Domain Expiry Checker

How to check a domain expiry date

Type any domain name into the box above (e.g. mybusiness.com) and click Check. You can paste a full URL — the tool automatically strips the protocol, www. prefix, and any path. Results appear within a few seconds showing the exact expiry date, days remaining, registrar, status flags, and nameservers.

For multiple domains, switch to Bulk Check mode and paste one domain per line. All lookups run in parallel, so checking 20 domains takes roughly the same time as checking one. Download the full table as a CSV to update your portfolio spreadsheet.

WHOIS vs RDAP: what is the difference?

Most people know the term "WHOIS" — the protocol that lets you look up who owns a domain and when it expires. WHOIS has existed since 1982. It works by connecting to a WHOIS server on TCP port 43 and returning plain-text responses. The problem is that the format varies between registries, making reliable parsing extremely difficult, and because it uses plain TCP there is no encryption and no CORS support, which means it cannot be queried directly from a browser.

RDAP (Registration Data Access Protocol) is the modern, ICANN-standardized replacement. It became mandatory for .com, .net, and most generic TLDs in 2019. Key differences:

• Structured data: RDAP returns clean JSON. WHOIS returns unstructured text requiring custom parsing per TLD.
• HTTPS: RDAP uses encrypted HTTPS. WHOIS uses plain TCP with no security.
• CORS support: RDAP can be queried directly from browsers. WHOIS requires a server-side proxy.
• Internationalized domains (IDNs): RDAP handles Unicode domain names natively.
• Standardized events: RDAP uses consistent event types (registration, expiration, last changed) across all registries.

This tool uses RDAP exclusively. Because RDAP supports CORS, all lookups run directly in your browser — no data passes through Nutilz servers. This also means the tool is faster (no extra network hop) and your domain queries remain private.

What happens when a domain expires?

Domain expiry is a multi-stage process, not an instant event. Understanding each stage helps you know how much time you actually have:

• Active: Domain resolves normally. Auto-renewal should fire at or before expiry.
• Grace period (0–45 days after expiry): The domain stops resolving but the registrar holds it exclusively for the original owner. You can renew at the standard price. This period varies by registrar — some offer the full 45 days, others only 10–15.
• Redemption period (30 days): The domain is deactivated and moved into a redemption hold. Renewal is still possible but carries a redemption fee on top of the registration cost, typically $100–$300. Most registrars charge a flat redemption fee regardless of TLD.
• Pending delete (5 days): The domain is queued for deletion at the registry level. Recovery is no longer possible at any price.
• Dropped — available for registration: The domain becomes publicly available. Premium or high-traffic domains are often caught by backorder services (GoDaddy Auctions, SnapNames, DropCatch) within seconds of dropping.

The total window from expiry to permanent loss is approximately 75–80 days for most major TLDs — but the cost escalates sharply after the grace period ends.

Domain lifecycle by TLD

Grace and redemption periods vary by TLD and registrar. The table below shows approximate values for common extensions:

Note: exact periods depend on your registrar's policy within the registry limits. Some country-code TLDs (.uk, .au, .de) have no redemption period — once the grace period ends, the domain is gone immediately.

The business impact of an expired domain

An expired domain does not just mean your website goes offline — it triggers a cascade of interconnected failures across every system tied to that domain name:

1. Website goes offline immediately. Visitors see a registrar parking page, a "domain for sale" notice, or a connection error. If a domain squatter acquires the domain, they may redirect it to a competitor or adult content to damage your brand.
2. Email stops working entirely. All inbound email to @yourdomain.com bounces with a permanent 550 error. Customer support tickets, transactional notifications, newsletter unsubscribes — all lost. Depending on how long the lapse lasts, recovery of email continuity may require notifying every contact individually.
3. Google search rankings collapse. Googlebot quickly detects that a site is offline. After 30+ days of consistent downtime, Google deindexes the site. Recovering rankings after reactivation typically takes 6–12 months of consistent uptime and active link-building — and only if nobody else acquires the domain in the meantime.
4. SSL certificates fail. TLS/SSL certificates are validated against domain control. An expired domain immediately invalidates all associated certificates. Any HTTPS traffic receives a hard certificate error.
5. Linked services break simultaneously. OAuth redirect URIs, Stripe/PayPal return URLs, webhook endpoints, API callback URLs, email verification links — any service configured with your domain URL stops working the moment DNS stops resolving.
6. Brand equity at risk. High-traffic or branded domains are targeted for acquisition the moment they drop. Domain investors using backorder services can snap up a dropping domain within milliseconds. Recovery often costs $1,000–$50,000+ in negotiation or UDRP arbitration proceedings — and there is no guarantee of success.

For a business generating $500/day in online revenue, a domain lapse lasting 30 days represents at least $15,000 in direct revenue loss — before accounting for lost email leads, SEO recovery costs, and brand damage. The cost of monitoring domain expiry is zero. The cost of letting it slip is severe.

