Your domain expired: how to get it back

An expired domain is not gone straight away. For a few weeks you can renew it, then for 30 days you can restore it for a fee, and only after that can someone else register it. Here is what to do at each stage.

Updated Nov 1, 2026 · From the registry’s published rules, primary sources and our own daily measurements · More guides

First, find out where it is

Check the name, and log in to the registrar account it was registered with. Between them they tell you which of the four stages below you are in. Each one has a different answer, and each one gets harder, so do this today.

1. Expired, still at your registrar: renew it

For a while after the expiry date the domain is still yours. Your website and email usually stop working — ICANN’s rules make the registrar switch the name off for at least the last eight days it can still be renewed, and any page it shows there must say the domain has expired — but you can renew it from your registrar account, often at the normal price.

How long this lasts is the registrar’s choice: up to 45 days for a .com. Some registrars also auction expired names during this time. GoDaddy, for example, lists them in its auctions from about 26 days after expiry, and from about day 30 the old owner can no longer renew a name somebody has bid on. Renew as soon as you notice.

Source: ICANN Expired Registration Recovery Policy; GoDaddy: timeline for GoDaddy Auctions expired domains

2. Deleted, in redemption: restore it

When the registrar deletes the name, the registry holds it for 30 days in the redemption period. Nobody else can register it, and only you can get it back: ask the same registrar to restore it. ICANN requires registrars to offer this and to publish the restore fee on their website. It is usually much more than a normal renewal, so this is the expensive way back — but it still works.

Source: ICANN Expired Registration Recovery Policy; Verisign .com Registry Agreement, Appendix 7

3. Pending delete: too late to restore

After redemption come five days of pendingDelete. Nobody can restore or register the name. On the sixth day the registry releases it in the daily drop at 12:00 UTC, and the first person to register it gets it — which can be you:

Check the name to get the exact release day.
At 12:00 UTC that day, have it typed into any registrar’s search.
Register it the moment it shows as available, at the normal price.

If others want the name too, drop-catching services will compete for it and are faster than any person. A backorder is how you compete with them.

4. Someone else registered it

Then it is theirs, and the usual way back is to ask the new owner whether they will sell. A name that simply lapsed is fair game. The exception is a name that matches your trademark and is being used against you: ICANN’s dispute policy (the UDRP) can order it transferred or cancelled, but only if you show all three of these — it is identical or confusingly similar to your trademark, the owner has no rights or legitimate interest in it, and it was registered and is being used in bad faith.

Source: ICANN Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy

How not to lose a domain again

Turn on auto-renew, and keep the card on file up to date.
Keep the email address on your registrar account one you read. The renewal reminders go there: about a month before expiry, about a week before, and again within five days after.
Register names you depend on for several years at a time.
Put the expiry date in your own calendar, a month early.

Source: ICANN Expired Registration Recovery Policy

The redemption period · What pendingDelete means · The whole timeline, from expiry to release