When does a .co domain expire and drop?
An expired .co drops about 80 days later. Here is that timeline in full, plus who runs .co, why brands use it, and how to register one.
An expired .co is released about 80 days after expiry, running a full grace, redemption and pending-delete lifecycle. .co is the country code of Colombia, delegated in 1991 but marketed globally as a short alternative to .com, operated by GoDaddy Registry under its standard published policy and open to anyone worldwide.
- Registry
- GoDaddy Registry
- Backend
- GoDaddy Registry
- Type
- ccTLD
- Country
- Colombia
- Delegated
- 1991-12-24
- DNSSEC
- Yes
- IDN
- Yes
- 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
Colombia's code, sold to the world
.co is Colombia's country code, positioned globally as a memorable stand-in for .com or "company". It is operated by GoDaddy Registry under that registry's standard lifecycle: up to 45 days of auto-renew grace, 30 days of redemption, and a 5-day pending delete.
Because it runs a documented, gTLD-style lifecycle, .co drop timing is knowable in a way most country codes are not. The stages appear on the public record, so a watched .co behaves much like a watched .com.
Who runs .co, and since when
.co is the country code of Colombia, delegated in 1991. It was relaunched for global registration in 2010 and is now operated by GoDaddy Registry on GoDaddy Registry's platform.
.co moved onto its current operator's universal registration policy in late 2025. Older articles describing a short 15-day redemption predate that move and are wrong today; the figures here are the current published policy our engine forecasts with.
How to register a .co domain
A .co is open to anyone worldwide with no local presence or eligibility rules. Short, brandable names are the draw, and while the best have gone, .co is far less exhausted than .com.
One-year minimum, any accredited registrar. Treat it as a first-class brand domain rather than a discount .com; pricing and lifecycle are gTLD-grade.
- Open registration: anyone worldwide can hold a .co 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 annual and renewable; an unrenewed name enters the deletion timeline below.
The .co timeline, stage by stage
The stages an unrenewed .co 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. |
.co technical profile
How .co publishes registration data, secures its zone, and handles non-Latin names.
WHOIS and RDAP
Registration data for every .co domain is queryable over RDAP at https://rdap.nic.co/ and legacy WHOIS at whois.registry.co, so status, dates and record changes are machine-readable, which is exactly what our monitoring reads.
DNSSEC
The .co registry supports DNSSEC, so a domain can publish DS records and let resolvers cryptographically validate its DNS answers against tampering.
Internationalized names
The .co registry supports internationalized domain names, so labels in non-Latin scripts register as punycode alongside ordinary ASCII names.
https://rdap.nic.co/
whois.registry.co
Running on a gTLD-grade platform, .co publishes standard EPP statuses and RDAP records, which is what makes its drop timing forecastable where most country codes are opaque.
Is .co a good domain?
Where a .co earns its keep.
The .com stand-in
When the .com is gone or unaffordable, .co is the most recognised short alternative, and "company / corporation / Colorado" all read cleanly into it.
Short by default
A two-letter extension keeps the whole domain short, which suits startups and campaigns that want a crisp, typeable name.
Marketed globally
Though a country code, .co has been sold and understood as a global extension for over a decade, so it carries little Colombia-specific baggage for most audiences.
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about .co domains.
What is .co, and who runs it?
.co is the country code of Colombia, delegated in 1991 and operated globally by GoDaddy Registry as a short alternative to .com.
How long does an expired .co take to drop?
About 80 days: up to 45 days of grace, 30 days of redemption, then 5 days of pending delete.
Is the .co redemption really only 15 days?
Not any more. That figure described the previous operator. Since the move to the current platform, .co follows the standard 30-day redemption in that registry's published policy, which is the figure our engine forecasts with.
Is .co a good alternative to .com?
It is the most recognised short alternative and works well for startups and campaigns. For a mass-market brand a .com is still stronger where you can get it.
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