothing. You still have to be eligible on the date of the transfer, supply a valid authorisation code and make the request in writing, and the licence cannot be under a complaint, dispute resolution or court process at the time.
Included with Your .com.au 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 .com.au domain today
Secure your .com.au domain from just £16.99/yr. Free DNS management, email forwarding, and 10GB mailbox included.
