This article explains the life cycle of a domain name, describing how it expires, go into redemption, and finally gets deleted.
Every domain name has an expiring date yearly. One thing is buying a domain another is renewing it once it expires.
Possibly at the time, your domain expires you may not be available to renew it. Or let’s say you may be too broke to pay for the renewal.
At this point, you will keep asking yourself how much time do you have.
Although, it all depends on each specific domain registrar’s rules and regulations. But we will explain the standard approach.
It takes about 80days for an expired domain to be deleted and be available for anyone to buy.
The 80days may vary depending on the registrar.
See the breakdown of the 80days.
- First 45 days = Grace Period.
- Next 30 days = Redemption Period.
- Next 5 days = Elimination Period.
The breakdown can best be explained with the use of an example.
See the example below.
Let’s say a “mydomain.com” has an expiry date of “X.”
Within X+45 days, the domain will still be under the registrant’s name.
These 45 days are called the “Grace Period” as it will show on the domain status.
Within this period, the domain may not resolve as it is still possible to pay for the renewal.
Within (X+45)+30 days, the domain will get into another status known as the “Redemption Period.”
Within the Redemption Period, the domain still does not get resolved, but the registrant information may no longer be available on the whois.
Although within the Redemption Period, the domain can still be renewed, there may be a penalty for doing so.
Within (X+45+30)+5 days is known as the Elimination Period. This is the period the domain is waiting to be “deleted.”
After the Elimination Period, the domain may then be available to the general public.
Although in most situation nowadays, after the elimination period the domain get captured by some domain reseller or backorder engine and resold by auction.
The above is the life cycle of most domain names.
Like I said earlier, the procedure I explained may vary by the registrar.
Always read the terms and conditions of each domain registrar be before acquiring a domain name.
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