When does a .ai domain expire and drop?
An expired .ai drops about 80 days later. Here is that timeline in full, plus who runs .ai, why the AI industry adopted it, and how to register one.
An expired .ai is released about 80 days after expiry, running a full grace, redemption and pending-delete lifecycle. .ai is the country code of Anguilla, delegated in 1995 and now the default extension for artificial-intelligence products, operated by Identity Digital on its gTLD platform and open to register worldwide in two-year terms.
- Registry
- Identity Digital
- Backend
- Identity Digital
- Type
- ccTLD
- Country
- Anguilla
- Delegated
- 1995-02-16
- DNSSEC
- Yes
- IDN
- No
- Restrictions
- Open
- Label length
- 1–63 chars
- Grace
- 45 days
- Redemption
- 30 days
- Pending delete
- 5 days
- Expiry to drop
- 80 days
- Daily drop window
- 13:00–20:00 UTC
A ccTLD carried by the AI boom
.ai is technically the country code of Anguilla, but since Identity Digital moved it onto the same registry platform and lifecycle as its gTLD portfolio it runs a familiar timeline: up to 45 days of renewal grace, 30 days of redemption, and a 5-day pending delete.
The demand is the story. As artificial intelligence became the defining category, .ai turned from an obscure island code into the extension AI companies register first, and short or dictionary names now resell for five and six figures. That makes knowing exactly when a lapsed .ai reaches the drop worth far more here than on a quiet namespace.
Who runs .ai, and since when
.ai was delegated in 1995 as the country code for Anguilla, a Caribbean territory whose registry income from the extension now funds a large share of its public budget. Its technical operation passed to Identity Digital, which runs it on the same platform as its gTLD portfolio.
Because it is a country code rather than an ICANN-contracted gTLD, its rules are the territory's to set and have been revised as the namespace grew. The stages documented here are the operator's current published lifecycle, which our engine re-verifies against the live record rather than assumes.
How to register a .ai domain
A .ai is open to anyone worldwide with no local-presence rule, but it differs from a generic in one way that catches people out: it is sold in terms of two years and up, not the single-year cycle a .com uses.
The two-year term means a .ai never simply lapses at a one-year mark, so a diary reminder set for a .com renewal date will be wrong. Short and dictionary .ai names are watched by every catching service; treat them as aftermarket buys, not hand-registrations.
- Open registration: anyone worldwide can hold a .ai domain, with no local-presence requirement.
- Register through any accredited registrar; the registry sells wholesale, not direct to the public.
- Labels run up to 63 characters using letters, digits and hyphens, never starting or ending with a hyphen.
- Registration is sold in two-year minimum terms and renewable; a lapsed name enters the deletion timeline below.
The .ai timeline, stage by stage
The stages an unrenewed .ai passes through, each at its published length.
| Stage | Window | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Renewal grace: about 45 days | Day 0 to 45 after expiry | The registration has expired but the current owner can still renew at the normal price, usually through their registrar. The name often stops resolving during this window, and nobody else can register it. Registrars frequently delete earlier than the final day, which starts the rest of the timeline early. |
| Redemption: about 30 days | Day 45 to 75 after expiry | Deletion has begun. Only the current registrant can recover the name now, typically by paying a restore fee on top of the renewal, and it cannot be registered by anyone else. A restore during this stage is a strong signal the name will not drop. |
| Pending delete: 5 days | Day 75 to 80 after expiry | The point of no return. Recovery is no longer possible for anyone, including the original owner, and the registry releases the name at the end of this fixed window. This is the stage worth acting on if you want the name. |
| Released: registrable by anyone | From about day 80 | The name leaves the registry's deletion pipeline and returns to the public pool, registrable at the standard price on a first-come basis through any registrar. Availability monitoring exists to catch this moment. |
.ai technical profile
How .ai publishes registration data, secures its zone, and handles internationalized names.
WHOIS and RDAP
Registration data for every .ai domain is queryable over RDAP at https://rdap.identitydigital.services/rdap/ and legacy WHOIS at whois.nic.ai, so status, dates and record changes are machine-readable, which is exactly what our monitoring reads.
DNSSEC
The .ai registry supports DNSSEC, so a domain can publish DS records and let resolvers cryptographically validate its DNS answers against tampering.
Internationalized names
The .ai registry has historically not offered internationalized domain names, so labels are registered in ordinary ASCII letters, digits and hyphens rather than non-Latin scripts.
https://rdap.identitydigital.services/rdap/
whois.nic.ai
Running on Identity Digital's gTLD platform, .ai publishes the same EPP statuses and RDAP records as a generic, which is what makes its drop timing knowable where most country codes are not.
Is .ai a good domain?
Why the AI industry standardised on .ai, and the catch.
The AI industry default
For a company building in machine learning or AI, a .ai reads as native to the field in a way a .com or .io does not. It has become the category's signature extension, which is exactly why the good names are gone.
A live resale market
Demand has pushed short and keyword .ai names into four, five and six-figure resales. A lapsing .ai you want is a genuine asset to catch, not a cheap hand-registration to wait for.
A country code, technically
Because .ai is a ccTLD, its policy is the territory's to change and its terms run in two-year blocks at a premium price. For a long-lived brand, weigh that governance risk against the naming upside.
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about .ai domains.
What is .ai, and who runs it?
.ai is the country code of Anguilla, delegated in 1995 and now used worldwide as the artificial-intelligence extension. It is operated by Identity Digital on its gTLD registry platform.
How long does it take for an expired .ai to drop?
About 80 days: up to 45 days of renewal grace, 30 days of redemption, then 5 days of pending delete. Early registrar deletion can pull the first stage in; the pending-delete window is fixed.
Why is a .ai registered for two years at a time?
The .ai registry sells and renews in terms of two years and up rather than the single-year cycle common to generics. It does not change the drop stages once a name does lapse, but it does mean the expiry date is rarely one year after registration.
Is .ai a good domain for an AI company?
For an AI or machine-learning brand it is the strongest signal an extension can send, which is also why availability is the constraint. Weigh that against premium pricing, two-year terms, and the fact that a ccTLD's rules can change.
What is the best way to get a .ai that is expiring?
Watch it from the moment you want it. Stage alerts show whether it is heading for the drop at all; for a contested name, plan on a backorder or a catching service too, because .ai drops are heavily contested.
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