When does a .it domain expire and drop?
- Expiry to drop
- 47 days
- Grace
- 15 days
- Redemption
- 30 days
- Pending delete
- 2 days
An expired .it is released about 47 days after expiry: about 15 days of auto-renew grace, 30 days of redemption in which only the holder's registrar can recover it, then a short wait before one of the registry's two daily drop batches. .it is the country code of Italy, run by Registro .it.
Calculate a .it drop dateThe .it timeline, stage by stage
The stages an unrenewed .it passes through, ending in a scheduled drop batch.
| Stage | Window | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Auto-renew period: about 15 days | Day 0 to 15 after expiry | The name has expired but its registrar can still renew it at the normal price. Nobody else can register it. |
| Redemption: about 30 days | Day 15 to 45 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. |
| Listed for deletion: 2 days | Day 45 to 47 after expiry | The name can no longer be recovered and is scheduled for one of the registry's daily drop batches. This is the stage to be ready on if you want it. |
| Released: registrable by anyone | From about day 47 | 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. |
.it at a glance
- Registry
- Registro .it
- Backend
- IIT-CNR
- Type
- ccTLD
- Country
- Italy
- Delegated
- 1987-12-23
- DNSSEC
- Yes
- IDN
- Yes
- Restrictions
- Local-presence
- Label length
- 1–63 chars
- Grace
- 15 days
- Redemption
- 30 days
- Pending delete
- 2 days
- Expiry to drop
- 47 days
- Daily drop window
- 07:00–15:00 UTC
A short grace, then scheduled drops
After expiry a .it has about 15 days of auto-renew grace, then 30 days of redemption in which the same registrar can still recover it. Names that are not recovered are listed for deletion and dropped 2 days later.
The registry drops names in two published batches each day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, Italian time. That makes .it one of the few ccTLDs with a predictable drop time, which is exactly what drop catchers use.
Who runs .it, and since when
.it is the country code of Italy, delegated in 1987 and run by Registro .it, operated by IIT-CNR, the institute of Italy's National Research Council.
The drop batches and stage lengths come from the registry's published glossary and drop-time pages, and our engine re-verifies them against the live record.
How to register a .it domain
A .it is not open to the whole world: the holder must be a citizen, resident or company of the European Economic Area, or of Switzerland, San Marino, the Vatican or the United Kingdom.
- European eligibility: the holder must be based in or a citizen of an eligible European country; living in Italy is not required.
- Register through an accredited registrar; the registry sells wholesale.
- Accented Italian characters are supported as internationalized names.
- Registration is annual and renewable; an unrenewed name enters the timeline below.
Eligibility applies to whoever catches a drop too, so check you qualify before you watch a .it. Holder data is verified, and a name with inaccurate contact details can be suspended.
.it technical profile
How .it publishes registration data, secures its zone, and handles non-Latin names.
WHOIS lookups
Registration data for a .it domain is queryable over WHOIS at whois.nic.it. The registry does not publish an RDAP service in the IANA bootstrap, so status and dates are read from WHOIS, which is what our monitoring reads.
DNSSEC
The .it registry supports DNSSEC, so a domain can publish DS records and let resolvers cryptographically validate its DNS answers against tampering.
Internationalized names
The .it registry supports internationalized domain names, so labels in non-Latin scripts register as punycode alongside ordinary ASCII names.
- WHOIS
- whois.nic.it
The registry publishes its drop batches, so a .it's release time is known in advance, and its WHOIS record shows each stage as the name moves through it.
Is .it a good domain?
Where .it fits, and the constraint.
An Italian address
For a business serving Italy, .it is the extension customers expect, and it signals a local presence.
A word as well as a country
Because "it" is an English word, .it also suits short phrases, which is why it is popular for names that read as a sentence.
The European constraint
Holders outside the eligible European countries cannot register a .it, which narrows the pool chasing an expiring name.
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about .it domains.
What is a .it domain?
.it is the country code top-level domain of Italy, delegated in 1987 and run by Registro .it.
How long does it take for an expired .it to drop?
About 47 days: 15 days of auto-renew grace, 30 days of redemption, then 2 days before a scheduled drop batch.
What time do .it domains drop?
The registry runs two drop batches a day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, Italian time. Released names become registrable in those batches.
Who can register a .it domain?
Citizens, residents and companies of the European Economic Area, Switzerland, San Marino, the Vatican and the United Kingdom. You do not need to live in Italy.