How many .nz domains are there?

• domain names provider registrar

There are roughly around 750,000 .nz domain names registered right now (we’re writing this in April 2024). The actual number changes every day as new domains are registered, and as old ones expire. The Domain Name Commission (DNC) has reports that make this data public, but they are usually a few months behind.

There are 16 different types of .nz domain. More data from InternetNZ tells us that there are over 530,000 .co.nz domains registered. Second-most popular are direct .nz (like domaincompare.nz), over 155,000. One of the reasons these are so popular is because anyone can register them. You don’t even have to be in New Zealand. At the other end of the scale, there are only four .cri.nz domains (which are for Crown Research Institutes).

When we say that 750,000 or more domains are registered, that doesn't necessarily mean that there are 750,000 websites with .nz addresses. Some domains might only be used for email. Some are only used for redirects, like the way typing trademe.nz into your browser takes you to trademe.co.nz. Some might be old and unused, just waiting to expire. It’s entire up to you what you do with your domains - you might even want to grab a particular domain just so no-one else can.

Of course, you can register almost any combination of letters and numbers in a new domain name, so the possible number of .nz domains is almost infinite. The only limit is your creativity - and your budget.