Registry expiry date
The date the registry holds as the end of a domain's current registration term. Every post-expiry stage, grace, redemption and pending delete, counts from it.
The date the registry holds as the end of a domain's current registration term. Every post-expiry stage, grace, redemption and pending delete, counts from it.
Registry expiry date
The date the registry holds as the end of a domain's current registration term. Every post-expiry stage, grace, redemption and pending delete, counts from it.
A domain has more than one expiry date, and they do not always agree. The registry expiry date is the one in the registry's own record, published over RDAP and WHOIS as "Registry Expiry Date". The date in your registrar account is the registrar's billing date, and registrars often set it a few days earlier so a renewal is collected before the registry deadline. The two can also drift apart after a renewal: when an expired name enters the auto-renew grace period, many registries advance the registry expiry date by a year before anyone has paid, so a lookup can show a date a year out on a name that is actually expired and unpaid. When you want to know where a name really is in its lifecycle, read the registry date and the status codes together, never the date alone.
A .com shows "Registry Expiry Date: 2027-03-01" in a lookup, while its registrar dashboard says it expires on 2026-02-26. Its status reads autoRenewPeriod. The registry has already advanced the term by a year, but the registrar has not been paid, and if no payment arrives the renewal is cancelled and the name heads for redemption.
Related terms Expiring soon autoRenewPeriod Grace period Registrar
Monitor it Expiry monitoring
How to find a domain's registry expiry date
- Look up the domain's registry record over RDAP or WHOIS, not the registrar's account page.
- Read the expiration event in RDAP, or the Registry Expiry Date line in WHOIS. That is the date the registry counts every expiry stage from.
- If it is a year later than the date your registrar shows, the registry has auto-renewed it and the registrar has not yet settled the renewal.
- Enter the domain below to read the live date and how many days are left.
The status label and the stage sentence above are the same ones Domainyze shows on a monitored domain.
- Registered (active)
- A domain that is currently held by a registrant and is not near its expiry date. The registry will not let anyone else register it.
- Expiring soon
- A registered domain whose expiry date falls inside the next 90 days. It is still fully active; the clock is simply visible.
- Grace period
- The window immediately after expiry in which the registrant can still renew the domain at the ordinary renewal price. Length is set by the registry, commonly around 45 days for generic TLDs.
- autoRenewPeriod
- The EPP status a registry sets when it has automatically renewed an expired domain on the registrar's account, giving the registrar a window to either collect payment or cancel the renewal for a refund.
- clientHold
- An EPP status set by the registrar that removes the domain from the DNS zone. The name stays registered, but it stops resolving: no website, no email.
- serverHold
- The registry's own version of clientHold. The domain is removed from the zone and stops resolving, and the registrar cannot lift it.
- clientTransferProhibited
- An EPP status that blocks the domain from being transferred to another registrar. It is a lock, not a problem, and most registrars set it by default.
- Domain lock (update, delete and registry lock)
- The remaining EPP prohibitions: clientUpdateProhibited and clientDeleteProhibited set by your registrar, serverUpdateProhibited and serverDeleteProhibited set by the registry, and the bundled registry lock services that apply several at once.
- pendingTransfer
- A transfer to another registrar has been requested and is waiting on the losing registrar. The domain still works normally while it sits here.
- Expired
- The registration term has run out and has not been paid for. The name is past its expiry date but has not yet been released.
- Redemption period
- The recovery window after the grace period, in which only the original registrant can get the domain back, and only by paying a restore fee on top of the renewal. Commonly 30 days on generic TLDs.
- pendingDelete
- The final registry window before an expired domain is released. Nothing can recover it here, not even the original owner: the name is queued for deletion. Commonly five days on generic TLDs.
- Available
- The name is not registered. Anyone can register it at any registrar, at the going price for its TLD.
- Auction
- The domain is being sold on a marketplace rather than released to the public. It may never reach a public drop at all.
- Drop catching
- Registering an expired domain the instant the registry deletes it, usually by sending automated registration requests through many registrar connections at once.
- Backorder
- A request placed with a drop-catching service to try to register a domain for you when it drops. It is an attempt, not a reservation.
- Blocked or reserved
- The registry will not let anyone register this name at all. It is reserved by policy or blocked by a brand-protection service, and it will not drop.
- Reclaimed
- A domain you were watching was renewed or restored by its original owner. It went through the recovery windows and came back out registered to the same registrant.
- Taken
- A domain you were watching dropped and was registered by somebody else. The registration is new, so the registrant changed.
- Unknown status
- We do not have an authoritative answer about this name yet. It describes our read of the domain, not anything the domain is doing.