.np Domain Registration Guide: How to Get Nepal's Free Domain

.np is the country-code top-level domain (ccTLD) of Nepal, the two-letter internet suffix reserved for the country under the global domain name system administered by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA). According to the IANA root zone database, .np was delegated on 25 January 1995 (Magh 2051 BS) to Mercantile Communications Pvt. Ltd., a Kathmandu-based company that was among Nepal's pioneering internet service providers. Mercantile has operated the registry ever since as a voluntary public service, and both registration and later modification of .np domains are provided free of cost — a deliberate policy intended to encourage Nepali individuals, businesses and institutions to build an online presence.

Unlike most country domains, .np does not sell names directly at the second level: you cannot register example.np. Instead, all names are registered at the third level under a set of category-based second-level domains, such as example.com.np for a business or example.org.np for a non-profit. There are no resellers or accredited registrars in the usual sense; every application goes through the registry's own portal at register.com.np, where a human reviewer manually checks the documents before a domain is approved.

Because the domain is free, the registry compensates with strict eligibility screening. A .np name must be an exact match, abbreviation or acronym of the registrant's legal name or trademark, or otherwise closely and substantially connected to the registrant. This keeps speculation and domain hoarding low, but it also means a Nepali start-up cannot simply grab any catchy word the way it could with a paid .com — the name must be justifiable against the documents submitted.

The registry's FAQ lists the second-level domains under which names may be registered. The most widely used are com.np for commercial entities and general use, org.np for non-profit organisations, net.np for network and portal services, edu.np for educational institutions, and name.np for personal names. gov.np is reserved for Government of Nepal bodies and mil.np for the military — ordinary applicants cannot register under either.

Which extension you should choose depends on who you are and what documents you can produce. A registered private company will normally take com.np; an NGO registered with the Social Welfare Council fits org.np; a school or college applies under edu.np; and an individual registering under his or her own name uses name.np or, in practice, com.np, which the registry treats as open to personal registration as well. Choosing the extension that matches your documentation makes approval faster, because the reviewer can see an obvious connection between the requested name and the certificate you upload.

For a personal registration, the applicant must prove a legal connection to Nepal. The registry accepts a Nepali citizenship certificate, passport, driving licence or voter's identity card. Foreign nationals are not entirely excluded: a Non-Resident Nepali (NRN) identity card or a Nepalese resident visa also qualifies. Scans of the document (front and back for citizenship cards) are uploaded during the application, together with a signed cover letter addressed to the .np domain registrar stating that the domain is requested for personal use.

For an organisational registration, the portal asks for one document that establishes the entity's legal status in Nepal: a company registration certificate for incorporated companies; a branch or liaison office registration certificate for foreign companies operating in Nepal; an affiliation certificate from the Social Welfare Council for NGOs; a Permanent Account Number (PAN) registration certificate for non-incorporated entities; or a trademark registration certificate (or official filing receipt from the Department of Industry) where the domain is based on a brand rather than the entity's name. Organisations conventionally submit the cover letter on official letterhead, signed and stamped by an authorised person.

The naming rules themselves are simple but firmly enforced. A domain must be at least three characters long, may contain letters, numbers and hyphens (hyphens not at the beginning or end), and may not consist of offensive, generic or inflammatory words. Internationalised domain names — Devanagari or other non-Latin scripts encoded with the xn-- prefix — are not currently supported, so Nepali-language names must be romanised. Uploaded files must be in jpg, jpeg, png, gif or svg format and no larger than 800 kilobytes each.

The whole procedure is online at register.com.np and typically takes ten to fifteen minutes of form-filling, followed by a manual review. Before starting, arrange two name servers — a primary and a secondary — because the application form requires them. Most applicants use the name servers of their web-hosting company or a free DNS service such as Cloudflare; the domain simply will not resolve to a website without working DNS, and the form cannot be submitted without name server entries.

According to the registry's own FAQ, the approval process 'usually takes 3/4 business day or more, depending on the number of domain registration backlog.' In practice applicants commonly report anywhere from two to five working days. If the application is rejected — usually because the requested name does not match the documents, or a scan is unreadable — the reviewer's remark appears in your dashboard and you can correct and resubmit. Once approved, the domain becomes active at your name servers and you can point it to hosting, email or a site builder like any other domain.

edu.np registration follows the same portal and steps but the supporting documents must establish that the applicant is a genuine educational institution — typically the school or college registration certificate and, where applicable, the affiliation certificate from a university or from bodies such as the National Examinations Board or CTEVT. The cover letter should be on the institution's letterhead, signed by the principal or an authorised administrator, and the requested name should correspond to the institution's registered name or a recognisable abbreviation of it.

gov.np works entirely differently. Domains under gov.np are not issued through register.com.np at all; they are managed by the National Information Technology Center (NITC), the government data-centre agency under the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology. Government agencies apply to NITC with an official letter, providing valid administrator and technical contacts, and registration is free of cost. By directive of the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers (OPMCM), gov.np domains use NITC's own DNS servers, which is why virtually all official Nepali government websites are hosted within the government's integrated data-centre infrastructure.

Historically a .np domain, once approved, has had no annual renewal fee and no fixed expiry — it remains registered as long as the registrant's details stay valid and the registry has no reason to remove it. The registry does, however, reserve the right to verify registrations and delete entries. In December 2024 it launched a mass reverification drive, emailing every registrant's contact address (three reminder rounds) and warning that unverified domains could be suspended. This makes it essential to register with an email address you actually monitor and to update your contact details in the portal when they change.

Disputes over .np names are handled conservatively. The terms and conditions provide that where two parties claim the same name, the registry may transfer a domain to a challenger whose trade name was registered with the Government of Nepal at least one year before the domain registration; otherwise the parties are expected to resolve the matter between themselves or through the courts. There is no UDRP-style paid arbitration as with generic top-level domains, so businesses are well advised to register their trademarks with the Department of Industry and secure the matching .np names early.

The free-for-life model is set to change. The Information Technology and Cyber Security Bill, 2082, registered in the House of Representatives in June 2025 (Jestha 2082) and passed by the House in August 2025 (Bhadra 2082), devotes a chapter to domain names and gives the Department of Information Technology (DoIT) authority to manage and regulate all .np domains — a role Mercantile Communications has performed voluntarily for three decades. Under the bill's provisions, .np registrations would carry a prescribed fee and require renewal every two years, with existing holders given six months from the law's commencement to re-register; government agencies would be exempt from renewal fees.

As of mid-2026, however, the transition has not taken practical effect: register.com.np continues to operate as the registration portal and still states that .np registration is free of cost, and the fee schedule and operating regulations under the new law have not been published. Anyone planning a Nepali website should therefore register the needed .np names now, while the process remains free, and keep contact details current so that any future re-registration notice under the new regime is not missed. This section will be updated as DoIT publishes implementing rules.