When does a .ca domain expire and drop?
An expired .ca drops about 78 days later. Here is that timeline in full, plus who runs .ca, the Canadian-presence rule, and how its weekly release works.
An expired .ca is released about 78 days after expiry: up to 45 days of renewal grace, 30 days of redemption, then a short To Be Released queue. .ca is the country code of Canada, run by the nonprofit CIRA, and only people and organisations with a Canadian presence may hold one.
- Registry
- CIRA
- Backend
- CIRA
- Type
- ccTLD
- Country
- Canada
- Delegated
- 1987-05-14
- DNSSEC
- Yes
- IDN
- Yes
- Restrictions
- Local-presence
- Label length
- 1–63 chars
- Grace
- 45 days
- Redemption
- 30 days
- Pending delete
- 3 days
- Expiry to drop
- 78 days
- Daily drop window
- 19:00–20:00 UTC
A country code with a presence rule
.ca is run by CIRA, the nonprofit Canadian registry, on a lifecycle of up to 45 days of renewal grace, 30 days of redemption, and then a short pending-delete queue of about 3 days before release.
Two things set .ca apart. Eligibility is restricted to those with a Canadian presence, and released names are not dropped continuously but batched into a weekly To Be Released session, so the timing of a catch is tied to that schedule rather than a rolling drop.
Who runs .ca, and since when
.ca is the country code of Canada, delegated in 1987 and administered since 2000 by CIRA, a member-based nonprofit that runs it in the Canadian public interest rather than for profit.
Because it is a nationally administered country code rather than an ICANN-contracted generic, its eligibility and release policy are CIRA's to set. The stages documented here are its published lifecycle, which our engine re-verifies against the live record.
How to register a .ca domain
A .ca is not open to the whole world: you must meet the Canadian Presence Requirements to register or hold one, whether as a citizen, resident, Canadian organisation, or trademark holder.
The presence rule is checked, so you must qualify to hold a name you catch. Released names surface in CIRA's weekly To Be Released round rather than dropping continuously, which is what a contested .ca is really competed for.
- Canadian presence required: only Canadian citizens, residents, organisations, or qualifying trademark holders may hold a .ca domain.
- Register through any CIRA-certified 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 annual and renewable; an unrenewed name enters the deletion timeline below.
The .ca timeline, stage by stage
The stages an unrenewed .ca 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: 3 days | Day 75 to 78 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 78 | 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. |
.ca technical profile
How .ca publishes registration data, secures its zone, and handles non-Latin names.
WHOIS and RDAP
Registration data for every .ca domain is queryable over RDAP at https://rdap.ca.fury.ca/rdap/ and legacy WHOIS at whois.cira.ca, so status, dates and record changes are machine-readable, which is exactly what our monitoring reads.
DNSSEC
The .ca registry supports DNSSEC, so a domain can publish DS records and let resolvers cryptographically validate its DNS answers against tampering.
Internationalized names
The .ca registry supports internationalized domain names, so labels in non-Latin scripts register as punycode alongside ordinary ASCII names.
https://rdap.ca.fury.ca/rdap/
whois.cira.ca
CIRA publishes standard EPP statuses and RDAP records for .ca, so its stage transitions are observable; the one difference from a generic is that release is batched into the weekly TBR session rather than dropped continuously.
Is .ca a good domain?
Where .ca fits, and the constraint.
A Canadian address
For a Canadian business or institution, .ca signals national identity and local trust in a way a generic cannot, and it is the default extension Canadians expect.
Run in the public interest
CIRA is a member-based nonprofit rather than a commercial registry, which gives .ca a reputation for stability and stewardship over pure growth.
The presence constraint
The Canadian Presence Requirements rule out registrants without a Canadian connection. That protects the namespace for Canadians and is a hard stop for everyone else.
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about .ca domains.
What is .ca, and who runs it?
.ca is the country code of Canada, delegated in 1987 and run by CIRA, the nonprofit Canadian Internet Registration Authority, in the Canadian public interest.
How long does it take for an expired .ca to drop?
About 78 days: up to 45 days of renewal grace, 30 days of redemption, then a To Be Released queue of about 3 days before the name is offered in the next weekly session and released.
Who is allowed to register a .ca domain?
Only those meeting CIRA's Canadian Presence Requirements: Canadian citizens and residents, organisations incorporated in Canada, and holders of a Canadian trademark, among a defined list of eligible categories.
How are dropped .ca names released?
Not continuously. After redemption a name joins the To Be Released queue and is offered in CIRA's weekly TBR session; names unclaimed there become registrable again shortly after. Timing a catch means timing that session.
What is the best way to get a .ca that is expiring?
Watch it, confirm you meet the presence rule, and plan around the weekly To Be Released round. A contested .ca is competed for in that session, so a backorder service is often the realistic route.
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