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Varying restrictions based on which second-level name registration is within. In all cases the registrant must have either aCPF orCNPJ, documents usually granted only to Brazilian residents or recognized companies
Structure
Registrations at third level beneath various categories (but.com.br is still much more popular than others);
Second-level registrations were allowed for institutions of higher education until 2000
With the exception of universities, thesecond-level domain is fixed and selected from a list that defines the category. For example,.art.br is in theart (music, folkloreetc.) category, and.org.br is in thenon-governmental organization category. Institutions oftertiary education were allowed to use theccSLD.edu.br, although some use.com.br and others (mainly public universities) use.br. 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.com.br domain, which has over 90% of all registered domains. The.jus.br (Judiciary), and.b.br (banks) domains have mandatoryDNSSEC use.
Created and delegated to Brazil in 1989[2] byJon Postel,[3] initially the domain was operated manually byRegistro.br and administered by theFundação de Amparo à Pesquisa 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 theBITNET ("Because It's Time NETwork"), theHEPnet ("High Energy Physics Network") and theUUCP ("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 theBrazilian Internet Steering Committee (Portuguese:Comitê Gestor da Internet no Brasil, 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 BrazilianDNS 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, theBrazilian Network Information Center (Portuguese:Núcleo de Informação e Coordenação do Ponto BR, or simply NIC.br),[4] 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.[5]
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 jurídica") or a physical person ("profissional liberal" and "pessoas físicas") that has a contact within Brazil can register domains.[6] Foreign companies that have a power-of-attorney legally established in Brazil can also do it by followingspecific rules.
The registration of domains including non-ASCIIPortuguese characters (à, á, â, ã, é, ê, í, ó, ô, õ, ú, ü and ç) is accepted since 2005.[7]
Minimum of 2 and maximum of 26 characters, not including the category. For example, in the field XXXX.COM.BR, this limitation relates to the XXXX.
Valid characters are [A-Z, 0-9], the hyphen, and the following accented characters: à, á, â, ã, é, ê, í, ó, ô, õ, ú, ü, ç.[7]
Domains cannot contain only numbers.
To maintain the integrity of the registry, Registro.br sets up an equivalence mapping to compare domain names with and without accented characters. The mapping is done by converting accented characters and the cedilla for their non-accented versions and "c", respectively, and discards hyphens. A new domain will only be allowed to be registered when there is no equivalent to a pre-existing domain, or when the applicant is the same entity that owns the domain equivalent.
Specifically for the domain .NOM.BR, it is necessary to choose two names, i.e.: NAME1.NAME2.NOM.BR.
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 – so, for example,ufrj.br would becomeufrj.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:[9]
No longer accepting automatic registration of second-level domains, and evaluating every request for one individually;
Creating edu.br, and forwarding requests from education and research institutions to it;
Concession to education and research institutes that already had a second-level .br domain, as long as its usage is appropriate and that domain name is related to the institution's name or acronym. Domains approved are automatically duplicated under edu.br as well, and both may exist concurrently – for example, the still existingufrj.br also has a registeredufrj.edu.br, although the latter is not used;
Other institutions not approved above must be migrated permanently to edu.br (but would be given sufficient time for the transition).
As of September 2024, Registro.br reports 1207 domains registered directly under .br.[1]
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".[10] They are the following:
From 2000 until 2009, during election cycles, electoral candidates could register domains underCAN.br, with the format[name][number].can.br – where the name is the registered candidate name, and the number is the identification number for that candidate in the election (related to theparty's identification number).[13][14] The second-level domain was in a category of its own, called "natural persons, special".[15]
As an example, during the 2004 elections for mayor ofAracaju:[16]
Susana Azevedo had the websitesusana23.can.br (her first name andCidadania's identification number, 23);
Jorge Alberto had the websitejorgealberto15.can.br (his name andMDB's identification number, 15).
Domains were free for registered candidates. Additionally, domains were automatically cancelled at the end of thefirst round if the candidate lost, and remaining ones were cancelled after the end of the second round.[13]
No new .can.br domains have been registered since 2009.[17]
In late 2024, legislation regulatingonline gambling in Brazil – usually referred to simply as "bets" in the country – was passed. Among the stipulations was that, from January 2025 onward, such companies must operate under aBET.br domain.[18] 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:
The Committee establishes strategic directives related to the use and development of the internet in Brazil, directives for the registration of domain names, IP allocation and administration regarding the .br TLD
Officially called "Centro Regional de Estudos para o Desenvolvimento da Sociedade da Informação", it monitors the adoption ofinformation and communications technology in Brazil
Has the mission to inform users and network administrators about spam, its implications and forms of protection and combat
INTERNETSEGURA.br
Portuguese for "Safe Internet"
Has the mission to incentivize the safe use of the internet
ZAPPIENS.br
Named afterPortugal's now defunctZappiens.pt, managed by theFCCN
Has the mission to be a free service for the aggregation and distribution of audiovisual scientific, educational, artistic and cultural content inPortuguese
Most of these agencies are subsidiaries ofCGI.br and, as such, they follow a similarcorporate 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)'sfreeware font "Qhytsdakx":
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.[19] It is also the most usedPortuguese language TLD.[c]
Usage of the .BR space, highlighting its five most registeredsecond-level domains
The "Education" category also includes1,207 (0.02% of the total) custom second-level domains registered directly under .BR – for example, theNational Observatory at ON.BR.
^Andy Greenberg (4 April 2017)."How Hackers Hijacked a Bank's Entire Online Operation".Wired.Kaspersky believes the attackers compromised NIC.br (...) Kaspersky points to a January blog post from NIC.br that admitted to a vulnerability in its website (...) [Frederico Neves] denied that NIC.br had been "hacked." But he conceded that accounts may have been altered
^Getschko, Demi (1 April 2006)."Nomes de domínio na internet".Pesquisa sobre o uso das tecnologias da informação e da comunicação 2005 (in Brazilian Portuguese).São Paulo:CGI.br:21–24. Retrieved18 August 2021.
