Free Domain Expiry Checker — Days Left, Renewal Urgency, .ics Reminder

A domain expiry check reads the authoritative registration record and tells you exactly when the domain's registration lapses, how many days remain, and what to do before the deadline. Every gTLD registration follows the same lifecycle: active → auto-renew grace (30 days after expiry, renewal still cheap) → redemption period (~30 days, recovery fee is 10x the base price) → pendingDelete (~5 days, unrecoverable) → released to the public. Missing the deadline can cost a business its primary domain — this tool exists so that never happens.

• Days-to-expiry countdown Precise integer, with an urgency band. Safe (>180d), attention (90-180d), warning (30-90d), critical (<30d), expired (0d).
• Exact expiration date Pulled live from the registry via RDAP. Reflects the authoritative value, not a cached registrar-dashboard estimate.
• Registrar renewal link One-click deep-link to the registrar's account panel to complete the renewal.
• EPP lock impact clientTransferProhibited, serverUpdateProhibited, redemptionPeriod, pendingDelete, autoRenewPeriod — decoded to plain English with renewal-impact classification (helpful, urgent, or blocking).
• .ics calendar reminder One-click download creates an all-day event with 30-day and 7-day alarms. Works in Google, Outlook, Apple, Fastmail, and every RFC 5545 client.
• Auto-renew grace detection If the registry marks autoRenewPeriod, the domain was just auto-renewed — the 45-day refund window is still open.

Forgetting to renew a domain is one of the most common and most expensive infrastructure mistakes on the internet. The cost is asymmetric — a $12 annual renewal, if missed, can cascade into $120+ redemption fees, SEO ranking loss, email downtime, brand hijacking, and in the worst case, permanent loss of the primary business name.

• Redemption fees run 10x the annual price Registry-imposed. If you renew after the 30-day auto-renew grace but within the 30-day redemption window, expect to pay ₹8,000-₹15,000 (or $100-$200) to recover a domain that would have cost ₹800 to renew on time.
• SEO ranking loss during the outage When a domain stops resolving, Google eventually drops it from the index. Recovery can take weeks after the domain is restored — during which competitors capture the traffic.
• Email outages Expired domains stop resolving MX records, so inbound mail bounces. Auto-responders start reporting the mail as undeliverable, which damages long-term deliverability reputation even after recovery.
• Hijacking risk Attackers monitor drop lists. If a domain enters pendingDelete and drops, it can be registered by a third party who then impersonates the original brand — a well-documented pattern in phishing operations.
• Multi-year renewal is cheap insurance Registering 5-10 years out is standard practice for business-critical properties. It costs a few dollars per year and removes the entire failure mode of missed renewals.

The checker queries the authoritative registry's RDAP endpoint (ICANN's structured-JSON successor to legacy WHOIS), extracts the expiration date, computes days remaining, decodes EPP status codes, and layers a plain-English urgency band on top.

• Stage 1 — Resolve the RDAP endpoint Look up the TLD's RDAP server from the IANA bootstrap file, then query the registry directly. For .com, that's rdap.verisign.com.
• Stage 2 — Fetch registration events Pull creation date, updated date, expiration date, transfer date, and the EPP status list from the domain record.
• Stage 3 — Compute days-to-expiry Diff the expiry date against the current UTC clock, floored to whole days. Negative values indicate the registration has already lapsed.
• Stage 4 — Classify urgency Bucket days-remaining into safe (>180d), attention (90-180d), warning (30-90d), critical (<30d), or expired (0d or below).
• Stage 5 — Decode EPP locks Each status code (transferProhibited, updateProhibited, hold, pendingDelete, redemptionPeriod, autoRenewPeriod) is annotated with a renewal-impact classification — helpful, informational, urgent, or blocking.
• Stage 6 — Render the report Countdown ring, urgency banner, registrar renewal deep-link, .ics download button, and a renewal checklist tailored to the specific urgency band.

Every gTLD registration follows the same lifecycle after expiration. Understanding the stages tells you which recovery options are still available at any given moment.

