The domain redemption period, explained
A domain in its redemption period has been deleted by its registrar, but for 30 days only its last owner can get it back. If nobody does, it becomes free for anyone to register about five weeks later.
What the redemption period is
When a .com is not renewed, its registrar can keep it for up to 45 days after the expiry date.
Once the registrar deletes it, the registry starts a 30-day redemption period. The registry
record shows the status redemptionPeriod (“redemption period” in RDAP).
For those 30 days:
- the website and email on the domain stop working;
- nobody else can register it;
- the last owner can still restore it through their registrar.
If it is your domain
Contact your registrar as soon as you can. ICANN’s Expired Registration Recovery Policy requires registrars to let the last owner restore a deleted .com during the redemption period, and to show the restore fee on their website. It is usually more than an ordinary renewal, so act early. Once the redemption period ends the name can no longer be restored, and getting it back means registering it again after it is released, like anyone else.
If you want the domain
You cannot register it yet, and you may not get the chance: the owner can restore it at any point in the 30 days. If they do not, the rest of the timeline is fixed:
- Redemption period — 30 days; 31 in practice, because each change waits for the registry’s next daily batch.
- Pending delete — 5 days, 6 in practice. Nobody can restore or register it.
- Released in the daily .com drop, which starts at 12:00 UTC.
So a name is released about 37 days after it entered redemption. Check the name to see the expected day: for a name in redemption we count from the date the registry recorded the deletion.
How to tell a domain is in redemption
Look up its status in RDAP, the registry’s official record, which replaced WHOIS for .com in January 2025. The status reads “redemption period”. A DNS check is no help: the domain stops resolving as soon as it enters redemption, weeks before anyone else can register it.
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.
Related
What pendingDelete means · How to register an expired .com · redemptionPeriod in the glossary