Starting an app in Brazil: should you use .com.br or .com?
If Brazil is your main market, make .com.br your primary domain and also hold the matching .com. Google treats .com.br as a signal that a site targets Brazil, and Brazilians see it as local. The catch: Registro.br only registers to holders of a Brazilian CPF or CNPJ; foreign companies need a local procurador.
Updated October 19, 2026 · 3 primary sources, listed below
Why .com.br wins inside Brazil
.com.br is a real country-code domain under .br, so Google treats it as a strong signal that the site is meant for Brazil. A .com is generic and carries no country signal. For a Brazil-first fitness or consumer app, that local signal plus the familiarity of .com.br with Brazilian users is worth more than a global-looking .com.
Who can register a .com.br (the rules that trip up founders)
The rules come from CGI.br Resolution 2008/008, adopted November 28, 2008 and applied by Registro.br (NIC.br):
- Art. 2: registration is allowed only for entities operating legally in Brazil, liberal professionals and individuals. Foreign companies can get a registro provisório (provisional registration).
- Art. 4: a company must supply its CNPJ (Brazilian company tax number); an individual must supply a CPF. You must also have at least two working DNS servers answering for the domain within 14 days.
- Art. 6 (foreign companies): appoint a procurador legally established in Brazil, and file a power of attorney, a statement of business activity and a commitment to establish activity in Brazil within 12 months. All three must be notarised in the home country, consularised at a Brazilian consulate and sworn-translated, plus the procurador’s CPF or CNPJ.
- Validation: the holder’s CPF or CNPJ is part of the registration record, so register under the person or company that should own the brand long term.
In practice: if you have a Brazilian co-founder or company (CNPJ), registration takes minutes. If you are a foreign company with no Brazilian entity yet, expect paperwork or a registrar’s local-presence service.
What it costs
| Domain | Where | Price per year |
|---|---|---|
| .com.br | Registro.br (official registry) | R$40.00 |
| .com | Porkbun | $11.08 renewal (checked 2026-10-19) |
| .com | Cloudflare Registrar | $10.46 renewal (checked 2026-10-19) |
| .com | Dynadot | $10.88 renewal (checked 2026-10-19) |
Both are cheap. Price is not the deciding factor; eligibility and audience are.
The setup we would ship
- Register yourbrand.com.br as the primary site for Brazil, in Portuguese.
- Register yourbrand.com now, even if you only redirect it. It is your future international site and stops someone else taking it.
- When you add English or other markets, put that content on the .com and link the versions with hreflang so Google serves the right one.
- If the .com.br is taken, a short .app or .fit works as a brand domain, but you lose the Brazil signal. See our .br review.
Common questions
Can a foreigner register a .com.br domain?
Not directly. CGI.br rules only allow entities operating legally in Brazil, liberal professionals and individuals, identified by CNPJ or CPF. A foreign company can get a provisional registration by appointing a procurador in Brazil, with notarised, consularised and sworn-translated documents and a commitment to establish activity in Brazil within 12 months.
How much does a .com.br cost?
Registro.br, the official registry, charges R$40.00 per year. Registrars and resellers add their own margin on top.
Will a .com.br hurt me if I expand outside Brazil later?
It geotargets Brazil in Google, so it is the wrong domain for a global site. That is why the usual pattern is .com.br for the Brazilian product and a .com you hold now for the international one, with hreflang linking Portuguese and English versions.
Should a fitness app use .fit or .app instead?
Only as a secondary name. .fit and .app are generic TLDs with no Brazil signal, and Brazilian users are far more used to .com.br. If the .com.br is taken, a short .app or .fit for the brand is reasonable, but check the renewal price first.
Sources
- CGI.br, “Resolution CGI.br/RES/2008/008/P, procedures for registering .br domain names (Arts. 2, 4, 6)” (November 28, 2008).
- Registro.br (NIC.br), “Official .br registry: R$40.00 per year” (retrieved October 19, 2026).
- Google Search Central, “Managing multi-regional and multilingual sites (ccTLDs as a country signal)” (December 10, 2025).
Extensions on this page
More straight answers
- Will using a non-.com domain hurt my Google rankings?
- Can I register a .de or .ca domain if I don't live in that country?
- Should I buy the .net and .co versions of my domain to protect my brand?
- Will emails from a .xyz or .io address go to spam?
- Is it risky to build my company on a .io domain because of the Chagos Islands deal?
- How much will a .ai domain cost over 5 years, including renewals?
- Why does my .dev site require HTTPS, and can I turn it off?