Domain lifecycle: expiry, grace, redemption, pending delete

When a client phones in saying our domain stopped working overnight, the lifecycle stage tells you most of the answer in under a minute. Active and the issue is elsewhere. In grace and you renew. In redemption and you escalate (expensive, time-pressured). In pending delete and you stop, because the domain is days away from being released and the recovery path no longer exists at this layer.

Knowing which stage you’re in changes which action is right; guessing wrong wastes hours or costs the client the domain.

The standard gTLD lifecycle

stateDiagram-v2
    [*] --> Active
    Active --> Grace: expiry date passes
    Grace --> Active: registrar renews (~30 day window)
    Grace --> Redemption: grace ends without payment
    Redemption --> Active: special restore process (expensive, ~30 day window)
    Redemption --> PendingDelete: redemption ends without recovery
    PendingDelete --> Deleted: ~5 days, no recovery
    Deleted --> [*]: anyone can register

Active. Registered and inside the paid term. WHOIS shows an expiry date in the future. Status flag: ok or active.

Expired (auto-renew grace). Paid term ended. Most registrars enter an auto-renew grace of about 30 days, during which the registrar can still renew at the standard price. Records may continue to resolve. Status flag: autoRenewPeriod.

Redemption. If grace ends without payment, the registry pulls the domain. It stops resolving. Recovery requires a special restore process at a significantly higher fee (often 10x a normal renewal). Status flag: redemptionPeriod. Lasts about 30 days.

Pending delete. Roughly 5 days. Recovery is no longer possible. Status flag: pendingDelete.

Deleted. The registry releases the domain back to the public market. Drop-catching services compete for attractive names the instant they drop.

Durations above are gTLD norms. ccTLDs run variants; check the specific registry for ccTLDs.

Reading status flags

WHOIS / RDAP responses include status fields. The ones you’ll see most:

• ok or active: normal.
• clientTransferProhibited, clientUpdateProhibited, clientDeleteProhibited: registrar-set locks (next lesson).
• autoRenewPeriod: in the auto-renew grace window.
• redemptionPeriod: in registry redemption.
• pendingDelete: queued for release.
• pendingTransfer: a transfer is in progress.

Multiple flags can be set at once. A single redemptionPeriod changes what action is right.

What this is NOT

• “Auto-renew always renews.” Auto-renew tries the card on file. When the card has expired, been declined, or been changed without updating the registrar, auto-renew fails silently and the domain enters grace. Renewal-reminder emails matter.
• “Redemption is just a slightly more expensive renewal.” It is a different process at the registry, costs an order of magnitude more, and isn’t always self-serve. Escalate it; don’t treat it as a renewal-with-a-late-fee.
• “After expiry I have a year to recover.” No. The full timeline from expiry to permanent loss is roughly 65 days (30 days grace + 30 days redemption + 5 days pending delete) for a typical gTLD.

Decision walkthrough

What to do next

On any domain-not-working ticket, the first read is always: pull WHOIS / RDAP and read the status flags and expiry date before anything else. The lifecycle stage tells you which response is right:

• Active: the issue is at another layer; go to the four-layer model and identify which one.
• Grace: renew through the registrar; confirm billing.
• Redemption: escalate. Don’t self-serve.
• Pending delete: stop. The conversation is now about whether the name matters enough to catch on re-release (escalation territory).