Why is contact information redacted?

GDPR and similar privacy regulations require registrars to redact personal data (name, address, email, phone) from public WHOIS records since May 2018. Registrar, creation/expiry dates and nameservers remain publicly available.

What is RDAP vs WHOIS?

RDAP (Registration Data Access Protocol) is the modern replacement for the 40-year-old WHOIS protocol. It returns structured JSON, supports HTTPS, and has standardised field names. All major domain registries now support RDAP.

How do I find who owns a domain?

For privacy-redacted domains, contact the registrar directly or use their WHOIS contact form. For .com/.net domains, Verisign operates a gated lookup. ICANN provides a unified lookup at lookup.icann.org.

What happens when a domain expires?

After expiry: grace period (~30 days, registrant can renew), then redemption period (~30 days, costly recovery), then pending delete (5 days), then domain drops and becomes available for anyone to register.

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WHOIS Lookup

Look up domain registration, registrar, creation date, expiry date and nameserver information for any domain using the RDAP protocol.

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Domain Name

What is WHOIS / RDAP?

WHOIS is a protocol for querying domain registration information. This tool uses RDAP (Registration Data Access Protocol) — the modern, structured replacement for WHOIS. RDAP returns machine-readable JSON data and is supported by all major registries.

Domain Status Codes

Status	Meaning
active	Domain is registered and active
clientTransferProhibited	Domain cannot be transferred to another registrar
clientDeleteProhibited	Domain cannot be deleted
pendingDelete	Domain will be deleted soon and may become available
redemptionPeriod	Expired — registrant has limited time to recover it

Privacy / Redacted Data

Since 2018, most registrars redact personal contact details (name, address, phone, email) from public WHOIS data to comply with GDPR. Registrar, dates and nameservers remain visible. Law enforcement and accredited researchers can access full data through gated WHOIS services.

WHOIS Lookup

What is WHOIS / RDAP?

Domain Status Codes

Privacy / Redacted Data

Frequently Asked Questions