pendingDelete: the last five days before a domain is released
A domain marked pendingDelete is about to become free. For five days nobody can restore it or register it; then the registry releases it to whoever asks first.
What pendingDelete means
pendingDelete is the status a .com gets when its 30-day
redemption period ends without the owner restoring it. It is
final: from here the name cannot be restored, and nobody can register it until the registry
releases it.
Exactly when it becomes available
The status lasts 5 days, and the name is released on the sixth day after it entered pendingDelete, because the release runs as part of the registry’s daily batch. We checked this rule against Verisign’s registry records for 550 names and it matched every one.
The daily .com release — the drop — starts at 12:00 UTC (since 1 October 2026) and runs for about an hour, in no published order:
- 8:00 a.m. Eastern, 5:00 a.m. Pacific while daylight saving time is on;
- 7:00 a.m. Eastern, 4:00 a.m. Pacific after the clocks go back on 1 November 2026.
How to get a pendingDelete domain
- Find the day. Check the name: for a pendingDelete domain we show the exact release day.
- Be ready at 12:00 UTC that day, with the name typed into the registrar you want to use.
- Register it the moment it shows as available. For a name nobody else wants, that is all it takes, at the normal price.
- If others want it too, drop-catching services send many registration requests at the instant of release and usually win. A backorder with one of them is the way to compete; contested names often end up at auction.
Or watch it on Domains Open: we monitor the registry and alert you the moment it opens, with links to register it yourself. We never buy or bid on anything.
What happens at a real drop
In the Nov 14, 2026 drop, 116 of the 400 best-scoring names were registered the same day. The first went at 12:00 UTC, and half of those by 12:28 UTC. The other side of it: 279 (70%) were still unregistered that evening, free for anyone at the normal price. See every daily report.
Can the old owner still get it back?
No. Restoring is only possible during the redemption period. Once a name is pendingDelete, the previous owner’s only way back is to register it again after the drop, like anyone else.
Related
The redemption period · How to register an expired .com · pendingDelete in the glossary