When does a .fr domain expire and drop?
An expired .fr is released about 60 days later. Here is that timeline in full, plus who runs .fr, the European-residency rule, and how to register.
An expired .fr is released about 60 days after expiry: roughly 30 days of renewal grace during which it still works, then about 30 days of redemption, then deletion and release. .fr is the country code of France, run by the nonprofit AFNIC, and only registrants in the EU or the wider European Economic Area may hold one.
- Registry
- AFNIC
- Backend
- AFNIC
- Type
- ccTLD
- Country
- France
- Delegated
- 1986-09-02
- DNSSEC
- Yes
- IDN
- Yes
- Restrictions
- Local-presence
- Label length
- 1–63 chars
- Grace
- 30 days
- Redemption
- 30 days
- Expiry to drop
- 60 days
A country code with a residency rule
.fr is run by AFNIC, the French nonprofit registry, on a lifecycle of about 30 days of renewal grace during which the name still resolves, then roughly 30 days of redemption in which only the former holder can restore it, then deletion. There is no separate pending-delete window.
Eligibility, not the timeline, is what sets .fr apart. A registrant must be based in Europe, so a name that drops returns to a pool only European parties can register from. That narrows the field for a lapsing .fr compared with an open generic.
Who runs .fr, and since when
.fr is the country code of France, delegated in 1986 and administered by AFNIC, a nonprofit that also runs several French overseas and thematic extensions in the public interest.
Because it serves a national community rather than an open market, AFNIC sets its own eligibility and deletion policy. The stages documented here are its published lifecycle, which our engine re-verifies against the live record.
How to register a .fr domain
A .fr is not open to the whole world: the registrant must be an individual or organisation located in the European Union or the wider European Economic Area.
The residency rule is a condition of holding the name, so you must qualify to keep a .fr you catch. Otherwise the stages are the familiar grace and redemption, with no pending-delete tail before release.
- European presence required: only individuals and organisations in the EU or the wider EEA may hold a .fr domain.
- Register through any AFNIC-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 .fr timeline, stage by stage
The stages an unrenewed .fr 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 30 days | Day 30 to 60 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 60 | 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. |
.fr technical profile
How .fr publishes registration data, secures its zone, and handles non-Latin names.
WHOIS and RDAP
Registration data for every .fr domain is queryable over RDAP at https://rdap.nic.fr/ and legacy WHOIS at whois.nic.fr, so status, dates and record changes are machine-readable, which is exactly what our monitoring reads.
DNSSEC
The .fr registry supports DNSSEC, so a domain can publish DS records and let resolvers cryptographically validate its DNS answers against tampering.
Internationalized names
The .fr registry supports internationalized domain names, so labels in non-Latin scripts register as punycode alongside ordinary ASCII names.
https://rdap.nic.fr/
whois.nic.fr
AFNIC publishes registration data over RDAP and WHOIS and signs the zone for DNSSEC, so a .fr's stage transitions are observable on the record exactly as a generic's are.
Is .fr a good domain?
Where .fr fits, and the constraint.
A French address
For a business serving France, .fr signals national identity and local trust in a way a generic cannot, and it is the extension French customers expect and search for.
Run in the public interest
AFNIC is a nonprofit rather than a commercial registry, giving .fr a reputation for stability and a clear, published policy over pure growth.
The residency constraint
The European-presence requirement rules out registrants outside the EU and EEA. That protects the namespace and is a hard stop for everyone else.
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about .fr domains.
What is .fr, and who runs it?
.fr is the country code of France, delegated in 1986 and run by AFNIC, the French nonprofit registry, in the public interest.
How long does it take for an expired .fr to drop?
About 60 days: roughly 30 days of renewal grace during which the name still works, then about 30 days of redemption in which only the former holder can restore it, then deletion and release. There is no pending-delete stage.
Who is allowed to register a .fr domain?
Individuals and organisations located in the European Union or the wider European Economic Area. The European-presence rule is a condition of holding the name.
Can I catch an expiring .fr from outside Europe?
No. You must meet the European-residency requirement to hold a .fr at all, so the drop pool is effectively limited to EU and EEA registrants regardless of who is watching.
What is the best way to get a .fr that is expiring?
Watch it, confirm you meet the residency rule, and act before deletion. Because there is no pending-delete tail, release follows the redemption stage directly, so an alert during redemption is what you act on.
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