ENS is the Ethereum Name Service. It swaps a long wallet address like 0xd8dA6BF26964aF9D7eEd9e03E53415D37aA96045 for something you can read and say out loud, like vitalik.eth. Register a name and point it at your wallet, and anyone can send you crypto or see your profile using the name.

Your name's ETH Address record points at your wallet. You can add addresses on other chains too, such as Bitcoin and Solana. To have apps show yourname.eth instead of your 0x address, set it as your primary name: see Set your primary name.

Your name also holds records: an avatar, social handles, wallet addresses, a decentralised website and any custom text you add. Apps that read ENS pick up this profile when you connect, so you don't set one up in each app. Apps that let you sign in with your wallet greet you by your primary name, if you've set one. See Edit your ENS profile.

Set your name's content hash record to point yourname.eth at a website on a decentralised network such as IPFS, Swarm or Arweave. Your name and your site then sit outside any one company's servers. See Add a decentralised website to your name.

Your name can have subnames, like pay.yourname.eth or alice.yourteam.eth. Each has its own records and can point at a different wallet. Communities give them to members; you can also use them to label your own wallets. See Create a subname (ENS Explorer).

Search for the name you want at app.ens.domains and, if it is available, register it there. You pay per year in stablecoins (USDC), or with ETH, which your wallet swaps to USDC on Uniswap, and the network fee (gas) comes out of the same payment. Keep a little ETH for any swap. The name is then yours to manage: edit its records, transfer it, or renew it before it expires. See Register a .eth name and Pricing, fees and multi-year discounts.

You register a name and set its records: the wallet it points at and any details you add, such as an avatar. Records are public, so any app can read them. That is why people can send to your name instead of a long address, and why your profile follows you between apps. You can change your records at any time; the name stays the same even when the wallet behind it changes. For the parts underneath (registrar, registry and resolver), see the Glossary. ENS also works with DNS names you already own, such as a .com: see What TLDs are supported?

ENS is a decentralised protocol governed by the ENS DAO, a community that votes on proposals. No single company owns or controls it. Names are held onchain as NFTs, and a name stays yours for as long as you keep it registered. See Official ENS websites, apps, and tools and The story of ENS.

ENSv2 is the current version of ENS, on Ethereum. It lets each name have its own registry for subnames, with finer control over who can do what. A name still on ENSv1 keeps working, and you can upgrade it in the ENS App. Some names can't, such as wrapped names with certain fuses burnt: see Why can't I upgrade my name?