.al

.al
Introduced	21 April 1992
TLD type	Country code top-level domain
Status	Active
Registry	Electronic and Postal Communications Authority (AKEP)
Sponsor	Electronic and Postal Communications Authority
Intended use	Entities connected with Albania
Actual use	Very popular in Albania, also used elsewhere. Sometimes used in the US state of Alabama.
Registration restrictions	Free for anyone, some restrictions apply only on second level domains (ex: .com.al) which are allowed only for Albanian citizens and businesses registered in Albania
Dispute policies	Disputes must be with registrant alone; NIC disclaims all legal responsibilities
Registry website	https://akep.al/

.al is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Albania. It is administered by the Electronic and Postal Communications Authority of Albania (AKEP).

AKEP recommends that .al domain registrations be performed with one of the AKEP accredited registrars.^[1] There are also international registrars that resell .al domains.^[2] Domain names should be between 2 and 63 characters. Although the Albanian language has a number of special characters, the registry has not enabled the use of IDN characters.

2nd level registrations[]

In the past, registrations were not permitted directly at the second level, but a few existing names were "grandfathered"; they were uniti.al, tirana.al, soros.al, upt.al and inima.al.^{[citation needed]}

In 2012 registrars started to resell .al domain names widely making them popular outside Albania as domain hacks.^{[citation needed]}

In November 2014 the registry released two character domain names allowing for free landrush.^{[citation needed]}

3rd level registrations[]

Registrations used to be only beneath the second-levels, i.e., .com.al, .net.al, .org.al, and .edu.al labeled appropriately for the type of organisation, but many now exist directly below .al.^{[citation needed]}