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If your registrar (the company who looks after your domain name for you) does not renew your domain name before the expiry date, we’ll send an email to the contact email address we hold for the legal owner of the domain name. The email will contain your registrar’s contact details, so you can contact them about renewing your domain name.
Important
If you no longer have access to the email you registered your domain name with, you can follow these steps to re-establish your identity and update your contact details.
The below video shares the lifecycle of a UK domain name and explains the domain name expiry process. You can also read more about each stage of the process further down the guide.
Please note: The process outlined below is our domain name expiry lifecycle. Your registrar may follow a different process to this, which may result in your domain name and associated services being suspended before the times stated below.
EXPIRY TIME: The anniversary (date and time) of when you registered your domain
Regardless of when you actually renew your domain name, your renewal period will still start from your expiry date and time.
For example, if your domain name expires on 1st January 2023 at 10:00am, and you renew it on the 11th January 2023 for 1 year, your new expiry point will be 1st January 2024 at 10:00am.
Similarly, if you renew it ahead of the expiry time, i.e. on 20th December 2022 for 1 year, your new expiry point will still be 1st January 2024 at 10:00am.
EXPIRY GRACE PERIOD: Expiry time + 30 days
Although your domain name has expired, it still exists, and you are able to renew it with your registrar.
If you have any questions or can no longer see the domain name in your registrar control panel, contact them to assist you in completing the renewal.
REDEMPTION GRACE PERIOD: Expiry time + 30 days until + 90 days
Like with the Expiry Grace Period, your domain name is expired but still exists, and you are still able to renew it with your registrar.
At this point the domain name will start appearing on our daily drop list. Our drop list consists of a list of any domain name within this period, with the exact date and time each will drop if they are not renewed.
If you renew your domain name during this period, it will be removed from the drop list the following day. If you have any questions or can no longer see the domain name in your registrar control panel, contact them to assist you in completing the renewal.
PENDING DELETE PERIOD: Expiry time + 90 days until + 95 days
Although the domain name still exists, your domain name is no longer renewable and is in a queue to be deleted.
The domain name will continue to appear in the daily drop list and will be deleted at the date and time listed.
DOMAIN DELETION: Expiry time + 95 days
The domain name is deleted, or “dropped”. Immediately after the drop time the domain name no longer exists and is available to anyone who wants to register it.
Further information
- Find out more about how to register a domain name that is due to expire.
- You can extend the registration term of your .UK domain name to be up to 10 years in the future, so you can ask your registrar about renewing your domain name for a longer period should you wish.
- Other products linked to your domain name (e.g. websites or email addresses) may have different expiry dates, so always check with your registrar that your domain name and chosen add-on services are renewed as required.
- If you don’t know the expiry date or the registrar of your domain name, you can find out using our domain name lookup tool.
Did this answer your question?
If not, you can contact our dedicated UK based support team for more information.
For general enquiries, send an email to domainsupport@nominet.uk
or call us on
+44 (0) 330 236 9470
Our business hours are:
Monday – Friday, 8:00am – 6:00pm UK time.
Our offices are closed on UK bank holidays.
