Expired domain: what happens and how long you have to recover it

Knowledgebase

A domain that expires does not vanish that instant, but it will not wait for you either. It moves through stages — and with every stage it passes, getting it back costs more and is less certain.

Stage	What happens
Before expiry	We send notices to the contact e-mail. You renew normally, at list price. This is where you want to be.
Expired	The site and e-mail on that domain stop working — visitors get nothing. For a short window it can still be renewed as if nothing happened.
In recovery	Waiting is no longer enough: it takes a restore request with the registry. The domain is still yours, but down — and recovery is not guaranteed.
Released	It goes back on the market. Anyone can register it — and once someone does, getting it back is no longer up to you.

On .mz domains you have 30 days, and nothing is guaranteed. After expiry there is a 30-day window to try to recover it. There is no separate restore fee: you pay the renewal, on the invoice you already had. But the request can only be made while that invoice still exists in the system, and the registry may refuse — recovering an expired domain is never a right, it is an attempt. After 30 days it goes back on the market.

An expired domain cannot be transferred. While it is expired or in recovery, it cannot be moved to another provider. Recover first, then transfer — never the other way round.

What usually goes wrong

1	The notices went to an e-mail nobody reads. By far the most common cause. If the contact address belongs to someone who left, or is a mailbox on the very domain that expired, nobody sees the warnings.

2	It was left for next week. The expiry date is not a suggestion. Handling it on the day itself leaves you at the mercy of payments and time zones.

3	Nobody owned the task. In a company the domain tends to belong to everyone and to no one. Put one person in charge of it.

How to stay out of it

1	Keep the contact e-mail current in the client area , ideally on a different domain from the one you are protecting.

2	Renew for several years. We take registrations and renewals for up to 10 years. A domain paid five years ahead is a problem that stays away for five years.

3	Deal with the renewal before the date, not on it. Pay the invoice as soon as it is issued.

Windows and fees depend on the extension. Every registry has its own rules: how long you have to recover and what it costs is not the same for a .co.mz and a .com . If you have an expired domain, ask us now — the answer depends on today's date.

Got a domain expired or about to expire? Tell us which one.

Open a support ticket