Public Domains

A public email service lets anyone create a mailbox on a domain the service owns: Gmail, Yahoo Mail, Outlook.com, iCloud, Proton Mail. public_domain is true when the checked domain is one of these.

The distinction it draws is about who controls the addresses. On a company domain, every address belongs to one organization, and that organization decides who gets one. On a public domain, the addresses belong to millions of unrelated individuals, and the domain itself tells you nothing about any of them.

The field is returned by the domain and email endpoints, and is available in Gates as domain.public_domain.

Examples

Domain	public_domain	Why
gmail.com	true	Anyone can create a mailbox on it
outlook.com	true	Anyone can create a mailbox on it
github.com	false	A company domain; its addresses belong to one organization
mailinator.com	false	A disposable service, not a public mailbox provider

A did_you_mean suggestion is never returned for a public domain. See Did You Mean.