• Active (up to expiry date) Domain resolves normally. Renewal at the standard price. Auto-renew, if enabled, fires within a day of the expiry.
• Auto-renew grace period (30 days after expiry) In most gTLDs, the registrar can still renew at the standard price. Some registrars pass this window on to the customer; others withhold the domain until payment is settled. The domain typically continues resolving during this phase.
• Redemption period (~30 days) The domain has been marked redemptionPeriod at the registry. It stops resolving. Only the original registrant can restore it, and only by paying a significant redemption fee (typically 10x the annual price).
• Pending delete (~5 days) The domain is flagged pendingDelete at the registry. Recovery through normal channels is no longer possible. Drop-catchers and backorder services queue for the release.
• Released The domain returns to the public pool. First-come-first-served — often a drop-catcher wins in the same millisecond as the release.

The days-to-expiry number is mapped to five bands. Each band comes with a specific action.

• Safe — more than 180 days remaining Registration is healthy. Enable auto-renew if not already active. Consider a multi-year extension for business-critical names.
• Attention — 90 to 180 days remaining Plan the renewal. Review budget. If the domain is business-critical, extend by several years now to remove the failure mode entirely.
• Warning — 30 to 90 days remaining Renewal window closing. Enable auto-renew, verify the billing card on file is not expired, and set a calendar reminder. Do not defer past this point.
• Critical — under 30 days remaining Renew today. Do not wait until the last day — DNS caches, WHOIS lag, and payment failures cost real hours. Every year, thousands of businesses lose primary domains to a same-day payment failure.
• Expired — the domain has already lapsed Contact the registrar immediately. The auto-renew grace period is typically 30 days; the redemption period runs another ~30 days at a steep fee. After that, recovery through normal channels is over.

EPP (Extensible Provisioning Protocol) status codes describe the current lifecycle and security locks on a domain. Some help renewal, some are urgent signals, some block renewal outright. The Renewal tab decodes every code returned by the registry.

• clientTransferProhibited / serverTransferProhibited Prevents unauthorized transfers. Does not block renewal — renew normally at the current registrar. Standard for business-critical domains.
• clientUpdateProhibited / serverUpdateProhibited WHOIS edits and nameserver changes are blocked. Some registrars require lifting this lock before major renewal-cycle updates. Check the registrar's control panel.
• clientDeleteProhibited / serverDeleteProhibited Prevents accidental deletion. Renewal is unaffected. Highly recommended for any production domain.
• clientHold / serverHold Registrar or registry has removed the domain from DNS. Usually an unpaid renewal or an abuse complaint. Resolve the underlying issue before renewing.
• redemptionPeriod Domain has expired and is in the redemption window. Recovery is possible but expensive. Act now — the window is typically 30 days.
• pendingDelete On the delete queue. Renewal through normal channels is no longer possible. The domain will drop and be available for public registration within 5 days.
• autoRenewPeriod The domain was just auto-renewed. There is a 45-day refund window during which the renewal can be reversed for a full refund — useful if the auto-renewal was unintended.
• pendingTransfer A transfer to a new registrar is in flight. Renewals should complete at the destination registrar after the transfer settles (typically 5-7 days).

The one-click .ics download creates a standards-compliant iCalendar (RFC 5545) event on the expiry date with two built-in alarms — one 30 days before, one 7 days before. Import the file into any calendar client to get local reminders without touching a server.

• All-day event on the expiry date The event summary is 'Renew {domain} — Domain expiring'. The description includes the expiry date and a link back to the DomainScan expiry report.
• Built-in 30-day alarm First reminder fires 30 days before expiry. This is the recommended latest-safe renewal window.
• Built-in 7-day alarm Second reminder fires 7 days before expiry. Escalation if the first reminder was missed.
• Universal compatibility Works with Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, Outlook (web + desktop), Fastmail, Proton Calendar, Thunderbird, and every RFC 5545 client. The file is plain text — inspect it or edit the alarm times before importing.
• No server dependency The reminder lives entirely in your local calendar. If DomainScan disappeared tomorrow, the reminder would still fire on schedule.
• For continuous monitoring The .ics is a one-off snapshot. For always-on monitoring across a domain portfolio, use the DomainScan platform's domain-monitoring service — it emails and Slacks alerts when any monitored domain approaches expiry, and includes DNS, SSL, DMARC, and blacklist watching in the same plan.

