Punycode converter

What Punycode is

The domain name system only accepts the letters a to z, the digits and the hyphen. To write a name with accents, or in Cyrillic, Arabic, Chinese or another script, an internationalised domain name (IDN) is turned into an ASCII form called Punycode, defined by RFC 3492. Each label that contains other characters is encoded and given the prefix xn--: münchen.de becomes xn--mnchen-3ya.de.

When you need the xn-- form

Browsers convert names by themselves, but many tools do not: DNS zone files, web server and certificate settings, some e-mail systems and registry forms ask for the Punycode form. The converter gives both forms, one name per line, and keeps the rest of a web address or e-mail address as it is.

Look-alike names

Some letters of other scripts look like Latin ones, such as the Cyrillic а and the Latin a. A look-alike name can imitate a known brand. Converting a suspicious name shows it at once: an xn-- label gives it away. Brand owners register the main IDN variants of their name for this reason.

Extensions in other scripts

Extensions can be internationalised too: .рф for Russia (xn--p1ai), .中国 for China (xn--fiqs8s), .مصر for Egypt (xn--wgbh1c). Domgate registers names in these country code extensions.