Domain endings / .dev
A .dev expires on its renewal date.
Then up to 45 days to renew, 30 days to restore, and 5 days before it's free.
Google Registry renews an unpaid .dev for a year when it expires and gives your registrar up to 45 days to decide. After deletion come 30 days of redemption and five of pending delete, the usual rules for generic TLDs.
When does a .dev domain expire?
A .dev domain expires on the expiry date in the registry record, at the end of the years you paid for. If it hasn't been renewed by then, Google Registry renews it for one more year automatically and bills your registrar.
That doesn't mean you keep it: your registrar then decides, under its own terms, whether to renew you or delete the name.
Is there a grace period for .dev?
Usually, but how long is up to your registrar. The registry gives the registrar 45 days after the automatic renewal to delete the name and get its money back, and how much of that time you get to renew late is set by your registrar's terms.
ICANN's rules require the registrar to let you renew after expiry until it deletes the name, and to switch off the domain's DNS for at least the last 8 days of that time, so the site and email stop working before the name is gone.
What happens when a .dev domain expires?
Google Registry's pricing policy sets the 45-day auto-renew grace and the 30-day redemption period; the five days of pending delete are ICANN's standard for generic TLDs.
- RemindersAbout 30 and 7 days before, and within 5 days after
- Your registrar must email you at least twice before the expiry date and once more after it if the domain is neither renewed nor deleted.
- Auto-renew graceautoRenewPeriodUp to 45 days, set by the registrar
- Google Registry has renewed the domain automatically. You can still renew it through your registrar, at the normal or the registrar's late price, until the registrar deletes it. For at least the last 8 days the domain's DNS is switched off, sometimes to a parking page that says it has expired.
- RedemptionredemptionPeriod30 days
- The registrar has deleted the name and it is out of the .dev zone, so nothing on it works. Only the registrar that deleted it can restore it, normally for a restore fee on top of the renewal.
- Pending deletependingDelete5 days
- It can no longer be restored or changed.
- Released
- The name is purged from the registry and anyone can register it, first come, first served.
How do I look up a .dev domain's expiry date?
Ask the registry's RDAP server, https://pubapi.registry.google/rdap/, or type the name in the box above and nmspc asks the same server for you. IANA's RDAP bootstrap file lists that server for .dev; if it doesn't answer, nmspc falls back to WHOIS at whois.nic.google.
What else is different about .dev?
The whole of .dev is on browsers' HSTS preload list, so browsers only open .dev sites over HTTPS. A .dev site without a valid certificate doesn't load at all, which makes a lapsed certificate as bad as a lapsed domain.
Who runs .dev?
Charleston Road Registry, which does business as Google Registry, runs .dev under an agreement with ICANN. You buy and renew a .dev through an ICANN-accredited registrar.
How nmspc keeps track
Add a .dev domain and nmspc reads its expiry date from the registry, then reminds you 60, 30, 14, 7 and 1 day before it runs out, and before its certificate does. Free for every domain. Open nmspc
Sources
- Google Registry: .dev pricing policy (grace periods)
- Google Registry: .dev registration policy
- Google Registry: .dev
- ICANN: Expired Registration Recovery Policy
- ICANN: FAQs for registrants, domain name renewals and expiration
- IANA: RDAP bootstrap file for domains
Checked against these pages on 25 October 2026. Registries change their rules now and then; the source wins if it disagrees.