xn--p1ai is the form the Domain Name System uses for .рф, the country-code domain of Russia written in Cyrillic. Every domain in a script other than the Latin alphabet has such a twin made of plain letters, digits and hyphens, and it always starts with xn--.
What does xn--p1ai mean?
It is the encoded name of .рф. The IANA root zone database lists .рф as Russia’s Cyrillic country domain, delegated since 12 May 2010 and managed by the Coordination Center for TLD RU. Users type and see .рф. Servers store and exchange xn--p1ai.
The DNS was built for names made of the letters a to z, the digits 0 to 9 and the hyphen. To carry other scripts, the IDNA standard turns each label written in Unicode into an ASCII string. The conversion is called Punycode, and the xn-- prefix marks the result as an encoded label. RFC 5890 names the two forms: the U-label is what people read (рф), the A-label is what the DNS handles (xn--p1ai).
How many country domains are written in other scripts?
On 28 October 2026 the IANA root zone database listed 61 active internationalized country-code domains (IDN ccTLDs), out of 309 active country codes. India alone has 15, in 10 scripts. Some examples:
| Domain | Country | Script | Form in the DNS |
|---|---|---|---|
| .рф | Russia | Cyrillic | xn--p1ai |
| .中国 | China | Han | xn--fiqs8s |
| .مصر | Egypt | Arabic | xn--wgbh1c |
| .भारत | India | Devanagari | xn--h2brj9c |
| .ไทย | Thailand | Thai | xn--o3cw4h |
| .ελ | Greece | Greek | xn--qxam |
| .한국 | South Korea | Hangul | xn--3e0b707e |
Each one is a separate domain with its own registry rules. Holding .ru does not give you .рф, and holding .cn does not give you .中国.
How are new ones created, and what changed at ICANN87?
Until now, a country obtained its IDN country domain through the IDN ccTLD Fast Track Process, which ICANN opened on 16 November 2009. On 22 October 2026, at ICANN87 in Bali, the ICANN Board adopted the ccNSO’s policy for selecting and retiring IDN country-code strings, leaving out only its Risk Treatment Appraisal provisions. The policy replaces the Fast Track. According to the ccNSO’s report to the Board, every string validated under the Fast Track is deemed validated under the new policy, so the existing domains keep their status.
Why does a browser sometimes show xn-- instead of the real name?
To protect users from lookalike addresses. Letters from different scripts can look identical: a Cyrillic а and a Latin a, for example. A fake site can use such a name to pass for a real brand. Chrome’s IDN display policy therefore checks each label and falls back to the xn-- form when, among other cases, a label mixes scripts such as Latin and Cyrillic, contains characters that can be confused with others, or resembles a well-known domain.
So when you see xn-- in an address bar, the browser is telling you that the name may not be what it looks like. Software that does not yet handle IDNs well can also show the encoded form. The GAC, in its ICANN87 Communiqué, encouraged wider adoption of Universal Acceptance, so that IDNs and email addresses in local scripts work everywhere.
What should you do now?
- List your markets where customers write in another script, and check whether your brand is free under that country’s IDN domain.
- Read the registry rules of each one before you file: eligibility can differ from the Latin-script domain of the same country.
- Watch for names that copy your brand with letters from another script, and act on them early.
- Convert between the two forms with the Punycode tool when you check a name or set up DNS.
Domgate is a corporate ccTLD registrar for 1,300+ extensions, IDN country domains included. Its IDN page lists the internationalized domains it registers for brand owners, law firms and registrars, with their rules.
