dns.pizza

Every domain dies on a timetable.

When a domain is not renewed it does not vanish. It goes through a fixed sequence the registry publishes as it happens: a grace period at the registrar, 30 days of redemption, five days of pending delete, then release, when anyone can register it again.

Type a domain and we read its status codes and dates from the registry and tell you where it is on that line, and the day it will be released.

Try google.com, dns.pizza, wikipedia.org, or a name you let go.

The timetable

  1. Expiry. The paid term ends. Most registries renew the name automatically on their side and wait to see whether the registrar keeps it, so the expiry date you see in a lookup can jump a year ahead even though nobody paid.
  2. Registrar grace, 30 to 45 days. ICANN's expired-registration policy gives the owner at least 30 days to renew as normal; the registrar usually switches the website off (clientHold) along the way. Many registrars auction the name in this window.
  3. Redemption, 30 days. The registrar deletes it and the registry marks it redemptionPeriod (RFC 3915). Only the previous owner can get it back, through the same registrar, with a restore fee.
  4. Pending delete, 5 days. Marked pendingDelete. Nothing can stop it.
  5. Release. The registry frees it in its daily delete run and the first registration wins, which for any good name means a drop-catching service.

How exact are the dates?

Once a name is in redemption or pending delete, the registry's own “last changed” date marks when that stage began, so the release day is exact to the day. Before that, the registrar chooses when to delete (anywhere from day 30 to day 45), so we give a window. Country-code domains (.uk, .de, .io…) follow their own registries' rules, and we say so when you ask about one. To see everything else the registry publishes, use WHOIS lookup; for how old a name is, the domain age checker.