What happens when a domain expires?

When a domain expires, your website and email stop working once the name is taken out of DNS, which can happen at expiry or some days later, depending on your registrar. For .com, .org and other generic domains, you may get an optional renewal window of up to 45 days, then a 30-day redemption period, then 5 days before the name is released for anyone to register. Once the redemption period ends, nobody can restore it. Country domains such as .uk set their own rules, so ask your registrar or check your registry.

What are the stages for .com, .org and other generic domains?

These come from ICANN's Expired Registration Recovery Policy, its summary for registrants and its renewal FAQ, read on 1 November 2026.

Four things this table can hide:

• A registrar doesn't have to wait. The policy lets a registrar delete a registration at any time after expiry. If it deletes within 8 days of expiry, DNS has to be interrupted from expiry until deletion.
• The grace period doesn't always mean the name is safe. ICANN says that during it the name may be available to third parties or auctioned, depending on your registrar's terms. Read yours.
• Sponsored generic domains are an exception. The policy says their registries don't have to offer the Redemption Grace Period. ICANN's summary doesn't mention this.
• ICANN's own pages don't quite agree on the 8 days. The policy says "at least" the last eight days. The summary says "up to 8 days". The table follows the policy, because that's the rule itself. Your registrar can tell you what it does.

What happens after the redemption period?

If nobody restores the name in its 30-day redemption period, the registry moves it to pending delete. That lasts 5 days for generic domains, and nobody can restore it then, not even your registrar. After that the registry purges it and anyone can register it, first come, first served.

Step by step, for .com, .org and other generic domains:

1. Day 30 of redemption ends. The status changes to pending delete. ICANN's renewal FAQ gives this stage 5 days. Its status code page says "several days", and the purge comes five calendar days after the redemption period ends.
2. No restore in those 5 days. The 2003 .com and .net registry agreement report says "no registrar can modify or restore a name in PENDINGDELETE status", so that every registrar gets equal notice of which names will drop. ICANN still says to call your registrar at once, so do, but don't count on getting it back.
3. The name is purged. It's dropped from the registry database and becomes available "on a first-come-first-served basis", in the FAQ's words. Someone else may register it within minutes.
4. Your only route is to register it again, at the normal price, if it's still free. You start from scratch: new registration date, and your old DNS settings are gone.

One status that looks similar but is good news: pending restore. It means your registrar has asked to restore the name from redemption. ICANN says the registrar then has to send the registry paperwork within a set time, which ICANN describes as often seven days. If it doesn't, the name goes back to redemption. So if you see pending restore, check again a few days later that it has cleared.

Country domains don't follow these steps. Check your registry's own policy, as in the .uk example below.

How do you tell whether it has been released?

Ask RDAP. A name that exists returns its record. A name that's been purged, or was never registered, returns HTTP 404 from the registry. Real output, run on 3 November 2026:

curl -sSL -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}\n" https://rdap.org/domain/example.com

200

curl -sSL -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}\n" https://rdap.org/domain/shr-test-1793712026-nx.com

404

The 404 came from rdap.verisign.com, the .com registry. A 404 tells you the name isn't registered right now. It doesn't reserve it for you, and it can change the next minute.

Will my website and email stop straight away?

Not always, which is what catches people out. The site can keep working for days after the date on the invoice, then stop when the registrar interrupts DNS. ICANN describes that stop as a last way of telling you the name has expired.

Every service using the name goes with it, not only the website. ICANN names email as well. Password resets sent to those addresses won't get through either.

That last one can trap you. If your registrar login or contact email is on the domain that expired, the renewal reminders and login emails may be going to a mailbox that can't receive them. The policy's best-practice notes say registrars should use another contact point for post-expiry notices if delivery is known to be interrupted and another one exists. That's a recommendation, not a duty, so keep a second one on file.

Will my web hosting be cancelled too?

Not because of the domain. Hosting is a separate service with its own renewal date, even when one company bills for both. Your files can still be sitting on the server while nobody can reach them by name. Check the hosting date and your provider's terms too, because a bundle may tie them together.

Do country domains work the same way?

