How do I check when a domain expires?

Type the domain into the box above. The checker asks the registry that runs the domain extension for its record and shows the expiry date it holds, along with how many days are left. Nothing is installed and no account is needed.

Where does the expiry date come from?

From the registry itself, over RDAP, the structured replacement for WHOIS. For a .com that means Verisign, for a .uk it means Nominet. Because the answer comes from the organisation that runs the extension, it is the same date your registrar is working from.

Why does one domain show no expiry date?

Some registries choose not to publish it. DENIC (.de) and SWITCH (.ch) are the best known examples: they will confirm a domain is registered and show its nameservers, but they withhold the expiry date as a matter of policy. No tool can show you a date those registries do not publish.

How early should I renew a domain?

Set a reminder at least 30 days out, and treat 60 days as comfortable. The failure mode is rarely forgetting to renew: it is an expired card on file, an auto-renew that silently failed, or a renewal notice sent to a mailbox nobody reads any more.

What does clientTransferProhibited mean?

It is a transfer lock, and it is a good thing. Your registrar sets it so nobody can move the domain to another registrar without first unlocking it in your account. You only need to lift it when you are deliberately transferring the domain.

Can I check any domain, or only my own?

Any registered domain. Registry records are public, which is how registrars, hosts and domain investors all read them. What you will not see is the owner name and contact details, since privacy rules have redacted those from public records since 2018.

Does this cover every domain extension?

Most of them. Every generic extension such as .com, .net, .org, .dev and .app is covered, along with many country extensions including .fr, .nl, .io and .me. Some country registries publish no RDAP service at all, and a few decline requests from outside their own networks. In either case the checker tells you the registry did not answer rather than guessing at a result.

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Domain Expiry Checker

See when any domain expires and exactly how many days are left, straight from the registry that runs the extension.

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Reads the registry record over RDAP, the structured successor to WHOIS. Owner names and contact details are redacted from public records by privacy rules, so they are not shown here.

Checking by hand only works if you remember to check. Pulsetic watches your domain expiry and SSL certificate for you, and tells you well before either one lapses.

What happens when a domain expires

An expired domain does not disappear on the expiry date. It moves through a sequence, and each step costs more to undo than the one before it.

First the registrar usually pulls the domain from the DNS zone, which is the moment your site stops loading and your email stops arriving. Nothing has been lost yet, but everything is already down. Next comes a grace period of up to about 45 days, during which a normal renewal still works. After that the domain enters redemption, roughly 30 days in which only the current owner can recover it and almost every registrar charges a recovery fee many times the renewal price. Finally the name is released, and anyone can register it.

The dangerous part is how quiet the first step is. A domain that lapses on a Friday night takes the website and the company mailboxes with it, and the renewal notice that would have warned you was very likely sent to an address on that same domain.

Why domains lapse when somebody is paying attention

Almost nobody forgets a renewal outright. What actually happens is more mundane: the card on file expired, so auto-renew failed silently. The domain was registered by a contractor who left. The notice went to an alias nobody reads. The domain sits in a personal account rather than the company one, and its owner is on holiday.

All of these share a shape. The information needed to prevent the outage existed, and nobody was looking at it on the day it mattered. That is the case for monitoring the date rather than remembering it.

Reading the rest of the record

The expiry date is the headline, but the status codes underneath it are worth a look. clientTransferProhibited is the transfer lock, and seeing it is reassuring: it means nobody can move the domain out of your registrar without unlocking it first. clientHold or serverHold is the opposite, and means the domain has already been pulled from DNS. redemptionPeriod means it has expired and the clock on recovering it is running.

Once the dates check out, confirm the domain is actually serving traffic: run a DNS lookup to see where it points, and an outside is-it-down check to see whether the server behind it is answering.

Frequently asked questions

How do I check when a domain expires?

Type the domain into the box above. The checker asks the registry that runs the domain extension for its record and shows the expiry date it holds, along with how many days are left. Nothing is installed and no account is needed.
Where does the expiry date come from?

From the registry itself, over RDAP, the structured replacement for WHOIS. For a .com that means Verisign, for a .uk it means Nominet. Because the answer comes from the organisation that runs the extension, it is the same date your registrar is working from.
Why does one domain show no expiry date?

Some registries choose not to publish it. DENIC (.de) and SWITCH (.ch) are the best known examples: they will confirm a domain is registered and show its nameservers, but they withhold the expiry date as a matter of policy. No tool can show you a date those registries do not publish.
What happens when a domain expires?

Usually it stops resolving first, so the site and its email go dark. Then it enters a redemption period of roughly 30 days, during which only the current owner can recover it, normally for a recovery fee well above the renewal price. After that it is released and anyone can register it.
How early should I renew a domain?

Set a reminder at least 30 days out, and treat 60 days as comfortable. The failure mode is rarely forgetting to renew: it is an expired card on file, an auto-renew that silently failed, or a renewal notice sent to a mailbox nobody reads any more.
What does clientTransferProhibited mean?

It is a transfer lock, and it is a good thing. Your registrar sets it so nobody can move the domain to another registrar without first unlocking it in your account. You only need to lift it when you are deliberately transferring the domain.
Can I check any domain, or only my own?

Any registered domain. Registry records are public, which is how registrars, hosts and domain investors all read them. What you will not see is the owner name and contact details, since privacy rules have redacted those from public records since 2018.
Does this cover every domain extension?

Most of them. Every generic extension such as .com, .net, .org, .dev and .app is covered, along with many country extensions including .fr, .nl, .io and .me. Some country registries publish no RDAP service at all, and a few decline requests from outside their own networks. In either case the checker tells you the registry did not answer rather than guessing at a result.

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