Reko Mäkelä Product lead for AI-agent development, search and UX
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Expired domain checklist

Type the expiry date the registry shows and the grace period its terms give, and get the earliest release date and the days to check. Then go through the list before registering: what the name was, what it is and how it is taken.

An example with the default values. With JavaScript on, the result updates as you type. The example dates are invented, and the grace period is an illustration, not any registry’s rule.

Release date

The date the registry’s own lookup shows, as 5.11.2026 or 2026-11-05.
The days the registry’s current terms give the holder to renew after expiry. The example value is an illustration, not any registry’s rule. Up to 3,650.
The day the remaining days are counted from. The tool fills in today.

The dates and the ticks stay in your browser: nothing is stored, sent or added to the address.

Timeline

Earliest release date: 5 Dec 2026.

The registration is active for another 22 days. The holder can renew, and most do.

Expires
5 Nov 2026
Grace period
30 days
Released at the earliest
5 Dec 2026
Checked on
14 Oct 2026

Days to check

  • 3 days before Wed 2 Dec
  • 1 day before Fri 4 Dec
  • Release day Sat 5 Dec

Most renewals happen late. A check three days and one day before shows whether the name is still being released.

Grace periods differ by registry and change; take the days from the registry’s current terms. The release itself can happen at a set time of day, which the calculator does not know.

Checklist

Sixteen checks in three groups. The ticks stay on this page only, until it is closed.

What the name was

  1. What the domain hosted before tells whether it carries a reputation: a spam or dead-affiliate past follows the name.

  2. The registration dates in the registry’s public lookup show whether the name has stayed with one holder for years or dropped and been registered again and again.

  3. Results, or their absence, show whether the old pages are still indexed and whether the name had a reputation.

  4. A link profile built from paid or spam links is a liability, not an asset; a natural one may carry over.

  5. A registered mark on the same or a confusable name can take the domain away after it has been registered.

  6. A name identical to a trading name brings a dispute, and tells who may want the name back.

What the name is

  1. A name that has to be spelled out gets mistyped. Fluency matters more than length.

  2. A word harmless in one language can be unfortunate in another, and a compound can read two ways.

  3. One candidate is not a choice. Score the shortlist the same way, so the decision is a comparison, not a feeling.

  4. A domain without a use is a renewal fee. Write the project down, or leave the name.

How the name is taken

  1. Lists are copies and go stale; the registry’s own lookup is the source.

  2. Rules differ by registry and change over time; a remembered number is a guess.

  3. A release can happen at a set moment; the date alone is not enough to be ready.

  4. Most renewals happen late. A check before the day shows whether the name is still being released.

  5. The step that fails most is the one never rehearsed. Register a test name once.

  6. If the name is backordered or auctioned, decide beforehand what it is worth and what you do if it goes.

How the days are counted

The earliest release date is the expiry date plus the grace period: the days the registry gives the holder to renew after expiry. Until then the holder can renew and the name is not free. The remaining days are counted from the date of the check in calendar days, with no time of day.

The tool holds no registry data and makes no lookups. The dates are the ones typed in, and the grace period is what the registry’s terms say today. That is why the registry’s own lookup and terms are the first release checks on the list.

The checklist is what the method “Ranking domain name candidates” assumes: a name is worth scoring once its history, its meaning and its release are checked. The list is the same for a .fi name and for other endings; only the registry’s terms change.

  • Ranking domain name candidates A method for ranking domain name candidates: fluency, relevance, length and age in one score, availability first and a language model as a second opinion. Linked from this page
  • .fi Domain Finder Finds .fi domain names that are free to register or about to be released, and ranks them by how natural the words are. Linked from this page
  • Public data tracking Databases and tracking services for public procurement, research funding and airline fares. Linked from this page
  • Search query classifier Classify Search Console queries by topic with term lists. Topic, intent and confidence per row, reportability apart, and a review queue. Linked from this page
  • Building a competitor landscape corpus A method for a competitor landscape corpus: seed landscapes, frontier expansion and deterministic seed selection; membership is discovery, not proximity. Same topic: Search intelligence
  • Blind evaluation of a domain-similarity model A method for blind evaluation of a domain-similarity model: a stratified pair sample, blind labels, integrity checks, confidence intervals, disagreements. Same topic: Search intelligence