🇵🇹 .pt — Portugal

The .pt is a country-code top-level domain (ccTLD) operated by Associação DNS.PT. This article documents the technical, operational, and contractual requirements for the TLD, along with special considerations for registry, registrar, and domain management.

General Information

Property	Value
TLD Type	ccTLD
Registry	Associação DNS.PT
Registry Country	Portugal
Registry Website	www.pt.pt
Provisioning Protocol	EPP
Second-Level Registration	✅ Yes
Accreditation Required	✅ Yes

Domain Lifecycle

Property	Value
Registration Period	1–5 years
Renewal Period	1–5 years
Transfer Renewal Period	1 year
Deletion Policy	Immediate
Auto-Renew Enabled	❌ No
Auto-Renewal Before Expiry	On expiration
Sync After Operations	registration, transfer

Grace periods

Period	Duration
Add Grace Period	0 days
Standard Grace Period	0 days
Redemption Period	0 days
Pending Restore	0 days
Pending Delete	0 days

Launch Phases & Availability

Property	Value
General Availability	✅ TLD is live
TMCH / Trademark Claims	❌ No

Domain Characteristics

Property	Value
Domain Length	2–63 characters
IDN Support	❌ No
Premium Domains	❌ No
Reserved Domains	❌ No
Registry Lock	❌ No

Contacts & Roles

Property	Value
Required Contacts	Domain Owner
Supported Roles	Domain Owner
Thick WHOIS	✅ Yes
Privacy Proxy Allowed	❌ No
Contacts Transferable	❌ No
Allowed Postal Types	International
AuthInfo Required	✅ Yes (1–255 characters)

Nameservers & DNS

Property	Value
Nameserver Count	2–10
Host Objects Allowed	❌ No
Registry Nameserver Check	❌ No
DNSSEC Allowed	✅ Yes
DNSSEC Required	❌ No
DNSSEC Mode	DS
CZDS (Zone Download)	❌ No

Transfer Policy

Property	Value
Transfer Lock Enabled	✅ Yes (0 days after registration; 0 days after transfer)
Transfer Duration	0 days
Transfer Extends Domain	❌ No
Transfer via AuthInfo	✅ Yes
Confirmation Required	❌ No

WHOIS & RDAP

Property	Value
WHOIS Server	whois.dns.pt

Dispute Resolution

Property	Value
Dispute Resolution Available	❌ No

Contact Attributes

.pt registrations carry registry-specific contact attributes beyond the standard EPP fields:

Attribute	Type	Required	Applies to	Allowed values
DNS_PT_VAT	String	✅ Required	All roles	VAT number or tax identification number of the contact
DNS_PT_MOBILE	String	➖ Conditional	All roles	Mobile number in international format (e.g. +351 92 2222222)

These per-attribute constraints are machine-readable: each possible_attributes entry returned by GET /v1/tlds/pt carries its own type, required, and contact_roles fields.

Fiscal number

DNS_PT_VAT is the fiscal identity of the contact and .pt treats it as the contact's unique key. Two contacts sharing a fiscal number are the same entity to the registry, so registering with a fiscal number it already knows reuses the existing registry contact rather than creating a second one, and the details already on file win.

Practical consequences:

• send the fiscal number that genuinely belongs to the contact, not a placeholder;
• the registry applies this across every registrar, so a fiscal number already registered through another provider resolves to that existing contact, and its details are the ones published;
• a contact whose details need correcting has to be updated rather than re-created under the same fiscal number;
• name and fiscal number cannot be changed afterwards. The data holder has to contact .PT directly to correct either.

For Portuguese contacts the fiscal number is validated for consistency and is used to tell a natural person from a legal one. Foreign contacts can supply the equivalent identifier from their own jurisdiction.

Mobile number

.pt keeps a mobile number on every contact and uses it to verify the contact, so one always reaches the registry.