How to protect your domain from expiring

Most domain lapses are accidental — not deliberate. They happen because of outdated payment methods, spam-filtered renewal reminders, or simply losing track of a domain registered years ago. Here is how to make sure it never happens:

• Enable auto-renewal. This is the single most important step. Every major registrar offers auto-renewal. Enable it for every domain you own and treat it as the default state.
• Keep payment methods current. Auto-renewal fails silently if your credit card has expired. Set a recurring calendar reminder to verify payment methods each year, ideally 60 days before your most critical domain's expiry date.
• Enable registrar lock. clientTransferProhibited status prevents unauthorized domain transfers — the most common form of domain hijacking. Enable it in your registrar dashboard for every critical domain.
• Maintain two contact emails. Register both a personal email and a company email as domain contacts. If one inbox is abandoned or goes to spam, the other catches renewal reminders.
• Whitelist registrar emails. Renewal reminders are frequently flagged as spam. Add your registrar's sending domain to your email whitelist and check spam folders regularly.
• Set manual calendar reminders. Schedule reminders at 90, 60, 30, and 14 days before expiry for any business-critical domain. Do not rely solely on the registrar to alert you.
• Consider multi-year registration. Registering for 5–10 years eliminates annual renewal risk entirely for your most important domains. Many registrars also offer a per-year discount on multi-year registrations.
• Use two-factor authentication. Enable 2FA on your registrar account to prevent unauthorized changes to auto-renewal settings or payment methods.

Managing a domain portfolio

Once you own more than a handful of domains, tracking them manually becomes error-prone. Common portfolios include:

• Brand protection domains — typos and variations of your primary domain that redirect to your main site (e.g. mybrand.net, my-brand.com)
• Product domains — separate domains for individual products, campaigns, or micro-sites
• Geographic domains — country-code TLDs for international markets (.co.uk, .com.au, .de)
• Defensive registrations — preventing competitors from acquiring confusingly similar names
• Legacy domains — old domains from previous projects that still receive backlinks

For each domain in your portfolio, track: expiry date, registrar, auto-renewal status, DNS destination (where it points), and whether it is actively used or parked.

The Bulk Check mode above is designed for exactly this. Paste your entire domain list, run the check in parallel, and download the CSV to update your portfolio spreadsheet or create alerts in your project management tool.

When should you renew your domain?

Best practice is to renew at least 60 days before expiry. Many businesses renew for 2–5 years at a time to avoid the risk of accidental lapse. The urgency indicators in this tool use these thresholds:

• Critical (0–14 days): Renew immediately — you may already be losing traffic or email.
• Urgent (15–30 days): Renew this week without fail. Log in to your registrar today.
• Renew soon (31–90 days): Schedule renewal in your calendar. Verify auto-renewal is active.
• Good (90+ days): You have comfortable time, but keep monitoring quarterly.

Understanding domain status codes

Domain status flags (shown after a lookup) indicate what actions are currently permitted on the domain at the registry level:

• clientTransferProhibited — Transfer to another registrar is locked (standard protective status; should be enabled on all domains)
• clientDeleteProhibited — Deletion of the domain is locked
• clientUpdateProhibited — Modifications to the domain record are locked
• serverTransferProhibited — Transfer lock set by the registry (stronger than client lock; used during disputes)
• serverHold — Domain is suspended by the registry; DNS does not resolve
• clientHold — Domain is suspended by the registrar; DNS does not resolve
• pendingDelete — Domain is queued for deletion; cannot be recovered at any price
• redemptionPeriod — Domain is in the redemption hold; can be recovered with fees
• pendingTransfer — A transfer to another registrar is in progress (transfers take 5–7 days)

Domain privacy protection and WHOIS masking

When you register a domain, ICANN historically required registrars to publish your contact details — name, email, phone, and address — in the public WHOIS database. This led to widespread spam, data harvesting, and social engineering attacks on domain owners.

Domain privacy protection (also called WHOIS privacy, ID protect, or proxy registration) replaces your personal details with a privacy service proxy. Your name and contact information are hidden; the registrar or a third-party privacy company appears in their place. This is now free with most major registrars (Cloudflare, Namecheap, Google Domains, Porkbun all include it by default).

After GDPR came into force in 2018, ICANN issued temporary specifications that reduced what registrars must publish for EU registrants. For most registrants globally, WHOIS data is now partially or fully redacted by default — independent of a paid privacy add-on.

What privacy protection hides: your name, email address, phone number, and physical address. What it does NOT hide: the domain expiry date, registration date, nameservers, registrar name, and status codes. This domain expiry checker returns all non-contact data regardless of whether privacy protection is active — expiry dates are always publicly visible.

Frequently asked questions