gov is one of the original six top-level domains, defined in RFC 920.[2] Though "originally intended for any kind of government office or agency",[3] only U.S.-based government entities may register gov domain names, a result of the Internet originating as a U.S. government-sponsored research network.
gov is one of the original top-level domains created in 1984[4] (the other five being com, org, edu, mil, and arpa). The first site registered was css.gov in June 1985.[5]
Beginning in 1997, the General Services Administration (GSA) began administering gov. In February 2011, the GSA selected Verisign to manage the registry services, replacing Native Technologies, Inc.[6]
In January 2023, CISA selected Cloudflare to replace Verisign in providing registry services. Cloudflare also provides authoritative DNS services for the gov domain.[8]
Use
Many governments in the United States use a gov domain, though most use .us (e.g., leg.state.nv.us), .com (e.g., myflorida.com), .org (e.g., lacity.org), or other TLDs (e.g., senate.mn).[9] The full list of registered gov domains is published at get.gov/data.[10]
During GSA's administration of gov, registration and annual renewal fees peaked at $400 per year.[11] When CISA began managing the TLD in April 2021, all fees were removed.[12]
Federal Executive branch policy requires the use of gov for civilian agencies,[13] but some U.S. government-related websites use other domain names, including the United States Postal Service (e.g., usps.com) and various recruiting websites for armed services (e.g., goarmy.com). The United States Department of Defense and its subsidiary organizations typically use the mil sTLD instead of gov.
Eligibility
U.S.-based government organizations and publicly controlled entities are eligible to obtain a gov domain. This includes federal, state, local, or territorial government, as well as any tribal government recognized by the federal government or a state government.[14]
To register a gov domain, an authorization letter must be submitted to CISA. The signer of the letter differs by entity type, but it is typically an agency's head, chief information officer (CIO), or highest-ranking or elected official.
Historically, only U.S. federal government agencies were allowed to register a gov domain. In May 2002, GSA proposed a change that would open registration to state, local, and tribal governments in the U.S.,[15] a change that went into effect in March 2003.[16]
In November 2019, before the transfer of gov to CISA, GSA's authorization process was shown to be weak after someone impersonated the mayor of Exeter, Rhode Island in an authorization letter and successfully gained control of exeterri.gov. In response, GSA said it had implemented additional fraud prevention controls, and CISA advocated for transferring the TLD from GSA.[17]
Policy
The DOTGOV Act requires that CISA maintain requirements that "minimize the risk of gov Internet domains whose names could mislead or confuse users".[18] These include:
Requested names must correspond with the requesting entity's organization's name or services.
Generic terms are reserved for federal agencies, though generic words can be combined with state or local municipality names.
Most non-federal domain types require a two-letter United States postal abbreviations or state name equivalent, though exceptions are made. Rules have been established for municipalities whose names are unique, who are well-known, or that are among the most populous cities and counties in the nation.[19]
The Act also requires that gov domains not be used for political campaign or commercial purposes, and that domains are registered only by authorized individuals.
gov has been used to serve certain policy goals. As an action following Executive Order 13571,[20] President Barack Obama restricted executive branch agencies from registering new gov domains in an attempt to eliminate unnecessary, redundant, or outdated sites.[21] US government agencies used the gov registrar to make it easy for new registrants to opt-in to HTTPS preloading [22] and to make it easier for the public to report potential security issues.[23]
Use by states and territories
As of August2025[update], all states, the District of Columbia, and all territories except for the Northern Mariana Islands have operational domains in gov:
State or territory
Domain
Alabama
al.gov and alabama.gov
Alaska
alaska.gov
American Samoa
americansamoa.gov
Arizona
az.gov and arizona.gov
Arkansas
ar.gov and arkansas.gov
California
ca.gov
Colorado
co.gov and colorado.gov
Connecticut
ct.gov
Delaware
de.gov and delaware.gov
District of Columbia
dc.gov
Florida
fl.gov, florida.gov and myflorida.gov
Georgia
ga.gov and georgia.gov
Guam
guam.gov
Hawaii
hawaii.gov and ehawaii.gov
Idaho
idaho.gov
Illinois
illinois.gov
Indiana
in.gov and indiana.gov
Iowa
iowa.gov
Kansas
kansas.gov
Kentucky
ky.gov and kentucky.gov
Louisiana
la.gov and louisiana.gov
Maine
maine.gov
Maryland
md.gov and maryland.gov
Massachusetts
ma.gov, mass.gov and massachusetts.gov
Michigan
mi.gov and michigan.gov
Minnesota
mn.gov and minnesota.gov
Mississippi
ms.gov and mississippi.gov
Missouri
mo.gov and missouri.gov
Montana
mt.gov and montana.gov
Nebraska
ne.gov and nebraska.gov
Nevada
nv.gov and nevada.gov
New Hampshire
nh.gov
New Jersey
nj.gov and newjersey.gov
New Mexico
nm.gov and newmexico.gov
New York
ny.gov
North Carolina
nc.gov and northcarolina.gov
North Dakota
nd.gov and northdakota.gov
Ohio
ohio.gov
Oklahoma
ok.gov and oklahoma.gov
Oregon
oregon.gov
Pennsylvania
pa.gov
Puerto Rico
pr.gov
Rhode Island
ri.gov
South Carolina
sc.gov
South Dakota
sd.gov
Tennessee
tn.gov and tennessee.gov
Texas
texas.gov
Utah
utah.gov
Vermont
vt.gov and vermont.gov
Virgin Islands
vi.gov
Virginia
virginia.gov
Washington
wa.gov
West Virginia
wv.gov and westvirginia.gov
Wisconsin
wi.gov and wisconsin.gov
Wyoming
wy.gov, wyo.gov and wyoming.gov
International equivalents
While the use of gov as a top-level domain is restricted to the United States, several other countries have second-level domains of the same name or similar semantics for governmental purposes, such as official government email systems or online information portals (like GOV.UK or u.ae). Note that the governments of some jurisdictions use alternate domains in public communications (for example, the Government of Canada adopted canada.ca as its main public-facing URL in the 2010s, and some Canadian provinces have made similar changes).
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