.ca WHOIS Lookup
.ca is the country-code extension of Canada, administered by CIRA. Look up a .ca address and see what the record contains.
- 1.494 extensions
- IANA 1601 ICANN accredited
- 2 protocols — RDAP and WHOIS
Your IP address 216.73.216.31
.ca WHOIS Lookup: CIRA Records and Contact Roles
.ca is Canada's country code extension, delegated into the root zone on 14 May 1987 and administered by CIRA, a non-profit. Queries are answered on port 43 by whois.cira.ca. In our measurement on 12 August 2026 the reply returned sixty-seven field labels — the widest record among all the extensions we measured. The zone holds a DS record in the root and runs an RDAP endpoint at rdap.ca.fury.ca.
That width comes from four separate contact roles: registrant, admin, technical and billing. Each is written as its own block with an identifier, a name, an organisation, an address, a phone number, a fax number and an email address. Few registries still publish the billing role; most removed the block from their output years ago. The record we measured also carried a field for the registrar's IANA number, though its value read not applicable — .ca registrars answer to CIRA's own accreditation rather than ICANN's.
On the RDAP side the registrant, admin, technical and billing roles are listed as separate entities, and in the corporate record we measured their names arrived open. Registration, expiry and last change appear among the events. So .ca is one of the extensions where both channels carry data of the same width. For a neighbour whose contact data is less open, see the .us WHOIS lookup; for a generic extension where RDAP lists roles, the .biz WHOIS lookup page.
About the .ca extension
- Extension
- .ca
- WHOIS server
- whois.cira.ca
- RDAP endpoint
- https://rdap.ca.fury.ca/rdap
- Registry
- CIRA — Canadian Internet Registration Authority
- Delegated
- 14 May 1987
- Fields measured
- 67 field labels (12 August 2026)
- Contact roles
- Registrant, admin, technical and billing, each in its own block
- RDAP
- rdap.ca.fury.ca — all four roles are listed as separate entities
WHOIS FAQ
How many contact roles does a .ca WHOIS record carry?
Four: registrant, admin, technical and billing. Each is written as a block of its own with an identifier, a name, an organisation, an address, a phone number and an email address. That is the widest set of roles among the extensions we measured, and the main reason the reply reaches sixty-seven fields. Keeping the roles apart makes it possible to read from the record itself who inside an organisation holds which responsibility.
What is the billing block in a .ca record for?
It records where correspondence about the domain's charges should go. Many registries removed the role from their output; CIRA still publishes it. The practical value shows on corporate records: the team managing a domain and the unit paying for it are often different, and this block names who receives the renewal notice. If you are investigating why an expiring address was never renewed, this is the first place to look.
Why does the IANA number read not applicable under .ca?
Because .ca registrars answer to CIRA's own accreditation programme rather than ICANN's. The field is present in the reply — the template matches the generic one — but its value reads not applicable. That does not make the record incomplete; it points to the country code extension's own institutional order. The registrar's name and abuse contact arrive with real values in the same reply.
What does RDAP add over WHOIS for .ca?
Structure and safer parsing. The rdap.ca.fury.ca endpoint returns the same record as JSON and lists all four contact roles as separate entities; in the corporate record we measured their names arrived open. Registration, expiry and last change appear among the events. The scope is comparable across both channels — the difference is form, and a JSON reply is safer than plain text in automated systems.
Does a .ca record show creation and expiry dates?
It does. The reply gives the creation date in Creation Date, the last modification in Updated Date and the end of the term in Registry Expiry Date, all in UTC; the record we measured was opened in 2000. The same three values arrive as events on the RDAP side. Our result screen derives the domain's age and remaining term from them, so nothing needs working out by hand.
Does the registrant's name arrive open in a .ca record?
In the corporate record we measured it did on the RDAP side, where registrant, admin and technical roles were listed together with their name fields. Do not expect the same openness on records held by natural persons: on personal registrations identity data is generally closed and only the existence of the role remains visible. For corporate records, though, .ca is one of the extensions where contact data can be read.
How is DNSSEC status read for a .ca address?
The DNSSEC line in the reply describes the address you queried: signed when a DS record has been published for that name, unsigned when it has not. The extension itself is a separate fact — the .ca zone holds a DS record in the root, which we verified during the measurement. We show the two separately on the result screen so a signed zone is never mistaken for a signed address.
How does an available .ca name appear in a lookup?
Query a name nobody holds and CIRA reports that no match was found, with none of the sixty-seven fields present. That means the name looks free to register. We keep such a result for five minutes only and registered ones for six hours, the short window being there because a name that looks free can be taken quickly.