Managing a custom domain for your GitHub Pages site

People with admin permissions for a repository can configure a custom domain for a GitHub Pages site.

About custom domain configuration

Make sure you add your custom domain to your GitHub Pages site before configuring your custom domain with your DNS provider. Configuring your custom domain with your DNS provider without adding your custom domain to GitHub could result in someone else being able to host a site on one of your subdomains.

The dig command, which can be used to verify correct configuration of DNS records, is not included in Windows. Before you can verify that your DNS records are configured correctly, you must install BIND .

Note: DNS changes can take up to 24 hours to propagate.

Configuring a subdomain

To set up a www or custom subdomain, such as www.example.com or blog.example.com , you must add your domain in the repository settings. After that, configure a CNAME record with your DNS provider.

On GitHub, navigate to your site's repository.

Under your repository name, click Settings . If you cannot see the "Settings" tab, select the dropdown menu, then click Settings .

In the "Code and automation" section of the sidebar, click Pages .

Under "Custom domain", type your custom domain, then click Save . If you are publishing your site from a branch, this will create a commit that adds a CNAME file to the root of your source branch. If you are publishing your site with a custom GitHub Actions workflow , no CNAME file is created. For more information about your publishing source, see " Configuring a publishing source for your GitHub Pages site ."

Note: If your custom domain is an internationalized domain name, you must enter the Punycode encoded version.

For more information on Punycodes, see Internationalized domain name .

Navigate to your DNS provider and create a CNAME record that points your subdomain to the default domain for your site. For example, if you want to use the subdomain www.example.com for your user site, create a CNAME record that points www.example.com to <user>.github.io . If you want to use the subdomain another.example.com for your organization site, create a CNAME record that points another.example.com to <organization>.github.io . The CNAME record should always point to <user>.github.io or <organization>.github.io , excluding the repository name. For more information about how to create the correct record, see your DNS provider's documentation. For more information about the default domain for your site, see " About GitHub Pages ."

Warning: We strongly recommend that you do not use wildcard DNS records, such as *.example.com . These records put you at an immediate risk of domain takeovers, even if you verify the domain. For example, if you verify example.com this prevents someone from using a.example.com but they could still take over b.a.example.com (which is covered by the wildcard DNS record). For more information, see " Verifying your custom domain for GitHub Pages ."

Open Terminal Terminal Git Bash .

To confirm that your DNS record configured correctly, use the dig command, replacing WWW.EXAMPLE.COM with your subdomain.

$ dig WWW.EXAMPLE.COM +nostats +nocomments +nocmd
    > ;WWW.EXAMPLE.COM.                    IN      A
    > WWW.EXAMPLE.COM.             3592    IN      CNAME   YOUR-USERNAME.github.io.
    > YOUR-USERNAME.github.io.      43192   IN      CNAME   GITHUB-PAGES-SERVER .
    > GITHUB-PAGES-SERVER .         22      IN      A       192.0.2.1

Configuring an apex domain

To set up an apex domain, such as example.com , you must configure a custom domain in your repository settings and at least one ALIAS , ANAME , or A record with your DNS provider.

If you are using an apex domain as your custom domain, we recommend also setting up a www subdomain. If you configure the correct records for each domain type through your DNS provider, GitHub Pages will automatically create redirects between the domains. For example, if you configure www.example.com as the custom domain for your site, and you have GitHub Pages DNS records set up for the apex and www domains, then example.com will redirect to www.example.com . Note that automatic redirects only apply to the www subdomain. Automatic redirects do not apply to any other subdomains, such as blog . For more information, see " Configuring a subdomain ."

On GitHub, navigate to your site's repository.

Under your repository name, click Settings . If you cannot see the "Settings" tab, select the dropdown menu, then click Settings .

In the "Code and automation" section of the sidebar, click Pages .

Under "Custom domain", type your custom domain, then click Save . If you are publishing your site from a branch, this will create a commit that adds a CNAME file to the root of your source branch. If you are publishing your site with a custom GitHub Actions workflow , no CNAME file is created. For more information about your publishing source, see " Configuring a publishing source for your GitHub Pages site ."

Navigate to your DNS provider and create either an ALIAS , ANAME , or A record. You can also create AAAA records for IPv6 support. If you're implementing IPv6 support, we highly recommend using an A record in addition to your AAAA record, due to slow adoption of IPv6 globally. For more information about how to create the correct record, see your DNS provider's documentation.

185.199.108.153
185.199.109.153
185.199.110.153
185.199.111.153

2606:50c0:8000::153
2606:50c0:8001::153
2606:50c0:8002::153
2606:50c0:8003::153

$ dig EXAMPLE.COM +noall +answer -t A
> EXAMPLE.COM    3600    IN A     185.199.108.153
> EXAMPLE.COM    3600    IN A     185.199.109.153
> EXAMPLE.COM    3600    IN A     185.199.110.153
> EXAMPLE.COM    3600    IN A     185.199.111.153

$ dig EXAMPLE.COM +noall +answer -t AAAA
> EXAMPLE.COM     3600    IN AAAA     2606:50c0:8000::153
> EXAMPLE.COM     3600    IN AAAA     2606:50c0:8001::153
> EXAMPLE.COM     3600    IN AAAA     2606:50c0:8002::153
> EXAMPLE.COM     3600    IN AAAA     2606:50c0:8003::153

$ dig WWW.EXAMPLE.COM +nostats +nocomments +nocmd
    > ;WWW.EXAMPLE.COM                     IN      A
    > WWW.EXAMPLE.COM.              3592    IN      CNAME   YOUR-USERNAME.github.io.
    > YOUR-USERNAME.github.io.      43192   IN      CNAME   GITHUB-PAGES-SERVER.
    > GITHUB-PAGES-SERVER.         22      IN      A       192.0.2.1

Removing a custom domain

If you get an error about a custom domain being taken, you may need to remove the custom domain from another repository.

On GitHub, navigate to your site's repository.

Under your repository name, click Settings . If you cannot see the "Settings" tab, select the dropdown menu, then click Settings .

In the "Code and automation" section of the sidebar, click Pages .

Under "Custom domain," click Remove .

Securing your custom domain