Expired .co.uk domains are released 95 days after their expiry date, and the registry tells you the exact moment in advance. Nominet, which runs the .UK namespace, takes an unrenewed name through three stages: a 30-day expiry grace period, a redemption grace period up to day 90, and a five-day pending delete period. Every name on its way out appears in a public daily drop list with a drop time.
The co uk domain expiry process, stage by stage
Nominet describes the process in its registrar documentation, on the page titled "Domain expiry process and introduction of drop lists for .UK" in the registrar resources section of its site. The current process went live on 13 September 2022; confirm the details there.
| Stage | Days after expiry | Does the site resolve? | Can the owner renew? | In the drop list? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Expiry grace period | 0 to 30 | Yes | Yes | No |
| Redemption grace period | 30 to 90 | No | Yes | Yes, with a "may drop" time |
| Pending delete grace period | 90 to 95 | No | No | Yes, with a confirmed "drop" time |
| Released | After the drop time | No | No longer registered | Removed |
Three things stand out for a buyer. The website keeps working for the first 30 days, so a live .co.uk site can already be a month past its expiry date. The owner can renew until day 90, so a name in the list is not yet a name that will drop. And the last five days are final: the name cannot be renewed and the drop time is confirmed.
How this differs from the .com lifecycle
On .com the registrar decides the length of the grace period, up to 45 days, and then come exactly 30 days of redemption and 5 days of pending delete. The day counts are explained in when expired domains become available, and the rules behind them in the article on the ICANN expired domain deletion policy. The .UK process is set by the registry instead, so the stage lengths are the same whichever registrar holds the name.
The detail that catches .com buyers is the status. Nominet's systems report the RFC 5731 pendingDelete status from day 30, through the whole redemption grace period, while the owner can still renew. On .com that status means the deletion is final. On a .uk name it only means the name has been suspended and may drop. To know which of the two stages a name is in, look at whether its time in the list is a potential one or a confirmed one, or count the days from the expiry date.
The other difference is the drop itself. There is no single daily moment for the whole extension. Each name has its own drop time, published beforehand.
The uk domain drop list
Nominet publishes the list itself. According to its documentation:
- It is available publicly, for anyone to download over HTTPS.
- It is updated once a day.
- It comes as a gzipped CSV file, with a checksum file next to it.
- Each row has three fields: the ROID (the registry's identifier for the object), the domain, and the drop time in UTC.
- It contains every name that has not been renewed from the point of suspension, so both "may drop" and "drop" names are in it.
- A name is removed from the list when it is renewed.
- Drop times are only confirmed for the next five days at any one time.
Treat a time more than five days away as a forecast: the owner can still renew, and the name then disappears from the list.
A sensible routine is to download the file daily and keep only the names with a drop time in the next five days. Names that have just entered that confirmed window are your real candidates.
Working out when a specific .uk domain will drop
You do not need a uk domain drop calculator for a rough date, only the expiry date. Read it with the domain expiration checker, then add the stage lengths.
Say a .co.uk name expired on 1 March and the owner does nothing:
- Until 31 March the site resolves as usual and the owner can renew.
- From 31 March the name stops resolving and enters the drop list with a "may drop" time. The owner can still renew.
- On 30 May, day 90, renewal ends and the drop time is confirmed.
- Around 4 June, day 95, the name is released at the time shown in the list.
The calculation gives you the day; the list gives you the time, and the published time is the one to rely on.
How a .uk domain is caught after its drop time
Once the drop time has passed, the name becomes available for re-registration by any registrar through Nominet's normal registration systems. Nominet notes that a registration can succeed from that moment even while the old record is still being purged in the background.
From there it is ordinary drop catching: registration is first come, first served, with the difference that the time is published in advance.
If you want to backorder a uk domain, you place an order with a company that will try this for you. The general model is covered in how a domain backorder works. Since services differ, confirm these points with the one you pick before you rely on it:
- Does it accept .uk and .co.uk orders at all?
- When is the fee charged: on placing the order, or only if the name is caught?
- What happens if two of its customers ordered the same name?
- At which registrar will the name end up, and can you move it afterwards?
For a name nobody else wants, registering it by hand shortly after the drop time can be enough. For a name with obvious value, assume you are competing with automated systems.
Checking a .uk domain before you chase it
A drop time tells you when, not whether the name is worth having. Expired domains in the UK carry the same risks as anywhere else, so do the checks early:
- History. Open the Wayback Machine and look at captures from the first year, the middle and the last two years. A local business site that turned into a gambling or pharma page is a name to skip. The full method is in how to check domain history.
- Backlinks. Look at who links to it and with which anchor texts. For a UK project, links from UK sites on the same topic are worth more than a high score built from unrelated ones.
- Blacklists and index. Check the domain blocklists and run a
site:search. Zero results is common for a suspended site and does not prove a penalty. - Brand names. A name containing someone's trademark can be taken away through a dispute procedure. This is not legal advice.
The domain checker runs the history, spam, blacklist and metric checks on any domain you enter and returns a verdict in a minute or two.
What hunter.domains covers here
hunter.domains does not scan Nominet's drop list. Its daily scan covers the feeds of GoDaddy Auctions, DropCatch, SnapNames, Sedo, Dynadot, Park.io and the .se/.nu registry, with the filtering described here. If your project is not tied to a UK extension, the live list of expired domains is the quicker route. For .co.uk names, use the Nominet list to find candidates and the checker to vet them.
Frequently asked questions
How long after expiry does a .co.uk domain become available?
95 days, if the owner never renews. The first 30 days are the expiry grace period, days 30 to 90 are the redemption grace period, and days 90 to 95 are the pending delete grace period. The name is released at the drop time Nominet publishes for it.
Is the .uk domain drop list free?
Yes. Nominet states that the list is available publicly for anyone to download over HTTPS. It is updated once a day as a gzipped CSV file containing the ROID, the domain and the drop time in UTC.
Can a .co.uk domain be renewed after it has expired?
Yes, until day 90 after expiry. During the first 30 days the site still works; from day 30 to day 90 it does not resolve, but renewal is still available through the registrar. From day 90 the name cannot be renewed.
Can I backorder a .co.uk domain?
Yes, through a service that supports the extension. After the published drop time any registrar can register the name, and a backorder service submits that request for you. Confirm when it charges before you order.
