example.com
The default
The one people type when they mean “somewhere else.” It appears in more tutorials than any other string on the internet.
Reserved · RFC 2606 · IANA
Example Domain
This domain is for use in documentation examples without needing permission. Avoid use in operations.
An exhibit on the web's most-used blank page: a 559-byte document that nobody owns, nobody markets, and almost everybody has typed at least once.
Example Domain
This domain is for use in documentation examples without needing permission. Avoid use in operations.
- max-width: 600px
- margin: 5em auto
- padding: 2em
- border-radius: .5em
- background: #eee / #fff
Chapter 01
The Reserved Blank
In March 1999, a short memo set aside four domains so that documentation could point somewhere without pointing at anyone.
RFC 2606 reserved example.com, example.net, and example.org — later joined by example.edu — alongside the more obviously artificial .test, .invalid, and .localhost.
The instruction was blunt and it has never changed: these names exist so that a manual, a tutorial, or a test suite never has to borrow a stranger's server to demonstrate an idea. Nothing here is meant to be operational. That is the entire feature.
Twenty-seven years later the reservation still holds. Four names, one page, one paragraph of policy — the most stable piece of real estate on the public web is the piece nobody is allowed to build on.
Network Working Group D. Eastlake
Request for Comments: 2606 IBM
BCP: 32 March 1999
Category: Best Current Practice
3. Reserved Example Second Level Domain Names
The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) also currently
has the following second level domains reserved for use in
examples:
example.com
example.net
example.org
The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) also currently
has the following top-level domains reserved for use in
examples:
.test
.example
.invalid
.localhostReserved by policy, not by ownership.
Chapter 02
The Card That Became a Standard
What sits at example.com is not a product. It is a 559-byte HTML document: one heading, one paragraph, one link, one white card centered on a gray field.
Written with a system font stack and a single media query, it has outlived the frameworks designed to replace pages like it. Nothing on this page is above-the-fold, sticky, or personalized. It simply renders.
The craft is in the restraint. Roughly 5em of breathing room above and below, a 600px measure for readable lines, and a border radius small enough that you would not call it rounded.
Example Domain
This domain is for use in documentation examples without needing permission. Avoid use in operations.
Chapter 03
The Four Siblings
Four names, one face. The institution behind each is identical; the reader's expectation is not.
example.org
The institutional twin
Same document, quieter tone. Frequently mirrored from .com byte for byte.
example.net
The network alias
Resolves identically. Used when a fixture needs a second hostname that cannot possibly belong to a customer.
example.edu
The academic sibling
Reserved for the same purpose, invoked mostly in course material and citation templates.
Artifact 03. Type specimen mask — the word EXAMPLE cut from documentation ruling, with a reserved-orange wash at 20%.
Chapter 04
The Copy-Paste Ritual
From MDN to Stack Overflow to a failing nightly build, the domain appears wherever a real URL would be dangerous.
$ curl -sS https://example.com/api/v1/users
Shell — safe to run, safe to forget
{"data":[],"next":null}
const BASE = "https://example.com";
JavaScript — environment variable placeholder
<a href="https://example.org">
HTML — dummy destination
fetch("https://example.net/ping")
Network fixture
servers:
- url: https://example.com/v2
OpenAPI — spec stub
✓ submits example.com (12 ms)
✓ submits example.org (9 ms)
✓ submits example.net (11 ms)
Test runner — three passes, zero requests to real users
host: example.com
base_url: https://example.org
contact: admin@example.net
redirect_uri: https://example.edu/callback
Configuration template — every field deliberately unusable
WARNING: example.com is reserved.
Do not point production traffic here.
Linter output — the page enforcing its own rule
git clone https://example.com/acme/widgets.git
README quickstart — cloned by nobody, read by thousands
$ dig +short example.com
93.184.216.34
DNS — the only address the reservation actually resolves to
A placeholder is only useful if it can never embarrass anyone.
Chapter 05
The Anti-Brand
Example Domain
This domain is for use in documentation examples without needing permission. Avoid use in operations.
No logo · No tracking · No marketing · No opinion
Chapter 06
The Placeholder Wall
Every tile below is a documented place the blank page has quietly occupied. The counts are illustrative; the ubiquity is not.
MDN Web Docs9,800+ code samples
Stack Overflow1,240,000 answers
RFC Editorcitation standard
Jest fixturesevery default config
Postmanstarter collections
OpenAPIspec examples
curl manualfirst example
Kubernetesingress hosts
Django testsALLOWED_HOSTS
Rails fixturesseed URLs
AWS SDK samplesendpoint stubs
Tailwind docsutility demos
Vitestmock servers
Playwrightbase URL
W3C specsexample markup
GitHub READMEsbadge placeholders
Swagger UItry-it-out target
Terraformvariable defaults
Ansibleplaybook hosts
Docker sampleshealthcheck URLs
Python docsurllib examples
Go by Examplehttp client stubs
Rust by Examplereqwest snippets
ESLint docsrule samples
Wikipedia sandboxcitation templates
Email clientspreview addresses
Spreadsheet macrosimport tests
Load balancershealth probes
Its identity is its refusal to become one.