The organisation that builds onion services runs on them#
Most organisations with an onion site treat it as an extra. It is perhaps a copy of the homepage, maybe with the news section, set up so that people in censored countries can reach the site.
The Tor Project takes a different approach. When we checked its official onion index on October 13, 2026, it listed 65 individual onion services. That’s not only the main website but also the download server, the archive of all previous releases, the server that provides its PGP signing key, the bridge distributor, the forum, the code repository, the user manual, the research site, Tails, and a number of internal tools that keep an eye on its own infrastructure. The index points out that most of these services are served from several machines at once using a tool called OnionBalance.
This affects how you should view these addresses. They aren’t a showcase of what’s possible. Instead, they are a practical map of an organisation that actually uses the technology it develops. For you, it means that almost everything you might need from the Tor Project can be reached without leaving the Tor network, including the software and the key you would use to verify it.
This page picks out the addresses that are useful to ordinary visitors, explains what the others are for, and shows why the Tor Project’s own index is the standard against which everything else, including our own Official Onion Mirrors Directory, is checked.
The three addresses most people need#
If you’re only going to bookmark three, bookmark these. They are also the three included in our main directory, where each of them passed at least 13 of the last 14 daily reachability checks as of October 11, 2026.
| Service | What it’s for | Address |
|---|---|---|
| Tor Project website | The main site, the same as www.torproject.org | 2gzyxa5ihm7nsggfxnu52rck2vv4rvmdlkiu3zzui5du4xyclen53wid.onionListed in our directory as Tor Project website (Tor Project). See the owner's proof2gzyxa5ihm7nsggfxnu52rck2vv4rvmdlkiu3zzui5du4xyclen53wid |
| Onion index | The official list of every Tor Project onion | xao2lxsmia2edq2n5zxg6uahx6xox2t7bfjw6b5vdzsxi7ezmqob6qid.onionListed in our directory as Tor Project onion index (Tor Project). See the owner's proofxao2lxsmia2edq2n5zxg6uahx6xox2t7bfjw6b5vdzsxi7ezmqob6qid |
| Support portal | Help articles, FAQs and troubleshooting | rzuwtpc4wb3xdzrj3yeajsvm3fkq4vbeubm2tdxaqruzzzgs5dwemlad.onionListed in our directory as Tor Support portal (Tor Project). See the owner's proofrzuwtpc4wb3xdzrj3yeajsvm3fkq4vbeubm2tdxaqruzzzgs5dwemlad |
The main website is the natural place to begin. People tend to overlook the support portal, and it is probably the most useful when something goes wrong, since the support pages explain connection issues, bridges and error messages in detail.
The onion index is the one to understand. It is the list of every onion address the Tor Project publishes itself, which is why you never need to trust a third-party list for a Tor Project address, ours included. We’ll come back to why this matters.
Note one detail. All three use plain http://, not https://. This is intentional and safe. Since onion connections are encrypted end to end by design, and the address itself shows which service you have reached, the Tor Project doesn’t depend on certificates for its onions. We explain how this works in What Is an Onion Service? .onion Addresses Explained.
The rest of the index, by what it’s for#
Beyond those three, the index reads almost like an organisation chart. We’ve grouped the services useful to visitors by the job they do. All the addresses below are copied directly from onion.torproject.org as it stood on October 13, 2026.
Getting the software#
This is the group most people don’t know exists. You can download Tor Browser, get the key that signs it, and install Tor’s Linux packages entirely over onion services.
