When a domain expires, it is not released straight away. Your site and email usually stop working within days, then it passes through a renewal grace period and, for .com, a 30-day redemption period with a restore fee, before being deleted and offered to anyone. For .uk, Nominet suspends the domain at day 30 and cancels it at day 90.
Below are the full timelines for .com and .uk, what each stage costs you, how to get an expired domain back, and how to make sure it never happens again.
Key takeaways
- When a domain expires your website and email usually stop working within days, but the name is not released straight away.
- For .com, a registrar grace period is followed by a 30-day redemption period with a restore fee, then five days of pending delete.
- For .uk, Nominet suspends the domain at day 30 and cancels it at day 90, with no separate redemption period.
- Turn on auto-renew, keep the payment card current and register the domain in your business's name with a shared contact email.
What happens immediately after a domain expires?
On the expiry date, your registration has ended but you are still the only person who can renew. You can see a domain's exact expiry date and status codes, such as redemptionPeriod or pendingDelete, with a free WHOIS lookup. What happens to your site and email depends on the registrar and the extension:
- Many registrars change the DNS so the domain points to a parking or "this domain has expired" page.
- Email can stop arriving, because MX records stop resolving or point somewhere else.
- Anything else that depends on the domain, such as Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace sign-ins, SSL renewals and verification records, can start failing.
For .com and other ICANN domains, the Expired Registration Recovery Policy (ERRP) requires registrars to interrupt DNS resolution for at least the last eight consecutive days that you can still renew at normal price, so the outage gets noticed. Any parking page must clearly say the domain has expired and explain how to renew.
What is the .com domain expiry timeline?
| Stage | Roughly when | Can you renew? | Cost | Site and email |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Expiry | Day 0 | Yes | Normal renewal | May keep working briefly, or switch to a parking page |
| Renewal grace period | Typically up to 30–45 days, set by the registrar | Yes | Normal renewal, sometimes a late fee | Interrupted for at least the last 8 days |
| Redemption grace period | 30 days after the registrar deletes the name | Yes, as the previous registrant only | Restore fee plus renewal | Down |
| Pending delete | 5 days | No | Not possible | Down |
| Released | After pending delete | Anyone can register it | Market price | Gone |
A few details worth knowing:
- The grace period is set by your registrar. The registry auto-renews the domain at expiry and gives the registrar a window, up to 45 days, to collect payment or delete it. Some registrars offer about 30 days, some less. Check your registrar's terms rather than assuming.
- The redemption grace period (RGP) is a registry-level rule. ICANN policy requires most gTLD registries to offer a 30-day RGP after deletion. Restores can be expensive, because you pay a restore fee on top of the renewal.
- Pending delete cannot be stopped. After five days the name is released, and valuable names are often caught within seconds by drop-catching services.
ICANN rules also require reminders: one roughly a month before expiry, one roughly a week before, and another within five days after expiry if you have not renewed.
What is the .uk domain expiry timeline?
Nominet runs .uk, .co.uk, .org.uk and the other .uk domains, and its process is different. There is no separate redemption period. Instead, the domain stays renewable throughout, then is suspended and later cancelled.
| Day after expiry | What happens |
|---|---|
| Day 1 | Nominet emails the registrant if no renewal has been received |
| Day 23 | Suspension warning: the domain will be suspended in 7 days. You can also renew directly with Nominet from your online account from this point |
| Day 30 | The domain is suspended and stops working. You can still renew through your registrar |
| Day 83 | Cancellation warning: the domain will be cancelled in 7 days |
| Day 90 | Renewals close and the domain is cancelled, after which it becomes available for anyone to register |
Two practical points if you own a .uk domain:
- Nominet emails go to the registrant contact. If your old web designer registered the domain with their email address, you will not see the warnings.
- Some registrars act earlier. Your registrar's own terms may stop DNS before day 30 or auction the name during the suspension period. Read them.
Can I get my expired domain back?
Usually, if you act quickly.
- Log in to your registrar and look for a renew or restore option. During the grace period, this is normally a standard renewal.
- For .com in redemption, ask your registrar to restore it. Expect to pay the restore fee plus a year's renewal, and allow up to a day for the restore to complete.
- For .uk, renew through your registrar at any point up to day 90. If the registrar cannot help, log in to Nominet's online services from day 23 onwards and renew directly.
- Check DNS afterwards. Once renewed, the registrar should restore your previous DNS settings, but confirm the A, MX and TXT records are back with the MakeItFlow DNS lookup. Our guide to DNS records explained shows what each one should contain.
- Check email authentication. If SPF, DKIM or DMARC records were lost, mail may land in spam for a while. See why emails go to spam.
If the domain has already been deleted and registered by someone else, your options are to negotiate to buy it, or, if they are using your trade mark in bad faith, to use the relevant dispute process (Nominet's DRS for .uk, UDRP for .com). Take legal advice before going down that route.
Does an expired domain hurt SEO?
A short outage of a day or two usually has little lasting effect once the site comes back. A longer outage can lead Google to drop pages from its index as they return errors or parked content. If the domain is lost entirely, the new owner inherits the links and some of the search visibility, which is why expired domains with history are valuable to others. Speed matters.
How do I stop my domain from expiring?
- Turn on auto-renew at your registrar and keep a valid payment card on file.
- Renew for several years at a time for your main business domain.
- Keep the registrant and contact email current, using a shared address such as
domains@rather than one person's inbox. - Register the domain in your business's name, not an agency's or employee's.
- Put the expiry date in your calendar with reminders two months and two weeks ahead.
- Audit all domains annually, including old campaign domains that redirect to your main site.
Frequently asked questions
Will my email stop working when my domain expires?
Very likely, once the registrar changes or interrupts DNS. Your mailbox provider still holds your messages, but new mail sent to your domain can bounce or disappear until DNS is restored.
Does my SSL certificate expire with my domain?
No, they are separate. However, certificates cannot renew while the domain is not resolving, so a lapsed domain can lead to a lapsed certificate. Check it with our SSL checker after renewal.
Can someone else renew my expired domain?
No. During the grace and redemption periods only the previous registrant, through their registrar, can renew. Nobody else can register it until it has been deleted or cancelled.
What is a domain backorder?
A backorder is a paid request to try to register a domain the moment it is released. Several services compete for popular names, so a backorder is not a guarantee.
Why is my domain still working after the expiry date?
Some registrars leave DNS untouched for a few days, and cached records keep sites loading for a while. Do not rely on it: renew immediately.
What to do next
Check your domain's renewal date and auto-renew setting today, then confirm your DNS and email records are healthy. MakeItFlow checks DNS, DNSSEC, CAA, MX, SPF, DKIM and DMARC as part of a free website audit, and paid plans can re-scan on a schedule and email you the results. It does not track domain expiry dates, so keep those in your registrar's reminders and your calendar.
Sources
Written by the MakeItFlow team
We build the website audit these guides are based on. Every fact is checked against the primary sources listed above and this guide was last reviewed on 30 October 2026 . How we research and check
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