Domain WHOIS
Look up a domain's registrar and expiry date and see how long until it expires.
Looks up live data What you enter is sent to our server to fetch live results from public sources. Results are cached briefly. A Cloudflare Turnstile bot check runs when you press the button (it loads a script from challenges.cloudflare.com and may show a short challenge).
A Cloudflare Turnstile bot check runs when you press the button (it loads a script from challenges.cloudflare.com and may show a short challenge).
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About this tool
Enter a domain name to see its public WHOIS record. Our server opens a connection to the registry's WHOIS service for that top-level domain (a small built-in list of common ones such as com, net, org, io, dev and uk, with the IANA server as a fallback) and follows one referral to the registrar's server when the registry points to it. You get a summary at the top (registrar, creation, update and expiry dates, status codes and name servers) with a coloured note that says how many days remain before the domain expires: a problem within a week or once expired, a warning within a month, a note within three months. Below it is the raw record. The summary is read from the free-form text with a few recognised labels, so if a registry words things differently the raw text is still there; dates written as 01/02/2030 are never guessed because the day and month order is ambiguous. What appears depends on the registry; many records hide owner details for privacy, and some top-level domains may return little or nothing. You can enter a subdomain such as www.example.com (it is reduced to the registered domain), an internationalised name (converted to Punycode) or an IPv4 address (queried at ARIN).
How to use it
- Type a domain such as example.com. A leading https:// or a path is removed for you.
- Press Look up WHOIS.
- Read the raw record for registrar, dates and name servers.
- If the record is short, try again or check the registry's own site.
Reading a WHOIS record
- Registrar
- The company the domain was bought through. Transfers, renewals and contact changes go through them.
- Creation date
- When the domain was first registered. If a domain was dropped and registered again, this is the newer date.
- Expiry date
- When the current registration period ends. Most registrars renew automatically if auto-renew is on and the payment works.
- Status codes
- EPP codes such as clientTransferProhibited (a transfer lock, normal and recommended), clientHold or serverHold (the domain is kept out of DNS), redemptionPeriod and pendingDelete (the domain has expired and is on its way to being released).
- Name servers
- The DNS servers for the domain. They usually show which DNS host or hosting provider the site uses.
What happens when a domain expires
For most generic domains such as .com, an expired domain goes through stages: a grace period in which the owner can still renew, then a redemption period in which restoring it usually costs extra, then pendingDelete, after which anyone can register it. Exact lengths depend on the registry and the registrar, and country domains follow their own rules.
If you want a domain that is about to expire, watch its status codes here. A domain still in its grace period can be renewed by its owner at any time.
WHOIS and RDAP
RDAP is the newer protocol for the same registration data. It returns structured JSON instead of free text. Some registries now answer only through RDAP. This tool uses the classic WHOIS protocol on port 43, so for those registries it may return little or nothing; the raw text is shown whenever there is some.
Common problems
- Owner name and email show as redacted
- Most registrars hide personal details by default. This is expected and not an error.
- Very little data or an error for a country domain
- Only a few registries are mapped directly. Others go through the IANA server, which may return just a referral.
- It says the hostname is invalid
- Enter a domain name; a leading http(s)://, path or port is ignored. Spaces and other symbols are not accepted.
- No summary or expiry date is shown
- Some registries do not publish an expiry date (for example .de), and a few refuse WHOIS queries, answering only through RDAP. The tool says so when the answer is empty, and shows the raw text when there is any.
Frequently asked questions
Is the data live?
Results are cached on our server for up to an hour, so a change you just made at your registrar may take a while to show.
Why can't I see who owns the domain?
Since GDPR came into force in 2018, most registrars redact the owner's name, email and address from public WHOIS, and many offer privacy services on top. To reach the owner, use the contact form or relay address the registrar lists, if any.
Does it do reverse WHOIS or WHOIS history?
No. It looks up the current record for one domain at a time. Searching all domains by an owner name or email, or seeing past owners, needs a paid database that collects records over time.
Can I look up an IP address?
Yes, IPv4 addresses are sent to the ARIN WHOIS server. For addresses managed by another regional registry, the reply may only point to that registry.