example.com

example.com is a special-use domain name reserved by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) for use in documentation, examples, and testing within technical specifications and software development.^[1]
It was established through RFC 2606, published in June 1999 by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), which designates example.com, along with example.net and example.org, as second-level domains under the .com, .net, and .org top-level domains specifically for illustrative purposes to avoid conflicts with real-world registrations.^[2]
Unlike standard domains, example.com cannot be registered or used in production environments, ensuring it remains a neutral placeholder in protocols, APIs, and educational materials without risking unintended network interactions.^[3]
The domain points to a simple, IANA-maintained webpage displaying placeholder content to demonstrate basic HTTP functionality, further emphasizing its role in non-operational contexts.
This reservation helps standardize documentation across the internet ecosystem, preventing the need for temporary or fictional domains that could cause confusion or security issues.^[2]

Purpose and Reservation

Illustrative Role

Example.com serves as a reserved domain name specifically designated for illustrative and educational purposes, allowing authors, educators, and technical writers to reference a hypothetical second-level domain in documentation without suggesting that it points to an actual, accessible website. This placeholder usage prevents confusion among readers who might otherwise attempt to resolve or interact with the domain in real-world scenarios, ensuring that examples in books, tutorials, and sample configurations remain purely demonstrative.^[2] The guidelines for employing example.com were formalized by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) in RFC 2606, published in June 1999, which reserves it alongside other domains like example.net and example.org to facilitate clear, non-ambiguous references in technical specifications and standards documents. Building on this, RFC 6761 from 2013 expands the rationale, emphasizing that such special-use domains like example.com should not be registered or used in production environments to avoid unintended network traffic or conflicts with legitimate registrations. These documents explicitly recommend example.com for scenarios involving domain name system (DNS) demonstrations, API configurations, and protocol explanations, promoting consistency across technical literature.^[2]^[4] In practice, example.com plays a crucial role in mitigating potential trademark disputes or legal ambiguities that could arise from using unregistered but realistic-sounding domains in hypothetical examples. For instance, in software development tutorials, referencing "api.example.com" as a mock endpoint avoids any implication of affiliation with a real company, while in legal or policy discussions, it illustrates domain squatting risks without referencing actual entities. This approach underscores the domain's value in fostering accurate, risk-free educational content within the broader framework of domain name management overseen by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA).

Reservation Mechanism

The reservation of example.com is governed by the policies outlined in the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) guidelines for example domains, which designate it exclusively for use in documentation and illustrative purposes.^[3] These guidelines, rooted in RFC 2606 and RFC 6761, explicitly prohibit the registration, transfer, or commercial use of example.com, ensuring it remains unavailable to the public to prevent conflicts in the Domain Name System (DNS).^[2]^[4] Actual DNS resolution for production applications is not supported, as the domain is not intended for operational services; any incidental traffic or basic web responses provided by IANA serve only informational purposes and should not be relied upon.^[3] Enforcement of this reservation occurs through ICANN's oversight of IANA functions, with IANA acting as both the registrant and administrative contact for example.com in the WHOIS database, thereby blocking any attempts at delegation or assignment to third parties.^[1]^[4] While the DNS root zone file primarily manages top-level domain delegations, the policy-based reservation of second-level domains like example.com is maintained within the broader .com top-level domain hierarchy under ICANN's coordination, ensuring no authoritative name servers are delegated for it outside of IANA control. This structure upholds the domain's integrity without requiring technical blocks in the root zone itself. Legally, example.com's status under the DNS framework guarantees its perpetual availability for non-commercial, documentation-only use, as mandated by IETF standards to avoid domain squatting or unintended real-world resolutions that could disrupt internet stability.^[2]^[4] This reservation extends similarly to related domains such as example.org, which are subject to identical prohibitions and oversight.^[1]

