My domain expired
What to do immediately if your domain name has lapsed, and how to recover it and prevent it happening again.
If your domain expired, your website and any email using that domain will go down — often with no warning beyond the reminder emails your registrar sent. This feels alarming, but it's usually recoverable. Act quickly.
Quick summary
Log in to your domain registrar immediately and renew the domain. Most registrars offer a grace period of 30–40 days after expiry where you can renew at the normal price. After that, recovery fees can be steep. Once renewed, your site and email should restore within a few hours.
Act now — time is critical
The sooner you renew after expiry, the lower the cost and the faster the recovery. Domains left expired for more than 30 days may be sold or auctioned. Do not delay.
Step 1 — Find your domain registrar
Your domain registrar is the company where you registered your domain name. Common registrars include GoDaddy, Namecheap, Google Domains (now Squarespace Domains), Hover, and Porkbun.
Check the email address you used to register the domain. You should have received renewal reminder emails in recent weeks.
Not sure where your domain is registered? Use a WHOIS lookup tool — go to lookup.icann.org and enter your domain name. The "Registrar" field shows where it's registered.
Step 2 — Log in and renew immediately
Log in to your registrar account.
Find the expired domain in your account dashboard. It will likely show a status of "Expired" or "Redemption period."
Click Renew. Complete payment. Renew for at least one year — ideally two or more.
Enable auto-renew immediately after renewing. This prevents the same problem happening again.
Can't log in to the registrar?
If you've lost access to the registrar account, contact us. We can help identify the registrar and walk you through account recovery steps.
Step 3 — Wait for the domain to reactivate
After renewing, it takes some time for everything to come back online.
| Timeframe | What happens |
|---|---|
| 0–2 hours | Registrar reactivates the domain in its system |
| 2–24 hours | DNS propagates — your site and email start resolving |
| Up to 48 hours | Full global propagation completes |
This delay is normal. It's caused by DNS propagation — the time it takes for the internet's address book to update. See DNS propagation explained for more detail.
Step 4 — Set up auto-renew and reminders
Once you're back online, take a few minutes to prevent this from happening again.
Turn on auto-renew in your registrar account. This automatically charges your payment method before the domain expires.
Make sure your payment method is up to date. Auto-renew fails if the card on file is expired.
Add a calendar reminder 60 days before your domain's new expiry date as a backup.
Make sure renewal reminder emails go to an address you actively check. Update the contact email in your registrar account if needed.
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.
What if the domain is in the redemption period?
Most registrars offer a "redemption period" of 30–60 days after standard expiry. During this time you can still renew, but often at a higher fee.
Contact your registrar directly to understand the fee and process. Act quickly — once the domain exits the redemption period it enters a pending-delete phase and may be released for public registration.
Common questions
Related guides
- Domain renewal — don't let it expire
- Turning on auto-renew
- My website is down
- DNS propagation explained
- What happens when a domain expires
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