Sponsored top-level domain
A sponsored top-level domain is one of the categories of top-level domains maintained by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority for use in the Domain Name System of the Internet, alongside country-code top-level domains and generic top-level domains.
A sponsored TLD is a specialized top-level domain that has a sponsor representing a specific community served by the domain. The communities involved are based on ethnic, geographical, professional, technical or other theme concepts proposed by private agencies or organizations that establish and enforce rules restricting the eligibility of registrants to use the TLD.
Generally speaking, a sponsored TLD is a specialized TLD that has a sponsor representing the narrower community that is most affected by the TLD, while an unsponsored TLD operates under policies established by the global Internet community directly through the ICANN process. For example, the.aero TLD is sponsored by SITA, which limits registrations to members of the air transport industry.
| TLD | Eligibility | Sponsors |
| .aero | Members of the air-transport industry | SITA |
| .asia | Companies, organisations and individuals in the Asia-Pacific region | DotAsia Organisation |
| .coop | Cooperative associations | DotCooperation LLC |
| .edu | US Institutions of higher education | Educause |
| .gov | United States government, states and local governments | Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency |
| .int | International treaty-based organisations | Internet Assigned Numbers Authority |
| .jobs | Human resource managers | : IANA states that the sponsoring organization is Employ Media LLC, but also presents a delegation report that states Employ Media LLC is a registry, and the sponsoring organization is The Society for Human Resource Management |
| .mil | US Military entities | Defense Information Systems Agency |
| .post | Postal services | Universal Postal Union |
ICANN only applied the term sponsored TLD to TLDs in the first two rounds of new gTLDs. It did not use the distinction between sponsored and unsponsored for new gTLDs in the 2012 round. Moreover, some sTLDs migrated to non-sponsored gTLDs on the Registry Agreement renewal.