Historical Development

Origins in Internet Protocols

The concept of example domains like example.com originated in the evolution of Internet addressing during the 1980s transition from ARPANET to a broader TCP/IP-based network, where early RFCs employed placeholder names to demonstrate hierarchical naming without risking real-world conflicts. As host tables grew unwieldy, documents introduced domain structures to organize addresses, using institutional or hypothetical labels as stand-ins for clarity in protocol explanations. For example, RFC 799 (1981) outlined domain naming for user applications, illustrating mail syntax with domains such as ARPA and COMSAT to show hierarchical partitioning across networks like ARPANET and SATNET.^[5] This approach addressed the limitations of flat naming in ARPANET's HOSTS.TXT file, promoting scalable addressing in emerging standards.^[5] Jon Postel, who informally established the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) in the early 1970s and served as RFC Editor from 1969 until 1998, significantly influenced the standardization of these placeholders in protocol documentation. Postel's oversight ensured that examples in RFCs consistently illustrated key mechanisms, such as in RFC 821 (1982), where he specified SMTP and used .ARPA domains like USC-ISIF.ARPA and ISI-VAXA.ARPA to depict mail transfer between hosts.^[6] Similarly, in DNS-defining RFC 1034 (1987), placeholders including VAXA.ISI.EDU and XX.LCS.MIT.EDU clarified name resolution and zone management, reflecting Postel's emphasis on practical, non-conflicting illustrations for protocols like SMTP and early hypertext transfer concepts.^[7] His role as IANA founder centralized these practices, fostering uniformity in Internet technical specifications.^[8] Before formal IANA policies solidified, pre-1992 technical papers and IETF drafts—starting with the IETF's formation in 1986—routinely incorporated such informal placeholders to denote hypothetical domains in network diagrams and protocol flows. These uses, often adapting real ARPA or .EDU names like those in RFC 882 (1983) for domain concepts, avoided ambiguity in discussions of mail routing and host addressing during ARPANET's phase-out. RFC 1591 (1994) built on this foundation by referencing example-like structures, such as IBM.Armonk.NY.US, to exemplify delegation hierarchies in DNS administration.^[9]

Formal IANA Designation

The formal designation of example.com as a reserved domain name was established by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) to provide a stable, non-conflicting identifier for use in technical documentation, software examples, and network testing scenarios. This status ensures that the domain cannot be registered or delegated to private entities, thereby avoiding real-world operational implications or trademark issues in illustrative contexts. The reservation specifically targets second-level domains under established top-level domains like .com, .net, and .org, reflecting IANA's role in coordinating the global Domain Name System (DNS) namespace.^[1] A key milestone in this designation occurred with the publication of RFC 2606 in June 1999, which explicitly reserved example.com, example.net, and example.org for documentation purposes as a best current practice (BCP 32). Authored by Donald E. Eastlake 3rd and Aliza R. Panitz on behalf of the IETF DNSIND working group, the document aimed to standardize the use of these names to prevent confusion in private testing and public specifications, noting that IANA would maintain their non-delegated status. This formalization built on earlier informal practices in Internet protocol development, providing clear guidelines for their non-commercial application.^[10] Further evolution came in RFC 6761, published in January 2013, which expanded on special-use domain names and reaffirmed the reserved status of example.com within a broader framework for non-DNS-resolving identifiers. This update, prepared by the IETF's Applications Area Working Group, emphasized operational considerations, such as not attempting DNS queries for these domains in production environments, and reinforced IANA's oversight to ensure consistency across Internet standards. IANA maintains ongoing responsibility for example.com, including blocking delegation to any registrar and integrating it into the root zone file as a special-purpose entry. Periodic policy reviews, coordinated through IETF processes and ICANN's oversight of IANA functions, confirm its relevance amid expanding DNS usage; as of 2025, no changes to its reserved designation have been implemented, preserving its utility for educational and developmental purposes.^[1]

Technical Specifications

Domain Hierarchy and Structure

The domain example.com occupies a position within the Domain Name System (DNS) as a second-level domain (SLD) labeled "example" beneath the generic top-level domain (gTLD) ".com," forming the hierarchical structure example.com. This places it two levels below the DNS root, where ".com" serves as the TLD managed within the global DNS namespace, and "example" functions as the SLD without further delegation to subdomains in production use.^[2] The syntactic composition adheres to standard DNS label rules, limiting the SLD to 63 characters of alphanumeric and hyphen characters, with no leading or trailing hyphens, ensuring compatibility with DNS protocol specifications. Despite its reserved status, example.com is delegated with A and AAAA records in the authoritative DNS zones, mapping to IPv4 (93.184.216.34) and IPv6 (2606:2800:220:1:248:1893:25c8:1946) addresses maintained by IANA, allowing resolution to a simple demonstration webpage for basic HTTP functionality. DNS queries for example.com return a NOERROR response code from the .com TLD's authoritative name servers, enabling this limited operational behavior while aligning with its documentation-only purpose and avoiding conflicts in the public DNS. Queries for non-existent subdomains under example.com elicit an NXDOMAIN response to prevent unintended production use.^[3]^[2]^[4] Similar reserved domains, such as example.net, follow an analogous structure as an SLD "example" under the ".net" gTLD, sharing the same syntactic constraints and resolvable characteristics with A and AAAA records pointing to IANA's infrastructure. Both domains are exempt from standard registration processes and support consistent DNS handling for illustrative examples, with NOERROR responses for the apex domains and NXDOMAIN for subdomains.^[2]^[3] This uniformity across example.* variants under different gTLDs supports their role in technical documentation without introducing variability in query resolution mechanics.^[3]^[4]

