Convert Between Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) and Punycode — Instantly and Accurately

Why yet another IDN to Punycode and Punycode to IDN Converter?

This script does many things, but it is mainly about ANALYZING international domain names

It all began when i stumbled upon an online forum where someone tried to sell the domain xn--p1a7b.com - which decodes to ір.com. Obviously, this is not THE ip.com you are familiar with... but it sure does look exactly like it !

The trick is that The character U+0456 "і" could be confused with the ASCII character U+0069 "i", and The character U+0440 "р" could be confused with the ASCII character U+0070 "p".

So what can such a domain name be used for ? The likely answer: phishing. IDNs (Internationalized Domain Names) can use non-English characters that closely mimic ASCII letters, making it easy to trick users.

And this is where we come in to help you protect yourself and why this tool exists — and why it's better than the rest.

What Makes This the Best IDN tool ?

Our converter doesn't just encode or decode between UTF-8 and Punycode (and vice versa) it analyzes the domain name and breaks down each character, showing whether it's a standard ASCII letter or a visually similar character from another script (like Cyrillic or Greek). This can be critical for spotting phishing attempts that rely on lookalike domains. so if you copy ір.com and paste it in this tool, you will know that this is a fake ip.com, and will understand why exactly this is fake

But there is more !! This tool will also check if the domain name is online (registered and active, registered but inactive, previously registered but currently not etc....), it will also tell you what nameservers it is pointing to, and provide as much info as we possibly can to help you understand the situation.

Legit Domains benefit too !This tool is not just here to help you foil malicious attempts, It also serves as an excellent tool for legitimate uses, international domain names can get confusing, and this tool can help you understand and register an international domain name !

Simple and Straightforward IDN Handling

Other converters can be confusing. This one isn't.

• If your input starts with xn--, it's already Punycode, and we'll decode it to UTF-8 (human-readable).

• If your input doesn't start with xn--, we'll encode any non-ASCII labels to Punycode.

• If a label is already pure ASCII, its Punycode is just the same label — no change, no confusion.

Common Questions

Can I encode ASCII-only domains into Punycode?
Not really. Encoding an ASCII label like example results in example — Punycode does nothing here. Forcing it into something like xn--example would be invalid under IDNA standards.

Understand Domain Labels

• A label is any part of a domain name between dots.
  For example: in www.example.com, the labels are www, example, and com.

• Punycode is applied per label, not to the entire domain at once.

Tool Behavior – How It Works

• Case 1: If any label starts with xn--, we decode it to UTF-8.

• Case 2: If any label contains Unicode characters, we encode it to Punycode.

• Case 3: If you enter a single ASCII label, it remains unchanged — Punycode of ASCII is just ASCII.

Try It Now!

This tool is designed for developers, cybersecurity professionals, and domain buyers who want to stay safe from deceptive domain names. Give it a spin and instantly see what's really behind an IDN.

What Are Punycode and Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs)?

Punycode is a special encoding method that allows domain names with non-ASCII characters—such as Arabic, Chinese, Cyrillic, or accented Latin letters—to be represented using only the limited ASCII character set supported by the Domain Name System (DNS).

While Punycode was developed before the widespread adoption of Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs), it became a key component in enabling them. Much like Base64 encoding (commonly used in email), Punycode converts characters that are outside the standard English alphabet into ASCII-compatible text.

Why Was Punycode Needed?

Before IDNs, domain names could only contain:

• ASCII letters (a–z)

• Numbers (0–9)

• Hyphens (but not at the beginning or end of a domain label)

Introducing full Unicode support directly into the DNS would have required major infrastructure changes and raised compatibility issues with older browsers and systems. Changing the DNS protocol itself would have been a massive and risky undertaking.

Instead, the solution was to leave the DNS unchanged and use Punycode as a translation layer. Modern browsers automatically convert international characters into Punycode behind the scenes.

How Punycode Works with IDNs

Punycode operates per label, not per domain. A "label" is any part of a domain name separated by dots. For example:

• The domain Příklad.com (which means “example” in Czech) is converted to:
  xn--pklad-zsa96e.com
  This way, even older browsers that don’t support Unicode can still access the domain.

• Similarly, you can have an IDN top-level domain (TLD) like .قطر (Qatar in Arabic).
  A full IDN like example.قطر would be converted to something like:
  example.xn--wgbl6a

This seamless translation allows IDN domains to coexist with traditional domains while maintaining full compatibility across the global internet.

Why IDNs Matter

IDNs make the web more inclusive by allowing people to use domain names in their native scripts. This enhances accessibility, branding, and localization for websites serving non-English-speaking audiences.

Whether you're registering a domain like пример.рф (example.rf in Russian) or 公司.cn (company.cn in Chinese), Punycode makes it possible for these domains to work universally.