.cyou Domains: A Short, Spoken Ending Used Very Widely
.cyou entered the root zone on 19 March 2015, and the IANA record names Shortdot SA as the sponsoring organisation — the same company behind .bond and .cfd. The name rests on the clipped reading of the English phrase 'see you' and is tied to no particular sector. This zone is markedly larger than every other ending in this group.
A large zone means two things: short, common roots have largely gone, yet the zone stays lively and names drop daily. So the rule reads — if you want a short address close to spoken language and your brand carries the root, there is room for you here. Where a service leads with corporate gravity, it sets the wrong expectation. Try candidates with a domain name search.
According to the nTLDstats page accessed on 11 August 2026, the zone holds 826,222 registrations. The second largest ending in this group is .cool at 30,108 — a gap of twenty-seven times over. Against that, only 489,472 of those names appear in the zone file, meaning two names in five were never published at all. The practical consequence for you is this: rather than spending time on common single-word roots, start from your brand name or from two-word combinations.
.CYOU Domain at a Glance
- Sponsoring organisation Shortdot SA
- Root zone record 19 March 2015
- Eligibility condition No verified restriction
- Registered names 826,222 (nTLDstats, 11 August 2026)
- Published 489,472 names (about three in five)
- Document Requirement No documents are required to register a .cyou domain
- Character Length 1 - 63 characters
- Registration Period 1 - 10 years
- Name Server Count 2 - 10 servers
.cyou 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
$1.99 /year -
Transfer
$18.99 /year -
Renewal
$19.79 /year -
Restore
$184.90
Included With Every .cyou 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.
.cyou Domain Lifecycle
What happens day by day after it expires
Day 0 is the domain's expiry dateIn short: your .cyou 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 .cyou 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 .cyou 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 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 .cyou 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
.cyou Domain Specifications and Registration Rules
Registration conditions, supported features and the registry's own timelines in a single table.
.cyou Domain Registration
- Document Requirement No documents are required to register a .cyou domain
- Character Length 1 - 63 characters
- Registration Period 1 - 10 years
- Name Server Count 2 - 10 servers
.cyou Domain Support
- IDN Support No
- Transfer Support Yes
- Late Renewal Support Yes
Frequently Asked Questions About .cyou Domains
The questions people actually ask before registering — answered plainly.
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Anyone can; no eligibility condition has been verified.
Shortdot SA, the sponsoring organisation, asks for no company registration, sector check or national tie. A personal page and an international brand apply on the same terms. To see whether the root you want is free, run a domain name search.
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It rests on the clipped reading of the English phrase 'see you'.
The zone therefore points at short, conversational addresses rather than at any one industry. If your audience does not speak English, that reading may not land on its own, so lead with the written form when you promote the address. Test that the root is spelled correctly first time over the phone.
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Its brevity and broad applicability have grown the zone quickly.
According to the nTLDstats page accessed on 11 August 2026 it holds 826,222 registrations, twenty-seven times the second largest ending in this group. Set against that, only 489,472 names have been published. Registration volume alone therefore says nothing about how many of those addresses are in use.
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You can, provided you try combinations rather than common single words.
Because of the zone's size most everyday dictionary words have gone. Brand names, brand-plus-category and distinctive two-word pairings remain widely open. To test several variants at once, use the bulk domain name search.
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You can, as long as the register suits the work.
This ending carries an informal, friendly association, which is an advantage for community, editorial and campaign projects. If you want a corporate address to sit on contracts and invoices, a more neutral ending meets the expectation better. Running both addresses together is also a workable arrangement.
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Begin by asking your current registrar for the authorisation code.
The transfer lock must be open, sixty days must have passed since registration, and your administrative email address has to be reachable. Confirm through whois search that the record really is yours, then continue on the domain transfer page.
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