IRC (Internet Relay Chat) is a text-based chat system for instant messaging. IRC is designed for group communication in discussion forums, called channels, but also allows one-on-one communication via private messages as well as chat and data transfer, including file sharing.

Internet Relay Chat is implemented as an application layer protocol to facilitate communication in the form of text. The chat process works on a client–server networking model. Users connect, using a client—which may be a web app, a standalone desktop program, or embedded into part of a larger program—to an IRC server, which may be part of a larger IRC network. Examples of ways used to connect include the programs Mibbit, KiwiIRC, mIRC and the paid service IRCCloud.

IRC usage has been declining steadily since 2003, losing 60 percent of its users by 2012. In April 2011, the top 100 IRC networks served more than 200,000 users at a time.