Recovering from an expired domain

Your domain has expired. Your website shows an error. Your email has stopped working. Everything feels urgent, and it is, but it's usually fixable if you act quickly.

Here's exactly what to do.

Troubleshooter

Where is your domain now?

Can you log in to your registrar?

What you'll need

Access to your domain registrar account
A payment method to renew the domain
Access to the email address associated with your registrar account

Understanding what just happened

A domain name (like yourbusiness.com) has an annual registration fee. When that fee isn't paid, the domain expires, and everything tied to it stops working: your website, your business email, and any other services using that domain.

Recovery gets harder at each stage. For .com and other generic extensions, ICANN's Expired Registration Recovery Policy sets the outline, but your registrar sets the exact timing, and country extensions such as .co.uk follow their own registry's rules.

Phase	Timing	What happens	What you can do
Grace period	Optional, and set by your registrar: plan on about 30 days, and some registrars skip it	Your registrar may hold the domain for you, but under some registrars' terms it can be offered to others or auctioned	Renew immediately: your registrar may add a post-expiry fee
Redemption Grace Period	30 days, starting from the day your registrar deletes the domain	Only you can restore it, and only through your registrar. Your site and email stay down	Restore it, usually for a restore fee on top of the renewal
Pending delete	5 days	Domain queued for release	Nothing: it can no longer be restored
Available again	After pending delete	Domain released to the public	Re-register it, if nobody else gets there first

For the full timeline, see what happens when a domain expires.

Act quickly

The sooner you renew, the cheaper and easier it is. Every day you wait increases the risk of the domain moving into a more expensive recovery phase, or being registered by someone else.

Step 1: Find your registrar

Your domain registrar is the company where your domain is registered. Common registrars include GoDaddy, Namecheap, Squarespace, Hover, and Cloudflare. If you bought the domain from Google Domains, it's now at Squarespace, which took over all Google Domains registrations in September 2023.

ICANN requires registrars to send expiry reminders, so check the inbox of the email address you registered the domain with. The reminders name your registrar.

If you're not sure where your domain is registered, see how to find where your domain is registered.

You can also do a quick WHOIS lookup. Go to lookup.icann.org, type your domain name, and look for the "Registrar" field.

Step 2: Log in and renew

Go to your registrar's website and log in. Use your password manager if you're not sure of your credentials. See using a password manager.

Find your domain in the dashboard. It will likely show an "Expired" or "Renewal required" status with a prominent button or link.

Click Renew (or the equivalent). Choose a renewal period. One year is fine, but two or three years gives you a longer buffer.

Complete payment. Use a credit card or payment method on file. Your registrar shows the renewal price, and any post-expiry fee, before you pay.

Confirm renewal. Save the receipt or confirmation email your registrar sends.

Turn on auto-renew straight after renewing, so the same thing can't happen next year.

Step 3: Wait for your site and email to come back

After renewal, your domain is technically active again, but your website and email may not recover instantly. DNS needs to propagate (spread across the internet), which can take anywhere from a few minutes to 48 hours.

Timeframe	What happens
Straight away	Your registrar reactivates the domain in its own system
Usually within a few hours	DNS starts resolving again, so your site and email come back for most people
Up to 48 hours	Any remaining DNS caches around the world expire

See DNS propagation: why changes take time.

Often the DNS settings from before expiry are still in place, and your site and email come back on their own as propagation completes. But renewal doesn't always put them back.

If DNS settings were deleted

Some registrars change or reset a domain's DNS settings during the expiry period, for example, pointing it at a parking page. Look at the DNS or nameserver settings in your registrar dashboard to see whether they changed. If your site and email don't return after 24 hours, contact us. We'll check whether the DNS records need to be re-added.

Domain renewed and back online?

Once the site is live again, do a quick check: load your homepage, test your contact form, and send a test email to confirm everything is working.

If you can't log in to your registrar

This is the trickier situation. Try these steps in order:

Try the "Forgot password" flow on the registrar's login page. This sends a reset link to the email address on the account. If you can access that email, use it.

Check who owns the email address on the account. If it was a former employee's email, you may need to recover that email address first. See offboarding a staff member for guidance on reclaiming accounts.

Contact the registrar's support directly. You'll need to prove you own the account: have your business name, billing information, and any old emails from the registrar ready.

