Managing a custom domain for your GitHub Pages site

You can set up or update certain DNS records and your repository settings to point the default domain for your GitHub Pages site to a custom domain.

GitHub Pages is available in public repositories with GitHub Free and GitHub Free for organizations, and in public and private repositories with GitHub Pro, GitHub Team, GitHub Enterprise Cloud, and GitHub Enterprise Server. For more information, see “GitHub’s products.”

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.

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 create a CNAME file in your site’s repository and configure a CNAME record with your DNS provider.

1. On GitHub, navigate to your site’s repository.
2. Under your repository name, click  Settings.
3. Under “Custom domain”, type your custom domain, then click Save. This will create a commit that adds a CNAME file in the root of your publishing source.
4. 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. 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.”
5. Open Terminal.
6. 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
7. If you use a static site generator to build your site locally and push the generated files to GitHub, pull the commit that added the CNAME file to your local repository. For more information, see “Troubleshooting custom domains and GitHub Pages.”
8. Optionally, to enforce HTTPS encryption for your site, select Enforce HTTPS. It can take up to 24 hours before this option is available. For more information, see “Securing your GitHub Pages site with HTTPS.”

Configuring an apex domain

To set up an apex domain, such as example.com, you must configure a CNAME file in your GitHub Pages repository and an 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 your custom domain for your site, and you have ALIAS and CNAME records set up for the apex and www domains, then example.com will redirect to www.example.com. For more information, see “Managing a custom domain for your GitHub Pages site.”

1. On GitHub, navigate to your site’s repository.
2. Under your repository name, click  Settings.
3. Under “Custom domain”, type your custom domain, then click Save. This will create a commit that adds a CNAME file in the root of your publishing source.
4. Navigate to your DNS provider and create either an ALIAS, ANAME, or A record. For more information about how to create the correct record, see your DNS provider’s documentation.
   • To create an ALIAS or ANAME record, point your apex domain to the default domain for your site. For more information about the default domain for your site, see “About GitHub Pages.”
   • To create an A record, point your apex domain to the IP addresses for GitHub Pages.185.199.108.153 185.199.109.153 185.199.110.153 185.199.111.153
5. Open Terminal.
6. To confirm that your DNS record configured correctly, use the dig command, replacing EXAMPLE.COM with your apex domain. Confirm that the results match the IP addresses for GitHub Pages above.$ dig EXAMPLE.COM +noall +answer > 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
7. If you use a static site generator to build your site locally and push the generated files to GitHub, pull the commit that added the CNAME file to your local repository. For more information, see “Troubleshooting custom domains and GitHub Pages.”
8. Optionally, to enforce HTTPS encryption for your site, select Enforce HTTPS. It can take up to 24 hours before this option is available. For more information, see “Securing your GitHub Pages site with HTTPS.”