How Long Until Deleted Domains Become Available?

Support
1

Hi there,

My site is https://lucid-thompson-68f0a3.netlify.app/. I accidentally purchased a domain for this site, and was wondering, how long do I have until this domain becomes universally available again?

Thanks,
Sara

2

@sarabastian How long was the term of your registration? It’s always in increments of one year.

However, if you fail to renew, there can be a grace period of a month or so before that specific domain is available to others. At that point, the registrar may charge a LOT extra for the next person.

If you want someone else to have the use of this domain, you should transfer it to them while you still own it. The new owner pays for a year (let’s say) of registration, and you instruct your registrar to allow the transfer.

3

Thanks for your response. It was for a 1 year registration, but I deleted the custom domain, and when I check if it’s available, I’m getting told that it still has an owner. Thought I read somewhere that it takes 5 days until it becomes available after an owner deletes the domain, is this accurate?

The problem for context here: I am building a site for a client but he wants to put the domain on his credit card (I have my own credit card associated on another Netlify domain and site). I spoke with another support point person and they suggested I have him buy the domain on a third party provider - so was wondering if after 5 days, this domain will become available again to purchase on another provider.

Thanks for your help.

4

Hi, @sarabastian. Netlify isn’t a registrar. We make domain registrations possible with our service by using Name.com’s APIs as a reseller. Name.com is the registrar.

It is not possible to “delete a domain”. We can transfer the domain to you at Name.com if you would like more direct control over it. However, it will not be able for a new registration until it expires and goes through that process. Note, this expiration process can take as long as 90 days after the year is up.

There is more information about stages of domain expirations on the ICANN site here:

https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/epp-status-codes-2014-06-16-en

My recommendation would be for us to transfer the domain to your direct control at Name. Once you have direct control, then you can repeat the process and transfer the domain to your client’s account at Name.

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5

From my understanding (and reading) it will depend on the domain. Some are available after 5 days, some up to 30. Here is a support document on Namecheap covering various times https://www.namecheap.com/support/knowledgebase/article.aspx/241/2201/how-can-i-renew-my-expired-domain/.

2 Likes
6

Thanks for explaining, Luke. Yes I’d like to go forward with that solution. Would you mind walking me through how that transfer will work?

7

hi there @sarabastian ! you might take a look at the steps here:

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9

Hi, @sarabastian. We have sent you an email for a helpdesk ticket so we can communicate privately during the domain transfer process.

Please reply to that email to coordinate or ask questions about the domain transfer. However, if you don’t see that helpdesk email for any reason, please reply here to let us know.

1 Like