---
title: Public Domains
description: What public_domain identifies, and why an address on a public domain says nothing about the person behind it.
---

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](/docs/api/domain-endpoint) and [email](/docs/api/email-endpoint) 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](/docs/concepts/did-you-mean).