When does a .co.uk domain expire and drop?
An expired .co.uk is released about 90 days later. Here is Nominet's exact timeline, plus who runs .co.uk, how to register one, and its technical profile.
An expired .co.uk is released about 90 days after expiry: roughly 30 days of working grace during which it can still be renewed, then about 60 days suspended, then cancellation and release. .co.uk is the UK's most-used domain, operated by Nominet, which runs its own lifecycle and has no pending-delete stage.
- Registry
- Nominet
- Backend
- Nominet
- Type
- ccTLD
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Delegated
- 1985-07-24
- DNSSEC
- Yes
- IDN
- Yes
- Restrictions
- Open
- Label length
- 1–63 chars
- Grace
- 30 days
- Redemption
- 60 days
- Expiry to drop
- 90 days
The UK default, on Nominet's own rules
.co.uk is run by Nominet, which never adopted the ICANN lifecycle. An unrenewed name gets about 30 days of grace during which it keeps working and can be renewed normally; then it is suspended, dropping out of DNS, for roughly 60 more days, during which the registrant can still renew.
There is no pending-delete tail. When the suspension ends the name is cancelled and returns to the pool. Nominet publishes this schedule, which is why .co.uk drop timing is unusually dependable for a country code.
Who runs .co.uk, and since when
.uk was delegated in 1985, and .co.uk became the standard second level for UK businesses. Both are administered by Nominet, the UK's national registry.
Nominet operates its own backend and its own deletion policy rather than the ICANN gTLD contract, which is why .co.uk has grace and suspension but no redemption fee and no pending delete.
How to register a .co.uk domain
A .co.uk is open to anyone worldwide with no local presence requirement, though Nominet requires a valid registrant name and address. It remains the default trust signal for a UK business or audience.
One-year minimum, registered through a Nominet-accredited registrar. Through most of the suspension the registrant simply renews at their normal price; the punitive restore fee gTLD registries charge has no equivalent here.
- Open registration: anyone worldwide can hold a .co.uk 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.uk timeline, stage by stage
The stages an unrenewed .co.uk passes through. Note there is no pending-delete stage.
| Stage | Window | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Renewal grace: about 30 days | Day 0 to 30 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 60 days | Day 30 to 90 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. |
| Released: registrable by anyone | From about day 90 | 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.uk technical profile
How .co.uk publishes registration data, secures its zone, and handles non-Latin names.
WHOIS and RDAP
Registration data for every .co.uk domain is queryable over RDAP at https://rdap.nominet.uk/uk/ and legacy WHOIS at whois.nic.uk, so status, dates and record changes are machine-readable, which is exactly what our monitoring reads.
DNSSEC
The .co.uk registry supports DNSSEC, so a domain can publish DS records and let resolvers cryptographically validate its DNS answers against tampering.
Internationalized names
The .co.uk registry supports internationalized domain names, so labels in non-Latin scripts register as punycode alongside ordinary ASCII names.
https://rdap.nominet.uk/uk/
whois.nic.uk
Nominet publishes registration data over RDAP and WHOIS and signs the zone for DNSSEC. The distinctive point is lifecycle, not technology: grace, suspension, cancellation, with no pending-delete window on the end.
Is .co.uk a good domain?
Where a .co.uk is the right call.
UK trust and local SEO
For a business serving the UK, .co.uk signals a local presence and is what British customers expect and search for, which helps both conversion and regional ranking.
The UK default
It is the most widely held UK domain by a wide margin, so it reads as established rather than novel, which matters for older and more conservative audiences.
Stable governance
Nominet is a long-standing national registry with a clear, published policy, so there is little of the rule-change risk that shadows commercial country codes.
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about .co.uk domains.
When is an expired .co.uk released?
About 90 days after expiry: 30 days of working grace, then roughly 60 days suspended, then cancellation and release. Nominet publishes the schedule, and there is no pending-delete tail on the end.
Is there a redemption fee on .co.uk?
No. Through most of the suspension the registrant simply renews at their registrar's normal price. The punitive restore fee gTLD registries charge in redemption has no equivalent in Nominet's process.
Do I need to be in the UK to register a .co.uk?
No. Registration is open worldwide; Nominet requires a valid name and address but no UK local presence.
Why does .co.uk have no pending delete?
Because Nominet runs its own lifecycle rather than the ICANN gTLD contract. Its process is grace, suspension, cancellation, so there is no separate pending-delete stage before release.
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