| Service | What it’s for | Address |
|---|---|---|
| download.torproject.org | The download page for Tor Browser and Tor VPN | vczcbkhpkhcywcyuyd7rfhu4bebsyscp2qoeyyvjva3km5py5rpisdid.onionNot in our directory. Find the page where the owner publishes this address before you trust it. How to verifyvczcbkhpkhcywcyuyd7rfhu4bebsyscp2qoeyyvjva3km5py5rpisdid |
| dist.torproject.org | The distribution directory with every current release and its signature files | scpalcwstkydpa3y7dbpkjs2dtr7zvtvdbyj3dqwkucfrwyixcl5ptqd.onionNot in our directory. Find the page where the owner publishes this address before you trust it. How to verifyscpalcwstkydpa3y7dbpkjs2dtr7zvtvdbyj3dqwkucfrwyixcl5ptqd |
| archive.torproject.org | Older releases | uy3qxvwzwoeztnellvvhxh7ju7kfvlsauka7avilcjg7domzxptbq7qd.onionNot in our directory. Find the page where the owner publishes this address before you trust it. How to verifyuy3qxvwzwoeztnellvvhxh7ju7kfvlsauka7avilcjg7domzxptbq7qd |
| openpgpkey.torproject.org | Where Tor’s signing keys are published | 2yldcptk56shc7lwieozoglw3t5ghty7m6mf2faysvfnzccqavbu2mad.onionNot in our directory. Find the page where the owner publishes this address before you trust it. How to verify2yldcptk56shc7lwieozoglw3t5ghty7m6mf2faysvfnzccqavbu2mad |
| deb.torproject.org | Tor’s package repository for Debian and Ubuntu | apow7mjfryruh65chtdydfmqfpj5btws7nbocgtaovhvezgccyjazpqd.onionNot in our directory. Find the page where the owner publishes this address before you trust it. How to verifyapow7mjfryruh65chtdydfmqfpj5btws7nbocgtaovhvezgccyjazpqd |
| rpm.torproject.org | Tor’s package repository for Fedora and similar systems | 4ayyzfoh5qdrokqaejis3rdredhvf22n3migyxfudpkpunngfc7g4lqd.onionNot in our directory. Find the page where the owner publishes this address before you trust it. How to verify4ayyzfoh5qdrokqaejis3rdredhvf22n3migyxfudpkpunngfc7g4lqd |
Learning and getting help#
| Service | What it’s for | Address |
|---|---|---|
| tb-manual.torproject.org | The Tor Browser user manual | dsbqrprgkqqifztta6h3w7i2htjhnq7d3qkh3c7gvc35e66rrcv66did.onionNot in our directory. Find the page where the owner publishes this address before you trust it. How to verifydsbqrprgkqqifztta6h3w7i2htjhnq7d3qkh3c7gvc35e66rrcv66did |
| forum.torproject.org | The community forum, for questions and discussion | v236xhqtyullodhf26szyjepvkbv6iitrhjgrqj4avaoukebkk6n6syd.onionNot in our directory. Find the page where the owner publishes this address before you trust it. How to verifyv236xhqtyullodhf26szyjepvkbv6iitrhjgrqj4avaoukebkk6n6syd |
| blog.torproject.org | Release announcements and news | pzhdfe7jraknpj2qgu5cz2u3i4deuyfwmonvzu5i3nyw4t4bmg7o5pad.onionNot in our directory. Find the page where the owner publishes this address before you trust it. How to verifypzhdfe7jraknpj2qgu5cz2u3i4deuyfwmonvzu5i3nyw4t4bmg7o5pad |
| community.torproject.org | Guides for relay operators, trainers and volunteers | xmrhfasfg5suueegrnc4gsgyi2tyclcy5oz7f5drnrodmdtob6t2ioyd.onionNot in our directory. Find the page where the owner publishes this address before you trust it. How to verifyxmrhfasfg5suueegrnc4gsgyi2tyclcy5oz7f5drnrodmdtob6t2ioyd |
| onionservices.torproject.org | Documentation for people running onion services | ttevhjjsjxz6uqqcjkbig5cycd7n7xv7cmd6f5fcvrqaaa7f3bj36wad.onionNot in our directory. Find the page where the owner publishes this address before you trust it. How to verifyttevhjjsjxz6uqqcjkbig5cycd7n7xv7cmd6f5fcvrqaaa7f3bj36wad |
Getting around censorship#
| Service | What it’s for | Address |
|---|---|---|
| bridges.torproject.org | Request bridge addresses for blocked networks | yq5jjvr7drkjrelzhut7kgclfuro65jjlivyzfmxiq2kyv5lickrl4qd.onionNot in our directory. Find the page where the owner publishes this address before you trust it. How to verifyyq5jjvr7drkjrelzhut7kgclfuro65jjlivyzfmxiq2kyv5lickrl4qd |
| snowflake.torproject.org | Information about Snowflake, including how to volunteer | oljlphash3bpqtrvqpr5gwzrhroziw4mddidi5d2qa4qjejcbrmoypqd.onionNot in our directory. Find the page where the owner publishes this address before you trust it. How to verifyoljlphash3bpqtrvqpr5gwzrhroziw4mddidi5d2qa4qjejcbrmoypqd |
Tails#
Tails, the amnesic operating system, now operates under the Tor Project’s umbrella after the two organisations merged their operations, and its websites appear in the same index. We cover the latest version in Tails 7.14: The Amnesic OS That Routes Everything Through Tor.
