ICANN Announcements

Read ICANN Announcements to stay informed of the latest policymaking activities, regional events, and more.

ICANN Update: Launching RDAP; Sunsetting WHOIS

27 January 2025

As of 28 January 2025, the Registration Data Access Protocol (RDAP) will be the definitive source for delivering generic top-level domain name (gTLD) registration information in place of sunsetted WHOIS services. RDAP offers several advantages over WHOIS including support for internationalization, secure access to data, authoritative service discovery, and the ability to provide differentiated access to registration data. RDAP was developed by the Internet Engineering Task Force.

RDAP has been offered by ICANN-accredited registrars and gTLDs since 2019.

Users are encouraged to utilize ICANN's RDAP-based Lookup service at https://lookup.icann.org/en or ICANN's open-source command-line client hosted on GitHub. A list of other client implementations may be found on this page.

To request access to nonpublic gTLD registration data, use the Registration Data Request Service (RDRS) for participating registrars or contact the sponsoring registrar directly to determine their disclosure process. Please make sure you have first checked that the data is unavailable through the ICANN Lookup tool. The RDRS is intended for use by those with a legitimate interest in nonpublic data like law enforcement, intellectual property professionals, consumer protection advocates, cybersecurity professionals, and government officials.

About ICANN

ICANN's mission is to help ensure a stable, secure, and unified global Internet. To reach another person on the Internet, you need to type an address – a name or a number – into your computer or other device. That address must be unique so computers know where to find each other. ICANN helps coordinate and support these unique identifiers across the world. ICANN was formed in 1998 as a nonprofit public benefit corporation with a community of participants from all over the world.