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IDN / Non-English Domain Checker

Check availability for accented and non-Latin names.

How it works

Check accented and non-Latin domain names (IDNs)

Domains like café.com, münchen.de or 北京.com are internationalised domain names. Behind the scenes they are stored as ASCII 'xn--' punycode, and that is what registries and DNS see. Paste your name in its native script and we convert it with the browser's built-in IDNA rules, show the exact punycode, check whether the punycode name resolves in DNS, confirm availability with the registry where the extension supports IDNs, and offer an ASCII fallback (cafe.com) that everyone can type.

Results appear here after you click Check IDN.

How this works

1
Convert with IDNA
The browser's URL parser applies the official IDNA mapping and punycode encoding, producing the xn-- label registries store.
2
Check DNS and registry
The punycode name is queried for nameservers over DNS-over-HTTPS and checked against the registry through our search API.
3
Offer the ASCII fallback
Accents are folded (ü to ue, é to e) to produce the plain spelling most people type, checked live alongside.

Frequently asked questions

What is an IDN domain?: An internationalised domain name contains characters outside a to z, 0 to 9 and hyphen: accents like café, umlauts like münchen, or whole scripts like 北京 or مصر. DNS only understands ASCII, so IDNs are stored as punycode starting with xn--, and browsers translate between the two.
Can I register a domain with accents on .com?: Yes. .com, .net, .org and many country codes accept IDNs in dozens of scripts, and they cost the same as ASCII names. Check the result above: if the registry answer is 'available' you can add it to the cart like any other name.
Will email work on an accented domain?: Not reliably. Many mail servers and web forms reject addresses at IDN domains or garble them. The safe pattern is to use the unaccented domain for email and the website's canonical address, and redirect the accented one to it.
Why does my browser show xn-- instead of my name?: Browsers show punycode when a label mixes scripts or could look like another brand, to stop spoofing (for example a Cyrillic 'а' in 'pаypal'). Names in a single script with no confusable characters display normally.
Why check the DNS status as well as the registry?: A few extensions accept IDN registrations only through specialist registrars, so our registry API may not return an answer for the punycode form. The DNS query is universal: NXDOMAIN means nobody holds the name, while nameservers mean it is registered.

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