Escalate to ICANN if the registrar is unresponsive. ICANN (the body that oversees domain names) enforces its agreements with accredited registrars, and its Contractual Compliance team takes complaints about a registrar that isn't meeting its obligations. See the Learn more section below.

If the domain has entered the redemption period

Your registrar has deleted the domain, but for 30 days only you can restore it, and it will usually cost more. For .com, .net, .org and most other generic domain endings, ICANN requires the registry to offer this Redemption Grace Period, and the 30 days start from the day the registration is deleted, not the day it expired. Your domain won't resolve while it sits in redemption.

Log in to your registrar as normal. The domain is usually still in your domain list, flagged as expired or as needing a restore or redemption: the wording varies by registrar.

Pay the restore fee. Your registrar sets it, and it varies by registrar and extension. ICANN requires registrars to publish their restore fees on their website, so check there. If you can't restore the domain yourself, contact the registrar: ICANN requires them to let you redeem it during this 30-day window.

Allow time for it to come back. ICANN requires your registrar to get the domain working again as soon as commercially reasonable. After that, DNS still has to propagate.

If the domain is already gone

If the domain passed through all phases and was registered by someone else, recovery is difficult but occasionally possible:

Contact the new ownerThey may sell it back to you. A public lookup usually hides their personal details, so this isn't always possible.
Check UDRP options if you hold trademark rights in the name. ICANN's Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy is a route for abusive registrations such as cybersquatting, and can let a trademark holder recover the domain. Complaints go to one of ICANN's approved dispute-resolution service providers, not to ICANN itself. This is general information, not legal advice: talk to a lawyer before you file.
Register an alternative. If the domain is gone permanently, consider registering a variant (e.g., a different extension, or a slight name change).

Contact us if you're in this situation. We can help you assess your options and get something functional back online quickly.

What we do to help

When you alert us to a domain expiry, we:

Identify your registrar if you don't know it.
Help you regain registrar access if you're locked out.
Advise on DNS settings if they need to be rebuilt.
Set up auto-renew and calendar reminders to prevent it happening again.
Update your DNS records once the domain is renewed and propagating.

Prevention: how to make sure this never happens again

Turn on auto-renew. Log in to your registrar and enable auto-renewal for your domain. See turning on auto-renew.

Use a shared billing email. The renewal reminder emails go to whatever address is on the registrar account. If that address belongs to one person and they leave, the reminders disappear. Use a shared address like admin@yourbusiness.com.

Keep your payment method up to date. Auto-renew fails if the card on file has expired.

Register for two or three years. Longer registrations give you a bigger buffer and fewer chances to accidentally miss a renewal.

Keep a record of your registrar login. Store it in your password manager along with the billing email and credit card used.

Set an independent calendar reminder 60 days before expiry. Even with auto-renew on, a reminder protects you if a credit card expires and the charge fails.

Common questions

Will I lose my website content if the domain expires?

No. Your website files live on your hosting server, not on the domain. The domain is just the address that points visitors to your server. Your content is safe. It just becomes unreachable until the domain is renewed.

Will I lose my emails?

Emails sent to you while the domain is down may bounce back to the sender or be lost, and you won't receive them. Emails already stored in your mailbox (Google Workspace, Microsoft 365) are usually still intact and reachable again once the domain is working. Email delivery comes back on its own once the domain is active and DNS has propagated, as long as your MX records (the email routing instructions) were not changed.

How long does it take for my site to come back after renewal?

Usually a few minutes to a few hours. Occasionally up to 48 hours if DNS propagation is slow. If it's been more than 24 hours, contact us.

Can someone else register my domain while it's expired?

Don't assume it's safe. During a registrar's grace period, ICANN warns that under some registrars' terms the domain may be offered to others or auctioned. Once your registrar deletes it, only you can restore it during the 30-day Redemption Grace Period. After that comes a 5-day pending-delete period, and then anyone can register it. Act quickly.

My registrar says there's a large fee to recover the domain. Is that normal?

Often, yes, if your domain is in the redemption period, restoring a deleted domain usually costs more than a normal renewal. Your registrar sets and charges the fee, and ICANN requires registrars to publish their renewal, post-expiry renewal and restore fees on their website. Check that page to confirm the amount.