| Service | What it’s for | Address |
|---|---|---|
| tails.net | The Tails website, including downloads and documentation | tzoz3bensgxyzs7da7lpgsn3a74h7hlbm4wa6ytq2tg6ktd57w22vqqd.onionNot in our directory. Find the page where the owner publishes this address before you trust it. How to verifytzoz3bensgxyzs7da7lpgsn3a74h7hlbm4wa6ytq2tg6ktd57w22vqqd |
Code, specifications and research#
| Service | What it’s for | Address |
|---|---|---|
| gitlab.torproject.org | Source code, issue tracker and development discussion | eweiibe6tdjsdprb4px6rqrzzcsi22m4koia44kc5pcjr7nec2rlxyad.onionNot in our directory. Find the page where the owner publishes this address before you trust it. How to verifyeweiibe6tdjsdprb4px6rqrzzcsi22m4koia44kc5pcjr7nec2rlxyad |
| spec.torproject.org | The technical specifications for how Tor works | i3xi5qxvbrngh3g6o7czwjfxwjzigook7zxzjmgwg5b7xnjcn5hzciad.onionNot in our directory. Find the page where the owner publishes this address before you trust it. How to verifyi3xi5qxvbrngh3g6o7czwjfxwjzigook7zxzjmgwg5b7xnjcn5hzciad |
| arti.torproject.org | The Rust implementation of Tor | hjirlp6fu47kox4cnede4zlvaeq672bibss3oxgmsnsc5mdxygqshbqd.onionNot in our directory. Find the page where the owner publishes this address before you trust it. How to verifyhjirlp6fu47kox4cnede4zlvaeq672bibss3oxgmsnsc5mdxygqshbqd |
| metrics.torproject.org | Statistics on the Tor network’s size, users and performance | hctxrvjzfpvmzh2jllqhgvvkoepxb4kfzdjm6h7egcwlumggtktiftid.onionNot in our directory. Find the page where the owner publishes this address before you trust it. How to verifyhctxrvjzfpvmzh2jllqhgvvkoepxb4kfzdjm6h7egcwlumggtktiftid |
And the rest#
The remaining entries are mostly for the people who keep Tor running. They include monitoring dashboards, alerting systems, the donor database, staging servers for websites still being built, mailing list archives, test data for browser builds and an old archive of the project’s Subversion history. There is even an onion for www.onion-router.net, the original research site from the 1990s, before the name ‘Tor’ was adopted.
You don’t need any of them, but it’s worth noticing that they exist. An organisation that puts its own internal dashboards behind onion services clearly trusts them for real work, not just for appearances.
The addresses that no longer work#
At the end of the index, the Tor Project keeps a list of its old 16-character version 2 addresses, clearly labelled as deprecated and no longer in use. The list is there for historical reasons. If you ever come across one of those short addresses in a guide or a list of links, that tells you the source is years out of date. We explain why v2 was retired in What Is an Onion Service?, and why old link lists are risky in Why Most ‘Hidden Wiki’ Lists Are Full of Scams.
Why the index is the root of trust#
Each onion address is self-authenticating. If you reach it, you have reached whoever holds its private key. However, this only helps once you have the correct address. The difficult part is the first step, which is getting an address you can be sure belongs to the Tor Project and not to someone pretending to be it.
That is what onion.torproject.org does. It is a single page on the Tor Project’s own domain that lists every onion address the organisation runs. Instead of having to answer the question ‘is this onion really the Tor Project’s?’, you can ask the much simpler question ‘is this the Tor Project’s website?’, which most people can already answer.
Think of it as a chain with three links.
- The domain you already know. You type onion.torproject.org yourself and reach it over HTTPS. The certificate confirms you’re on the Tor Project’s real domain.
- The index on that domain. The page gives the onion address for each service in the Tor Project’s own words.
- The address itself. When you open that onion address, the cryptography takes over, and no one else can answer at it.
Once that’s done, you no longer need the chain. Bookmark the address in Tor Browser and use the bookmark. The onion address proves itself every time you connect.
How to check any Tor Project onion in a minute#
- Use the index directly. Type onion.torproject.org into your browser instead of clicking a link, find the service, and compare the entire address with the one you have, all 56 characters.
- Look for the purple button. When you visit www.torproject.org in Tor Browser, a purple ‘.onion available’ button appears in the address bar. That is Onion-Location, and it takes you to the official onion for the main site.
- Distrust anything that disagrees. If a list, a forum post or a search result gives a Tor Project onion address that isn’t in the index, treat it as fake. The index is the authority, and it outranks us too.
This is the same method we use for every organisation in our directory, although here the source is unusually tidy. The more detailed version is in How to Verify an Onion Address Is Official.
One honest limit#
The index is only as reliable as the Tor Project’s website. The page itself doesn’t carry a separate signature, so its credibility comes from the domain it sits on. That is a reasonable compromise for a public list. But it’s another reason to type the domain yourself, make sure you’re on HTTPS, and bookmark the onion address, rather than reaching it through search results each time.