It is taken from the contact's phone whenever the numbering plan identifies that number as a mobile line. DNS_PT_MOBILE is only required when it does not, which covers landlines and numbering plans that never separate fixed from mobile lines - notably NANP, so every +1 contact has to supply it explicitly.

⚠️ Landline contact without a mobile? Add DNS_PT_MOBILE to the contact's attributes:

{
  "type": "policy-validation-error",
  "title": "Policy Validation Error",
  "status": 422,
  "code": "ERROR_POLICY_VALIDATION",
  "errors": [
    {
      "detail": "DNS_PT_MOBILE is required because the contact phone number is not a mobile line; .pt contacts need a mobile number for the RJC verification",
      "pointer": "contacts.registrant[0].attributes.DNS_PT_MOBILE"
    }
  ],
  "detail": "Policy validation failed"
}

json

Supplying DNS_PT_MOBILE explicitly always overrides the derivation. Note that .pt stores a single phone number per contact and the mobile takes precedence, so it is the number that ends up on the contact at the registry.

Contact verification

Portuguese law (the Cybersecurity Legal Regime, transposing NIS2) requires the data on every .pt contact to be verified as existing, correct, and belonging to the holder. .pt will not accept a registrant that has not been through it.

The registrant's email address and phone number both have to be verified before the contact can be used. Verification is submitted with POST /v1/contacts/{contact_id}/verifications/attest and the current per-claim state is readable at GET /v1/contacts/{contact_id}/verifications. The date the registry records is the moment the last required claim was verified.

A verification is valid for 3 years. It is required to register a domain, to receive one through an inbound transfer, and to change a domain's contacts. Renewals are exempt, so an expiring verification never blocks a renewal.

The requirement is published on the TLD itself: the verification_policies.identity_verification block of GET /v1/tlds/pt lists the claims, the roles they apply to, the operations that trigger the check, and the validity period.

⚠️ Contact not verified? The request is refused before it reaches the registry, naming the claims that are missing:

{
  "type": "policy-validation-error",
  "title": "Policy Validation Error",
  "status": 422,
  "code": "ERROR_POLICY_VALIDATION",
  "errors": [
    {
      "detail": "Contact contact_01jz…: has no verifications yet; EMAIL, PHONE must be verified before it can be used on this TLD",
      "pointer": "contacts.registrant[0]"
    }
  ],
  "detail": "Policy validation failed"
}

json

Contact roles

A .pt domain is managed with a registrant only:

Role	Required
Registrant	✅ Exactly one
Tech	❌ Not accepted
Admin	❌ Not accepted
Billing	❌ Not accepted

The registry derives the administrative and technical roles from the sponsoring registrar, so neither is a contact you supply. The technical role in particular is always the registrar's own registry handle, which is why it is neither accepted on a request nor reported back on the domain.

Contacts are only accepted in international (ASCII) form, so localized addresses are transliterated before they reach the registry.

Transfers

A .pt transfer is immediate. The registry settles it on receipt rather than opening a transfer window, so there is no pending phase, no acknowledgement or rejection by the losing registrar, and no transfer notification to wait for. It does not extend the expiry date: the domain keeps the expiry it had.

A transfer request carries no contacts. The registrant travels with the domain and stays as it is, and the other roles belong to the registrar rather than to you, so there is nothing to send. Sending contacts is rejected.

Once the transfer completes, the domain is fully manageable: name servers, DNSSEC and the auth code are all yours to change immediately.

Changing the holder

The holder of a .pt domain cannot be changed through the API. The registry does not accept it as a domain update, and a request that tries is refused.

.PT settles a change of holder through its own ownership-transfer process, which the incoming holder has to confirm directly with the registry. The incoming holder is subject to the same contact-verification rule as a new registration.

A domain whose holder changes that way stays with you as its registrar; only the holder moves.

Domain deletion

Deleting a .pt domain starts a removal process at the registry rather than removing the name at once. The registry confirms the removal separately, and the domain remains visible until it does.

There is no redemption or restore for .pt: once a removal completes it cannot be undone, and the name returns to the pool under the registry's own rules.