No. The ICANN policy is written for generic domains, not country domains, so each registry publishes its own.

For example, Nominet's registrar guide for .uk, read on 1 November 2026, says:

• a warning goes out 23 days after expiry, and the domain is suspended at about 30 days
• renewal is possible until 90 days after expiry
• the domain drops at 95 days after expiry

Those days are for .uk only, and that page is written for registrars. For any other country domain, look for the registry's own policy page, or ask your registrar. If what you read doesn't match what your registrar tells you, go by your registrar and get it in writing.

How do you see the expiry date and current status?

For generic domains, ICANN's lookup tool is the simplest way. ICANN made RDAP the definitive source for generic domain registration data on 28 January 2025.

You can also ask from a terminal. In this run, rdap.org forwarded the request to the registry's own server, rdap.verisign.com. Real output, run on 1 November 2026 against example.com:

curl -sSL https://rdap.org/domain/example.com \
  | jq -r '.events[] | select(.eventAction=="expiration") | .eventDate'

2027-08-13T04:00:00Z

To see the status list instead:

curl -sSL https://rdap.org/domain/example.com | jq -r '.status[]'

client delete prohibited
client transfer prohibited
client update prohibited

Those three are normal locks. These are the ones to worry about, per ICANN's status code page:

• redemption period: the registrar has asked for deletion. Contact the registrar now.
• pending delete: the name is heading for removal. ICANN still says to contact your registrar immediately. If it isn't combined with redemption period, the 30 days are over.
• pending restore: your registrar has asked to bring it back. Check it clears within about a week.
• client hold: the name won't resolve. ICANN says this is uncommon, and usually means a legal dispute, non-payment or a coming deletion.
• server hold: set by the registry, and the name isn't active in DNS. It may mean there's an issue to sort out with your registrar.
• auto renew period: the registry has extended the name automatically for a limited time.

A warning about that last one. ICANN says that if you don't want to keep the name (its words: pay the renewal fee), you should contact your registrar, and that a registrar can still delete the name in this period. So our reading is that a later date in the public record doesn't prove you've paid. Check your registrar account, not only the public record.

What should you do if your domain has already expired?

1. Log in at your registrar today. Renew if it lets you. Don't wait for the next reminder.
2. Locked out? Contact the registrar's support. If your account email is on the expired domain, tell them that first.
3. Ask for the exact stage and the exact price. Fees vary by registrar, and a restore in the redemption period may mean an additional fee.
4. Don't plan on moving registrar to escape the fee. ICANN says a name in the redemption period has to be restored by your current registrar before it can be transferred. Before that stage, its FAQ says a registrar can't deny a transfer just because the name expired, unless you haven't paid for a previous registration period.
5. Check it after renewing. The registrar must restore your DNS settings after a renewal in that window, immediately or as soon as commercially reasonable, which can mean a delay on a non-business day. Confirm with dig +short NS yourdomain.com, and see that your own name servers are listed. Then test the site and send yourself an email.
6. Believe your registrar didn't follow the rules? For generic domains, ICANN's FAQ points you to its Domain Renewal Complaint Form.

What if someone else has registered it?

Then renewal is off the table. Your options are asking the new owner or, if you have trademark rights in the name, looking at ICANN's dispute policy or the courts, and that's a question for a lawyer. In the meantime, start telling customers and any service tied to the old addresses.

How do you stop this happening?

• Turn on auto-renew.
• Check the card on file before the renewal date, not after.
• Use a registrar contact email that somebody still reads, and put it on a different domain.
• Keep a calendar entry of your own, set well ahead of the date.

When does your domain run out?

The free domain expiry checker reads the public RDAP record and flags anything with 45 days or fewer left. Some country domains don't publish an expiry date over RDAP, and then it says it doesn't know rather than guessing. It shows the public record, so the warning above about your registrar account still applies.

If you'd rather have someone sort it out, we quote per job.

Sources were read on 1 November 2026 and checked again on 3 November 2026. Policies and registry pages change, so check them if you're reading this much later, and treat your registrar's answer as the final word for your domain. This isn't legal advice.