.in Domain Prices — Compare 37 Registrars

Any member of the world can register a .in name, with the names being allocated on a first-come, first-served basis, just as is the case with most third-level names such as co.in.

Just because it is open does not mean that it is anonymous. According to the registrar agreement, all registrants, including foreign nationals, are required to undergo an electronic identity check (eKYC) within seven days of registering. In addition, those registering from outside India must sign a declaration specifying the business connection or purpose they have in India. If that declaration is not submitted, the name is placed on hold and the registry has the right to reject a foreign application entirely. Privacy and proxy services are prohibited, as are temporary and encrypted email services. The agreement names ProtonMail, Tutanota, Mailfence, Hushmail and StartMail among the banned services.

Some of the zones under .in are closed off. ac.in, edu.in and res.in are allocated to Indian academic and research organisations and are managed by ERNET. gov.in is used by the government and is handled by the National Informatics Centre. mil.in is for the military and is managed by the Ministry of Defence.

This policy of openness began in 2005; prior to that, .in was governed by strict rules and in order to obtain a co.in name one had to have a company with an operational presence in India. On 20 November 2004 the Department of Information Technology designated the National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI) as the new registry, and public registration began on 16 February 2005 following a three-week sunrise period which was reserved for Indian trademark owners by the .IN Registry.

ERNET continues to be in charge of the academic zones, but it was not the operator that NIXI replaced; that was the National Centre for Software Technology, which later became part of C-DAC. NIXI took over .in in January 2005, although IANA only officially approved the redelegation in November 2009. The report on the redelegation states that the transfer had taken place even though the normal procedure had not been followed.

NIXI is a not-for-profit organisation which was registered in June 2003 and is responsible for the .in domain under the government's authority. Tucows has been in charge of the technical registry system for .in since May 2025, having migrated more than 4.2 million .in domain names to its platform. On 30 June 2026, .in ranked as one of the ten most widely registered country code top-level domains in the world.