The .quebec Domain: A Community Extension for Québec
The .quebec domain entered the root zone on 13 March 2014 under an ICANN agreement dated 19 December 2013, and its registry operator is PointQuébec Inc, a non-profit organisation based in Montréal. The agreement classifies it as a community extension under Specification 12. On 13 August 2026 the zone held 8,601 registrations, of which 7,197 appeared in the zone file.
Municipalities, cultural institutions, tourism operators, regional media and companies selling into the Québec market form the registrant base. The eligibility rule is real and it outlives the moment of registration. Do not read the string as a country code; Canada has its own. Check availability in .quebec domain search and compare a similar community model on the .cat page.
The registry states the rule plainly: to register, renew or accept the transfer of a .quebec name you must be a natural person or a legal entity with a link to the Québec community. That link may be linguistic, cultural, tourism-related or commercial, and no postal address in the province is demanded. What the rule does demand is continuity. Losing the link, publishing inaccurate registration data or failing to answer a registry query within ten days leads to a thirty-day suspension and then cancellation without refund.
.QUEBEC Domain at a Glance
- Registry operator PointQuébec Inc (non-profit, Montréal)
- Root zone entry 13 March 2014
- Eligibility Required — a link to the Québec community, tested at registration, renewal and transfer
- Zone size 8,601 registrations, 7,197 in the zone file (nTLDstats, 13 August 2026)
- Document Requirement No documents are required to register a .quebec domain
- Character Length 3 - 63 characters
- Registration Period 1 - 10 years
- Name Server Count 2 - 10 servers
.quebec Domain Prices — No Surprise Fees
Registration, transfer and renewal fees are listed separately. The renewal price can differ from the first-year price, so you see both up front.
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New Registration
$39.90 /year -
Transfer
$39.99 /year -
Renewal
$43.99 /year -
Restore
$124.20 -
Late Renewal
$8.80
Included With Every .quebec Domain
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Free DNS management
Change A, MX, TXT and CNAME records yourself from the panel — no waiting on anyone when you move a site or mailbox.
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Domain lock
While the lock is on, nobody can move your domain to another registrar without your approval.
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Domain forwarding
Point the domain at your existing site, a campaign page or a social profile — at no extra cost.
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Free WHOIS privacy
Your name, address and phone stay out of public WHOIS records, which cuts down spam and scam calls.
.quebec Domain Lifecycle
What happens day by day after it expires
Day 0 is the domain's expiry dateIn short: your .quebec domain is put on Client Hold on its expiry date, so the site and e-mail stop that same day. You can still renew during the first 20 days, but from this point a late renewal fee is added on top of the renewal price. On day 20 the registration is deleted and until day 50 only a paid restore brings it back. Nothing at all can be done in the 5 days that follow, and on day 55 the name is open to anyone. There is exactly one way never to enter this chain: keep auto-renewal on.
Domain Is Available (Available)
A .quebec address at this stage has not been taken yet, and it goes to whoever registers first. Check the name you have in mind — if it is free, it can be yours within minutes.
Domain Is Active (Active Period)
Once registration is complete, the domain is registered to you for the term you selected. You can renew at any point before it expires to keep it active, or switch on auto-renewal so you never have to watch the date.
Renewal Window (Client Hold)
On its expiry date your .quebec domain is put on Client Hold: the site and e-mail go down that day, but the registration is still yours. A single renewal within these first 20 days brings everything back exactly as it was — nothing is lost. The only difference is that a $8.80 late renewal fee is now added to the renewal price; renewing before the expiry date avoids that fee entirely.
Redemption Period (Redemption / RGP)
On day 20 the registration is deleted and the 30-day redemption period that ICANN requires of every gTLD registry begins. The name is not released to anyone during this time; only you can take it back, by paying the restore fee, until day 50. That fee is far higher than a renewal — renewing on time is always the cheaper route.
Pending Delete (Pending Delete)
Once the redemption window closes too, the domain enters its final 5 days and there is no way back. Neither renewal nor restore works here; nobody — your registrar included — can return the name to you. The registry uses this window as the last hold before the name goes back into the pool.
Open to Anyone Again (Released)
On day 55 the name .quebec returns to the pool and anyone can register it. Sought-after names are often gone within seconds, and there is no guaranteed way to get one back. Yet staying out of this timeline is entirely in your hands: leave auto-renewal on and the expiry date will never catch you off guard.
The timeline above is the schedule Atak Domain applies and publishes. The ICANN chart you will find elsewhere shows a renewal window of up to 45 days after expiry; ICANN's policy on expired registrations (section 2.2.1) lets registrars delete an expired domain at any time, provided they disclose their policy in advance. We apply that window as 20 days and publish it here in plain sight. Full text of the policy: ICANN Expired Registration Recovery Policy
.quebec Domain Specifications and Registration Rules
Registration conditions, supported features and the registry's own timelines in a single table.
.quebec Domain Registration
- Document Requirement No documents are required to register a .quebec domain
- Character Length 3 - 63 characters
- Registration Period 1 - 10 years
- Name Server Count 2 - 10 servers
.quebec Domain Support
- IDN Support Yes
- Transfer Support Yes
- Late Renewal Support Yes
Frequently Asked Questions About .quebec Domains
The questions people actually ask before registering — answered plainly.
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Any individual or organisation with a link to the Québec community may register. The registry defines that link broadly: a linguistic, cultural, tourism or commercial relationship all qualify. A publication producing French-language content, an agency selling tours to the province and a manufacturer with dealers there each fall inside the rule. The agreement additionally asks registrants to state their intended use at the time of registration. Begin at .quebec domain search.
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No postal address in Québec is required. What matters is a genuine link to the community rather than a location on paper. The distinction has teeth: a publisher in France promoting Québécois literature qualifies, while a company renting a mailbox in Montréal with no other connection does not. Your contact details in the registration record still need to be accurate and reachable, because the registry may write to them.
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Yes, and the registry lists the accepted characters explicitly: é, è, ê, ë, ô, œ, â, à, æ, ù, û, ü, ç, î, ï and ÿ. It also says it is working towards accents in the top-level string itself, so that .QUÉBEC becomes possible. Registering the unaccented equivalent alongside the accented name is a practical habit that reduces friction in email clients and older browsers.
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Three situations trigger suspension: the community link ends, the registration data is inaccurate, or a registry query goes unanswered for ten days. Suspension lasts thirty days, and if the problem is not resolved the name is cancelled without a refund. That makes a change of ownership, address or line of business a good moment to review the record. You can inspect the published data through whois search.
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Both are community extensions defined in their ICANN agreements, but they measure different things. The .cat rule looks at the site: it expects meaningful Catalan content or material that promotes the Catalan language and culture. The .quebec rule looks at the registrant and accepts a linguistic, cultural, tourism or commercial link to the community. One tests what you publish, the other tests who you are. See the .cat page to compare.
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