Domain Renewal Process
A domain is renewed at the registrar that currently holds it: sign in, pay the renewal term shown beside the name, and confirm the expiry date moves forward. Renewal fees often differ from first-year offers; WebJi® lists them per extension on its domain price list, before 18% GST. Expired names stay renewable for a limited period.
For Indian site owners who need to renew a name on time, read the real renewal fee, or rescue a domain that has just expired.
knowledge
- Read time
- 4 min
- Sections
- 8
- Updated
- 14 Nov 2026
- Written by
- WebJi® team
Live check across 297 extensions on our billing system — registration, renewal and transfer prices are shown before you pay.
Last editorial update: 14 November 2026.
How do you renew a domain name, step by step?
You renew a domain at the registrar that currently sponsors it: sign in, pay the renewal term shown beside that name, then check that the expiry date has moved forward. Until the date changes in the account, the renewal is not finished, whatever the payment receipt says.
- Identify the sponsor. Your last invoice names it. If it does not, a WHOIS lookup shows the registrar of record. When a reseller sold you the name, that reseller is where you renew.
- Open the domain record. Note the expiry date and the renewal fee printed next to the name. A first-year offer on a banner elsewhere does not apply to a name you already hold.
- Choose the term and pay. One year is common; most registrars sell up to ten years in one order.
- Verify the new date. A one-year renewal on a name expiring 20 March 2027 should now read 20 March 2028. If the date has not moved, contact the registrar before assuming it went through.
- Add a backstop. Switch on auto-renew with a card or mandate that will still be valid, and keep a calendar reminder 30 days ahead.
One common detour: registry.gov.in handles contact updates for .gov.in names. It is not where an ordinary .com or .in is renewed.
What does a domain renewal cost compared with the first year?
The renewal fee is the price for the second and later years, and it is often higher than an introductory first-year price. That gap is why the renewal column, not the registration column, should decide which registrar and extension you pick.
WebJi® publishes registration, renewal and transfer prices for each extension on its domain price list, read from WebJi® billing and quoted before 18% GST. For a name already in your WebJi® account, the client area shows the exact amount before you pay; if anything looks unclear, email support@webji.services and the team confirms the figure first. Registry-premium names renew at their premium rate, which is shown at the time of purchase.
A multi-year renewal does not usually earn a discount, but it removes the yearly risk of a failed payment. For a brand name that customers type every day, three to five years is a reasonable cushion.
What happens after a domain expires?
An expired domain passes through stages — renewable, restorable at a higher fee, then released — and the length of each stage depends on the extension and the registrar. ICANN's renewal guidance points registrants back to their registrar and to its Expired Registration Recovery Policy and Expired Domain Deletion Policy rather than giving one day count for every name.
| Stage | Website and email | What you can do | Cost signal |
|---|---|---|---|
| Active, before expiry | Working | Renew any time for the listed term | Normal renewal fee |
| Expired, renewal still offered (grace) | Often stopped | Renew at the same registrar | Usually the normal fee |
| Redemption / restore | Stopped | Request a restore from the registrar | Restore fee plus renewal, clearly higher |
| Released (dropped) | Gone | Register again only if nobody else has | New registration price, if still free |
The site can go dark while the renew button is still available, so a blank website is not proof the name is lost. Read whether the pay screen says "renew" or "restore" before you pay.
How can you stop a domain from expiring by accident?
Most lapsed domains are lost to an old email address or an expired card, not to a forgotten decision, so the fixes are administrative.
- Registrant email: use a role address such as accounts@ on a domain you control, not a former employee's mailbox or the domain that is about to expire.
- Payment method: check the card or UPI mandate expiry against the domain expiry; a declined auto-renew does not extend anything.
- Registrar lock: keep it on to block unwanted transfers. The registrar lock protects ownership; it does not pay the renewal.
- Separate dates: hosting, SSL and email each renew on their own cycle. Renewing the domain leaves them untouched.
- One owner: keep the domain in the business's own account rather than a designer's or agency's.
To find a date you are unsure of, the guide on checking a domain expiry date walks through WHOIS and registrar views.
Should you renew or transfer a domain that is about to expire?
If the expiry date is less than a few weeks away, renew where the name is now and move it later. A transfer can stall on an auth code, a lock or an email approval, and a name left mid-transfer across its expiry date is exposed.
Under ICANN's transfer policy most gTLDs cannot change registrar within 60 days of registration or of a previous transfer. When you are clear of that window, unlock the name, collect the authorization code and start a domain transfer to WebJi®; a gTLD transfer normally adds one year to the existing term.
Can you recover a domain that has already expired?
Yes, while the current registrar still offers renew or restore for it; once another party registers the name, renewal is no longer possible. Sign in and pay whichever option is shown, then confirm the expiry date. For a name held at WebJi®, email support@webji.services with the domain and the team quotes the restore before you pay. WebJi® cannot renew a name sponsored by another company.
If WHOIS shows a new registrant, the only routes left are a purchase from that holder or, where you hold a trademark, a dispute process — the domain name dispute guide explains INDRP and UDRP.
Frequently asked questions
Can a domain be bought for a lifetime?
No. Every domain is a renewable registration, and the longest term a registrar normally sells is ten years. Offers of a "lifetime free domain" describe a bundle tied to another paid product, and the name lapses if that product or its renewal stops.
Does renewing a domain early waste the remaining time?
No. The new term is added to the current expiry date, not to the day you pay. Renewing six months early for one year moves the expiry exactly one year forward, so early renewal costs nothing extra.
Why did my website stop if the domain shows a renew button?
Registrars commonly point an expired name to a parking or notice page during the grace stage, so the site and email stop even though renewal is still possible. Paying the renewal restores the previous DNS settings, usually within a few hours.
Is GST charged on a domain renewal in India?
Yes. Domain renewal is a taxable service, and WebJi® adds 18% GST on the invoice. Prices on the domain price list are shown before GST, and a business can add its GSTIN to claim input credit.
Will auto-renew charge me without warning?
Registrars send renewal notices to the registrant and account email before the due date. Auto-renew only charges the saved payment method on or near the due date, so keep that email address monitored and the payment method current.
Last editorial update: 14 November 2026.
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