What you can actually do over these onions#
Knowing the addresses is one thing. Here’s what you can do with them that is genuinely useful.
Download and verify Tor Browser without leaving Tor#
This is the closed loop most people never try. If you already have a working Tor Browser and want to set it up on another computer, or check a copy someone has given you, open the download onion to get the installer, open the dist onion for the matching .asc signature file, and fetch the signing key from the openpgpkey onion. You end up with the file, its signature and the key, all from addresses you have already verified, without touching the open internet. Then verify the signature exactly as described in How to Download and Install Tor Browser Safely.
This matters most where the Tor Project’s regular website is blocked or tampered with. It is also relevant right now for Windows users. Since the September 2026 release, the download page has offered an older, correctly signed Windows build of Tor Browser while the code-signing certificate is renewed, and the latest version sits in the distribution directory. Both directories can be reached over their onions. Our Tor Browser 15.0.24 release notes explain the situation.
Get bridges for someone else#
If you can reach the bridges onion, you obviously don’t need bridges yourself. But a friend or another device might. The bridge distributor’s onion lets you request bridge addresses without your usual network seeing you ask. Our guide to bridges, Snowflake and WebTunnel explains which type to ask for.
Read the docs and follow the news privately#
The support portal, the Tor Browser manual and the blog are all available as onions. If you’re reading about Tor from somewhere that might draw suspicion, there is no need to do it on the open web. The blog onion is also the quickest way to find out whether a security update has been released, which mattered in September 2026, as described in Tor’s September 2026 security fixes.
Follow the code#
Developers, researchers and anyone curious can browse the source code, report bugs, read the protocol specifications and follow the work on Arti, the Rust version of Tor, all over onions. Arti now powers the Tor Project’s Android VPN, which we cover in our Tor VPN beta overview, and it gains more relay support with each release. We explain what this means in Arti 2.7.0: Tor’s Rust Rewrite Explained.
Get Tails#
The Tails website, with its downloads and installation guides, also has an onion in the index. If you need an operating system that routes all your traffic through Tor and forgets everything when you switch it off, you can get it without leaving Tor. For what’s in the current version, see Tails 7.14: The Amnesic OS That Routes Everything Through Tor.
What the Tor Project’s setup teaches other organisations#
If you run a website and are thinking about an onion of your own, the Tor Project’s index is the best example you’ll find of how to do it properly. A few habits stand out.
A single page listing every address. Rather than spreading onion addresses across press releases and footers, the Tor Project lists them all in one place, on its own domain. Anyone checking an address only has to look at one page, and there’s no need to wonder whether an announcement from three years ago still applies. Debian takes a similar approach with onion.debian.org.
Onions for the whole service, not just the homepage. Someone who reaches the main site over Tor can follow links to the blog, the forum, the downloads and the documentation without dropping back to the clear web. Many organisations offer an onion homepage and then send visitors to clearnet subdomains for everything else.
Onion-Location on the normal site. When people visit the regular website in Tor Browser, they are told about the onion automatically. This is the simplest way to get them to the correct address.
Built to handle heavy traffic. Most of the services run through OnionBalance, which spreads one onion address across several servers. That keeps the services available and spreads the load, which is part of how a well-known organisation keeps its onions online.
An honest history. The old version 2 addresses are still listed, clearly marked as retired. Anyone who comes across one can see at once that it used to be official and no longer is.
If you’d like to set this up for your own organisation, our guide How to Host Your Own Onion Service walks you through the setup, adding Onion-Location and publishing a proof page, and the Tor Project’s own onion services documentation is available over the onion listed above.
Where to go next#
- Looking for other organisations’ onions? Our Official Onion Mirrors Directory lists every verified address we track, from news sites and search engines to secure email and open-source projects.
- Need Tor Browser first? See How to Download and Install Tor Browser Safely, or Using Tor on Android and iPhone on a phone.
- Worried about fake Tor Project sites? See Onion Phishing: How Fake Mirrors Clone Real Addresses.
- Want to know what the Tor Project is building? Start with Arti 2.7.0: Tor’s Rust Rewrite Explained and Tor Browser 16 Alpha: What’s Coming.
- New here? See About thehidden.wiki to find out how we verify every address.
Sources#
- onion.torproject.org, the Tor Project’s official onion index, read October 13, 2026
- Arti 2.7.0 released, Tor Project blog, October 1, 2026
- Tor VPN Beta: What we’ve learned building our own VPN for Android from scratch, Tor Project blog, September 9, 2026
- New Release: Tor Browser 15.0.24, Tor Project blog, September 29, 2026
- Real-World Onion Sites, daily status checks to October 11, 2026
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