Quick answer
Who controls a .org domain, and what does it cost?
.org domain at PanamaRegistrar, as of October 2026: $12.99 a year, the same price to renew. .org is managed by Public Interest Registry (PIR) in Reston, Virginia, United States, with Identity Digital in Bellevue, Washington, as back-end operator; United States law reaches both.
.org registry facts
| Registry manager (IANA) | Public Interest Registry (PIR) |
|---|---|
| Registry location | Reston, Virginia — United States |
| Back-end operator | Identity Digital Limited, Bellevue, Washington (United States) |
| Legal framework | ICANN registry agreement (generic TLD) |
| Dispute policy | UDRP; URS (reported applied to .org since 2021) |
| Who can register | Anyone: no residence, nexus or purpose rule |
| WHOIS / RDAP | WHOIS whois.publicinterestregistry.org · RDAP rdap.publicinterestregistry.org/rdap/ |
| DNSSEC | Yes (DS record in the root zone) |
| Registration term | 1 to 10 years |
| Price at PanamaRegistrar | $12.99/year; renewal $12.99/year; transfer $12.99 |
| IANA record last updated | 10 March 2026 |
Who runs the .org registry, and from which country?
Public Interest Registry (PIR) manages .org from 11911 Freedom Drive, Reston, Virginia, per the IANA root zone database. Its technical operator is a different company: Identity Digital Limited, at an address in Bellevue, Washington. Both entities are in the United States, so the registry and its back end answer to the same national courts. .org is a generic top-level domain run under an ICANN registry agreement. PIR's WHOIS host is whois.publicinterestregistry.org, and RDAP answers at rdap.publicinterestregistry.org. IANA last updated the record on 10 March 2026.
Can a court in the United States take down or seize a .org domain?
Two United States companies hold .org data: PIR as registry and Identity Digital as operator. A court order can be addressed to PIR, the entity that assigned the name. The in rem clause of the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act places a domain's legal situs in the district of its registry, which for .org is the district covering Reston, Virginia. A trademark owner can therefore seek transfer or cancellation there without suing the registrant in person. PanamaRegistrar is not a party to that process and cannot stop a valid order served on PIR.
What does PanamaRegistrar do with a complaint about a .org domain?
Nothing happens to a .org domain on a complaint alone. Copyright, defamation, political or competitor complaints need a decision from a Panamanian court; a foreign judgment must first be recognised in Panama by exequatur. Phishing, malware, botnets and fraud that takes money from victims are suspended within 24 hours of a well-documented report, child sexual abuse material immediately, and the URLs are reported to NCMEC. You are told before any action on your domain, unless the law or the court order forbids it; with Domain protection, every complaint is also read by a person before any action on the domain. This rule covers what PanamaRegistrar does, not the registry or our registrar partner. Steps and time limits: takedown procedure and how we handle complaints.
Who uses .org domains, and why?
Nonprofits, open-source projects, foundations and community groups use .org, according to the dataset. The extension has no eligibility rule: a company or an individual can register one too. Terms run from 1 to 10 years. Many advocacy groups and publishers choose .org for its civic image. That same audience is often the one that receives political or defamation complaints, so the registry location is worth knowing before launch.
Which registry rules are specific to .org?
PIR raised its .org wholesale fee to 11.00 US dollars from 1 June 2026, according to Domain Name Wire. .org supports DNSSEC and internationalised names. Its registry and its back end are separate companies, which is common for gTLDs: the registry sets policy, the operator runs the database and the lookup servers.
What does the WHOIS show for a .org domain?
.org allows WHOIS privacy, included free at PanamaRegistrar. Public lookups go to whois.publicinterestregistry.org or to PIR's RDAP service. They show the registrar, dates, nameservers and status codes, but not your contact details while privacy is on. Domain protection goes further: the registry receives our company's details as holder of record.
Do I need Domain protection for a .org domain?
No, it is optional: +$29 per year, on top of the .org price. Domain protection registers the domain in the name of DomaineGoat LLC, so the registration record and WHOIS/RDAP show our company, never you, and you can take it back in your own name for free. A transfer lock is on, and any transfer or DNS change must be confirmed from your account. We then hold only your email, and a person reads every complaint before any action on the domain; that review exists only with the option. It does not move the registry or change its courts.
Which dispute policy applies to .org?
.org follows the UDRP, like every gTLD. According to Giga Law (January 2021), the URS also applies to .org domains, which is uncommon for an older extension. The URS is a faster procedure for clear trademark cases. We lock the domain when the provider asks and apply the decision. We tell you when a case names your domain. Our steps for trademark cases: UDRP and URS.
How much does a .org domain cost, and how is it renewed?
At PanamaRegistrar, as of October 2026, .org costs $12.99/year; renewal is $12.99/year, and a transfer $12.99 with one year added, as ICANN rules provide for generic extensions. Term: 1 to 10 years. Payment is in crypto (BTC, USDT, USDC, ETH, SOL, LTC) from a prepaid balance, minimum top-up $25. Every extension: price list.
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.org questions
Can a political complaint get a .org domain taken down at PanamaRegistrar?
Not at our level. A political, defamation or copyright complaint needs a decision from a Panamanian court before we act; a foreign judgment must first be recognised in Panama. PIR, the .org registry in Reston, Virginia, is a separate company under United States law. A United States court can still address it directly.
Is .org only for nonprofits?
No. .org has no eligibility rule, and anyone can register one for 1 to 10 years. Nonprofits, open-source projects and foundations are its main users, but companies and individuals hold .org names too.
Does the URS apply to .org?
Yes, according to Giga Law, writing in January 2021 about a URS decision on a .org domain. The URS is a fast procedure for clear trademark cases, decided by an examiner rather than a full panel. The UDRP also applies. See UDRP and URS for how we handle both.
Can PanamaRegistrar stop the .org registry from acting on a court order?
No. The .org registry, Public Interest Registry (PIR), keeps its own copy of the registration and applies the law of its own country. PanamaRegistrar decides only what its own service does: we act on Panamanian court orders, not on unverified complaints. Our registrar partner also keeps its own legal duties. We tell you when we learn of a registry-level action, unless the law or the order forbids it. See the registry jurisdiction index.
How do I pay for a .org domain?
In crypto only: BTC, USDT, USDC, ETH, SOL, LTC. Top up your balance (minimum $25), then register the .org domain from it at $12.99/year. Send the exact amount on the exact network; the top-up is credited after the network confirmations. No ID and no KYC: one verified email per domain, never published.
Sources (8)
- IANA Root Zone Database: .org delegation record — IANA (checked 2026-10-19)
- 15 U.S.C. § 1125 — in rem civil action against a domain name, subsection (d)(2) — Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School (checked 2026-10-19)
- Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy — ICANN (checked 2026-10-19)
- URS Now Applies to .org Domain Names — Giga Law (6 January 2021)
- Amazon Route 53 developer guide: .org registration rules — Amazon Web Services (checked 2026-10-08)
- .org (encyclopedia entry) — Wikipedia (checked 2026-10-08)
- .org prices to increase on June 1 — Domain Name Wire (12 March 2026)
- Running a domain costs about a dollar a year: what eight registries charge — WebHosting.Today (6 August 2026)