.asia: An Asia-Pacific Ending With an Eligibility Rule
.asia was delegated to the root zone on 2 May 2007, five years before the 2012 application round. The sponsoring organisation is DotAsia Organisation Ltd., and the extension is a community-based namespace set aside for the Asia-Pacific region. That is where it parts company with ordinary generic endings — registration carries an eligibility condition.
The rule runs like this: every registration meets the eligibility condition in one of two ways. Either the registrant accepts the registration agreement and the Charter Eligibility Dispute Resolution Policy (CEDRP), attesting to an established, sought or nexus presence in the Asia-Pacific community (CER acceptance), or one of the administrative contacts has a postal address inside the region (CEA contact). The registry has not collected the older third route, the legal-entity (CED) contact, since 1 August 2023. The community boundaries follow ICANN's definition of the Asia / Australia / Pacific region, and the policy's country list includes Turkey. For a brand entering the region, the address states that connection outright. Try candidates with a domain name search.
.ASIA Domain at a Glance
- Sponsoring organisation DotAsia Organisation Ltd.
- Delegated to the root zone 2 May 2007
- Eligibility CER acceptance, or an admin contact with a postal address in Asia-Pacific
- Community boundary ICANN's Asia / Australia / Pacific region definition
- Document Requirement No documents are required to register a .asia domain
- Character Length 1 - 63 characters
- Registration Period 1 - 10 years
- Name Server Count 2 - 13 servers
.asia Domain Prices — No Surprise Fees
Registration, transfer and renewal fees are listed separately. The renewal price can differ from the first-year price, so you see both up front.
-
New Registration
$15.99 /year -
Transfer
$16.27 /year -
Renewal
$24.92 /year -
Restore
$104.90 -
Late Renewal
$4.98
Included With Every .asia Domain
-
Free DNS management
Change A, MX, TXT and CNAME records yourself from the panel — no waiting on anyone when you move a site or mailbox.
-
Domain lock
While the lock is on, nobody can move your domain to another registrar without your approval.
-
Domain forwarding
Point the domain at your existing site, a campaign page or a social profile — at no extra cost.
-
Free WHOIS privacy
Your name, address and phone stay out of public WHOIS records, which cuts down spam and scam calls.
.asia Domain Lifecycle
What happens day by day after it expires
Day 0 is the domain's expiry dateIn short: your .asia domain is put on Client Hold on its expiry date, so the site and e-mail stop that same day. You can still renew during the first 20 days, but from this point a late renewal fee is added on top of the renewal price. On day 20 the registration is deleted and until day 50 only a paid restore brings it back. Nothing at all can be done in the 5 days that follow, and on day 55 the name is open to anyone. There is exactly one way never to enter this chain: keep auto-renewal on.
Domain Is Available (Available)
A .asia address at this stage has not been taken yet, and it goes to whoever registers first. Check the name you have in mind — if it is free, it can be yours within minutes.
Domain Is Active (Active Period)
Once registration is complete, the domain is registered to you for the term you selected. You can renew at any point before it expires to keep it active, or switch on auto-renewal so you never have to watch the date.
Renewal Window (Client Hold)
On its expiry date your .asia domain is put on Client Hold: the site and e-mail go down that day, but the registration is still yours. A single renewal within these first 20 days brings everything back exactly as it was — nothing is lost. The only difference is that a $4.98 late renewal fee is now added to the renewal price; renewing before the expiry date avoids that fee entirely.
Redemption Period (Redemption / RGP)
On day 20 the registration is deleted and the 30-day redemption period that ICANN requires of every gTLD registry begins. The name is not released to anyone during this time; only you can take it back, by paying the restore fee, until day 50. That fee is far higher than a renewal — renewing on time is always the cheaper route.
Pending Delete (Pending Delete)
Once the redemption window closes too, the domain enters its final 5 days and there is no way back. Neither renewal nor restore works here; nobody — your registrar included — can return the name to you. The registry uses this window as the last hold before the name goes back into the pool.
Open to Anyone Again (Released)
On day 55 the name .asia returns to the pool and anyone can register it. Sought-after names are often gone within seconds, and there is no guaranteed way to get one back. Yet staying out of this timeline is entirely in your hands: leave auto-renewal on and the expiry date will never catch you off guard.
The timeline above is the schedule Atak Domain applies and publishes. The ICANN chart you will find elsewhere shows a renewal window of up to 45 days after expiry; ICANN's policy on expired registrations (section 2.2.1) lets registrars delete an expired domain at any time, provided they disclose their policy in advance. We apply that window as 20 days and publish it here in plain sight. Full text of the policy: ICANN Expired Registration Recovery Policy
.asia Domain Specifications and Registration Rules
Registration conditions, supported features and the registry's own timelines in a single table.
.asia Domain Registration
- Document Requirement No documents are required to register a .asia domain
- Character Length 1 - 63 characters
- Registration Period 1 - 10 years
- Name Server Count 2 - 13 servers
.asia Domain Support
- IDN Support Yes
- Transfer Support Yes
- Late Renewal Support Yes
Frequently Asked Questions About .asia Domains
The questions people actually ask before registering — answered plainly.
-
Under the registry's Charter Eligibility policy every registration meets the condition in one of two ways. The registrant accepts the registration agreement and the Charter Eligibility Dispute Resolution Policy (CEDRP), attesting that it has established, is seeking or has a nexus relationship with a presence in the Asia-Pacific community (CER acceptance); or one of the administrative contacts has a postal address inside the region (CEA contact). Community boundaries follow ICANN's definition of the Asia / Australia / Pacific region. So a company based outside the region can still register.
-
The CED contact is the contact defined in the policy to make the eligibility declaration, and it must be a legal entity inside the community. The registry has not collected this information since 1 August 2023; today eligibility is met through CER acceptance or an administrative contact with a postal address in the region (CEA). The domain holder remains the registrant alone, since the policy regards the registrant as the sole holder. If you have a subsidiary, branch or business partner in the region, you can record its postal address as the administrative contact.
-
Yes. A company outside the region can still meet the condition: the registrant accepts the CER terms and the CEDRP, attesting that it has established, is seeking or has a nexus relationship with a presence in the Asia-Pacific community, or one of the administrative contacts has a postal address inside the region. The registry monitors compliance by sampling and may ask for documents supporting an address, so use a real, current one. The region follows ICANN's definition and the policy's country list includes Turkey, so a company incorporated there is already inside it. If you want no tie to the region at all, an unrestricted ending like .com fits better.
-
Because it was delegated in 2007, five years before the 2012 application round. It comes from a different era than the hundreds of endings that round produced, and it is built on a community model. That also explains why an eligibility rule exists at all: the namespace is run on behalf of a defined regional community, and the rules follow that definition.
-
Scope is the deciding factor. If you publish a separate language, price list or catalogue for the Asia-Pacific market, this address lets that version carry its own identity — visitors can tell which market's page they are on from the address alone. Running a single global site, redirect the regional address to it. If the name sits with another provider, a domain transfer brings it into one panel.
Ready to Claim Your .asia Domain?
Type a name and see in seconds whether it is free on .asia. If it is taken, we list close alternatives right away.
Get Help for .asia Domain Registration
Need help registering a .asia domain? Our team is ready to assist.