.auto: A Four-Letter Address for the Motor Trade
.auto was delegated to the root zone on 12 March 2015 and its current sponsoring organisation is XYZ.COM LLC. The word points straight at cars in many languages, so the address needs no translation. At four letters it keeps the brand name in front — and in this trade the address usually ends up printed on adverts, signage and vehicle livery.
It speaks directly for dealerships, authorised service centres, parts suppliers, inspection services and rental firms. One thing to watch is the plural: .autos is a separate extension and, even under the same registry, an independent name — holding one gives you no claim on the other. Check both together with a bulk domain name search.
.AUTO Domain at a Glance
- Sponsoring organisation XYZ.COM LLC
- Delegated to the root zone 12 March 2015
- Plural form .autos — same registry, separate extension
- Eligibility No published registry restriction could be verified
- Document Requirement No documents are required to register a .auto domain
- Character Length 3 - 63 characters
- Registration Period 1 - 10 years
- Name Server Count 2 - 10 servers
.auto 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.
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New Registration
$2,500.00 /year -
Transfer
$2,599.99 /year -
Renewal
$2,799.99 /year -
Restore
$4,099.90 -
Late Renewal
$550.00
Included With Every .auto Domain
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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.
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Domain lock
While the lock is on, nobody can move your domain to another registrar without your approval.
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Domain forwarding
Point the domain at your existing site, a campaign page or a social profile — at no extra cost.
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Free WHOIS privacy
Your name, address and phone stay out of public WHOIS records, which cuts down spam and scam calls.
.auto Domain Lifecycle
What happens day by day after it expires
Day 0 is the domain's expiry dateIn short: your .auto 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 .auto 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 .auto 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 $550.00 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 .auto 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
.auto Domain Specifications and Registration Rules
Registration conditions, supported features and the registry's own timelines in a single table.
.auto Domain Registration
- Document Requirement No documents are required to register a .auto domain
- Character Length 3 - 63 characters
- Registration Period 1 - 10 years
- Name Server Count 2 - 10 servers
.auto Domain Support
- IDN Support No
- Transfer Support Yes
- Late Renewal Support Yes
Frequently Asked Questions About .auto Domains
The questions people actually ask before registering — answered plainly.
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No, they are two separate top-level domains. Each holds its own entry in the root zone and their delegation dates differ; even though the same company sponsors both today, the names are independent. So a name registered in the singular is not automatically yours in the plural. If brand protection matters, weigh it together with .autos.
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No verifiable eligibility restriction applies. We could not reach a primary source showing that the registry asks for a dealership agreement, trading licence or sector registration. The expectation the word creates is narrow, though: visitors expect a page about vehicles. Using it for something unrelated spends the one advantage the address gives you.
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Listing photography sets the load. With fifteen or twenty images per vehicle, total size climbs quickly, and compressing photos and serving screen-sized versions gains you more than a server upgrade. A page-driven listing site runs on shared hosting. If you are building filtered search and stock integration, Node.js hosting or Python hosting fits better.
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Vehicle listing sites carry offer forms, finance applications or inspection bookings. Those steps collect names, phone numbers and often financial details, and over an unencrypted connection that data is unprotected. Browsers also flag pages served without HTTPS, and in a high-value purchase that warning hits trust directly. Options are on the SSL certificate page; verify with the SSL checker.
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Often yes, and the reason is arithmetic. Short names in .com ran out long ago, and the usual workaround — padding the name with words like "motors" or "cars" — makes the address longer. Letting the ending carry that information says the same thing in fewer characters. The rule: put the sector signal in the name or in the ending, not both.
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