Registration is only open to local registered companies and private persons living here. A local administrative contact is also required.

On February 17, 2006, the Finnish parliament approved a modification of the laws regulating Finnish domain names to include the .ax top-level domain. During a three year period, the aland.fi subdomain will be phased out while .ax will be used in parallel; no new registrations under the aland.fi subdomain will be accepted, and all current owners of domains under the aland.fi subdomain will receive registrations for the corresponding .ax domain.

On March 17, 2006, Finnish president Tarja Halonen signed the bill into law, effective as of March 27, 2006. The government of Åland began accepting registrations immediately following the changing of the law.

On June 9, ICANN approved delegating the .ax top-level domain to the government of Åland. The .ax domain was added to the root zone on June 21, 2006, and became active on August 15, 2006.

Domain names can be granted to:
- A legal person with a set place of business or who is registered on the Åland Islands.
- A public sector entity, government owned business, independent public institution or public association that is acting on the Åland Islands or has been registered here.
- A person, at least 15 years of age, whose home municipality is on the Åland Islands or who has the Right of Domicile as defined in the Autonomy Act.