Management by IANA

The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), operated by Public Technical Identifiers (PTI) as an affiliate of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), holds primary responsibility for maintaining the reserved status of example.com within the DNS root zone. This involves ensuring the domain's entry in the root zone database reflects its non-delegable nature, preventing public registration or transfer, and periodically updating associated registries to enforce policy-based reservations.^[1] As outlined in RFC 2606 and extended by RFC 6761, example.com is explicitly reserved as a second-level domain under .com for use in documentation, testing, and illustrative purposes, with IANA coordinating these allocations to avoid conflicts in the global DNS namespace.^[2]^[4] For handling queries and misuse reports related to example.com, IANA processes change requests to the root zone through established procedures, including verification of policy compliance before any updates are propagated. Misuse, such as unauthorized attempts at registration or operational deployment, is addressed via ICANN's contractual compliance mechanisms, where reports are investigated and mitigation actions—like blocking invalid delegations—are enforced in coordination with root server operators. These operators, numbering 13 independent entities, receive IANA-approved root zone updates via automated distribution systems to maintain consistent DNS responses, such as NOERROR for example.com and NXDOMAIN for its subdomains.^[11]^[12] The management of example.com has evolved from manual oversight by Jon Postel, who performed IANA functions including root zone maintenance from the 1970s until his death in 1998, to a formalized structure under ICANN following the 1998 transition agreement. This shift introduced automated systems for root zone changes and registry updates, enhancing efficiency and global coordination. As of November 2025, no substantive changes to this framework have occurred, preserving the domain's reserved status without alteration.^[13]^[14]

Usage and Impact

Applications in Documentation

The domain example.com is extensively utilized in technical documentation to provide illustrative examples without relying on real-world domains, thereby avoiding unintended dependencies or conflicts in specifications and tutorials. In Request for Comments (RFCs) published by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), it serves as a standard placeholder for demonstrating domain name system (DNS) configurations, email protocols, and network behaviors; for instance, RFC 7208 on Sender Policy Framework (SPF) employs example.com to show valid and invalid email authentication scenarios.^[15] Similarly, API documentation often incorporates it to depict endpoint structures, such as in OpenAPI specifications where sample requests reference https://api.example.com/users for clarity. Programming tutorials frequently adopt example.com in code snippets, particularly for web technologies; the Mozilla Developer Network (MDN) documentation for HTML anchor elements uses to illustrate hyperlink implementation. Standards bodies leverage example.com to ensure specifications remain independent of proprietary or operational domains, fostering interoperability and ease of adoption. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and its aligned WHATWG HTML Living Standard recommend its use in examples to illustrate URI handling and form submissions, as seen in sections detailing link navigation and secure contexts. The reservation of example.com by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), as outlined in RFC 2606, underpins this consistent application across these contexts.^[2]^[1] Its prevalence in IETF documents alone—appearing in hundreds of RFCs—highlights its role in promoting uniformity and reducing errors in technical examples, with the RFC Style Guide explicitly endorsing https://example.com/ as the preferred URI format for illustrations.^[16] This widespread adoption enhances conceptual clarity in educational materials, such as CSS tutorials demonstrating domain-based selectors or JavaScript demos for fetch requests to hypothetical servers.

Common Misuses and Typosquatting

One common misuse of example.com arises from frequent typographical errors by users, particularly in technical documentation, configuration files, and manual URL entry, leading to misdirected DNS queries. For instance, "exmaple.com" is a prevalent misspelling where the letters "a" and "m" are transposed, resulting in unintentional traffic to unintended domains.^[17] Cloudflare, which owns exmaple.com as a "typo trap" to analyze such errors, reports that this traffic often stems from automated scripts, bots, or human input without autocorrect, highlighting how reserved domains like example.com can inadvertently draw erroneous requests in non-production environments.^[17] Typosquatting poses a security risk for domains resembling example.com, where malicious actors register slight variations—such as "examp1e.com" or "examplee.com"—to intercept users seeking the legitimate reserved domain for documentation purposes. These rogue domains can host phishing pages, malware, or redirect traffic to fraudulent sites, exploiting the domain's prominence in educational and illustrative contexts.^[18] Although example.com itself is protected from registration, variations remain available in the open market, enabling attackers to capitalize on common errors like character substitutions or omissions.^[19] The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) address these issues through reservation policies and ongoing DNS monitoring, ensuring example.com cannot be registered for real-world use and reducing direct misuse potential. Per RFC 2606, this reservation minimizes conflicts and security confusion in testing or examples, with IANA maintaining oversight to handle abuse reports related to the domain name system.^[19] As of 2025, no major incidents of typosquatting specifically targeting example.com variations have been publicly reported, though general advisories emphasize vigilance against domain spoofing in documentation applications.^[20]