The same data is available as JSON. Useful for automated portfolio audits, renewal-alert bots, and CI checks.

curl 'https://api.domainscan.in/v1/domain/lookup?domain=cloudflare.com' \
  | jq '.data.details.dates.expiryDate'

const res = await fetch('https://api.domainscan.in/v1/domain/lookup?domain=cloudflare.com');
const rec = await res.json();
const expires = new Date(rec.data.details.dates.expiryDate);
const daysLeft = Math.floor((expires - new Date()) / 86400000);

console.log(`Expires ${expires.toDateString()} — ${daysLeft} days remaining.`);

{
  "domain": "string",
  "details": {
    "dates": {
      "creationDate": "ISO 8601",
      "expiryDate":   "ISO 8601",
      "updatedDate":  "ISO 8601 | null"
    },
    "registrar": {
      "name":   "string",
      "ianaId": "string",
      "url":    "string | null"
    },
    "status":  ["EPP status code"]
  }
}

Five patterns we see most often:

• How do I check when a domain expires? Enter any domain name into the input above. DomainScan queries live RDAP data at the authoritative registry and returns the exact expiration date, days remaining, registrar, and lock status. No signup, no credit card, no rate limit for interactive use.
• What happens when a domain expires? Most gTLDs enter a 30-day auto-renew grace period after expiration during which the registrar can still renew at the normal fee. After grace comes the redemption period (typically 30 days), during which the original owner can recover the domain for a steep registry fee. If not recovered, the domain enters pendingDelete for ~5 days and is then released back to the public pool.
• How many days before expiry should I renew? Best practice is to renew or enable auto-renew at least 30 days before expiration. This buffer absorbs payment failures, expired credit cards, and DNS-propagation delays. Business-critical domains are often registered 5-10 years out to remove the failure mode entirely.
• Can I recover an expired domain? Yes, but only if it is still in the redemption period. Contact your registrar immediately. Redemption fees are typically 10x the annual renewal cost. Once the domain enters pendingDelete, recovery through normal channels is no longer possible.
• What is the redemption period? The redemption period is a 30-day grace window after the auto-renew grace ends. During this time, only the original registrant can restore the domain, and only by paying a much higher fee. Miss it, and the domain enters pendingDelete and returns to the public market.
• Does this send me reminders? The one-click .ics download creates a calendar event with built-in 30-day and 7-day alarms, so any calendar client (Google, Outlook, Apple, Fastmail) reminds you locally. For continuous automated monitoring across a portfolio, use the DomainScan platform's domain-monitoring service — it emails and Slacks alerts when expiry approaches.
• Why doesn't my registrar's expiry match? Registrars sometimes cache dashboard values or display the next-billing date rather than the registry expiry. This checker queries the authoritative registry via RDAP, so its value is ground truth. If they disagree, RDAP wins.
• Does the .ics work in my calendar? Yes — the file follows RFC 5545 iCalendar and works with Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, Outlook (web + desktop), Fastmail, Proton Calendar, Thunderbird, and every other RFC 5545 client. It's plain text; inspect it or edit the alarm times before importing.

Once you know when it expires, drill deeper into the same domain with our other free tools:

The behavior of this tool follows the authoritative specifications and policies below. Lifecycle stages, EPP codes, and calendar-file format are pulled directly from these sources.

• ICANN Expired Registration Recovery Policy (ERRP) Defines the auto-renew grace period, the redemption period, and the pendingDelete window across gTLDs. Reference: icann.org/resources/pages/errp-2013-02-28-en.
• RFC 5731 — EPP Domain Name Mapping IETF specification for domain-status codes surfaced on the Renewal tab (clientTransferProhibited, serverDeleteProhibited, autoRenewPeriod, redemptionPeriod, pendingDelete, and 11 more).
• RFC 7480–7484 — Registration Data Access Protocol (RDAP) IETF specification for RDAP — the JSON-over-HTTPS successor to legacy WHOIS that supplies the authoritative expiry date.
• RFC 5545 — Internet Calendaring and Scheduling Core Object Specification (iCalendar) Standard for the .ics reminder file, including the VEVENT and VALARM components used for the 30-day and 7-day pre-expiry alerts.
• IANA RDAP bootstrap registry Authoritative list mapping every TLD to its RDAP server — the endpoint used to resolve expiry data. Reference: data.iana.org/rdap/dns.json.
• Verisign gTLD RDAP service Authoritative RDAP endpoint for .com and .net expiry records. Reference: rdap.verisign.com.