The .gay Domain: An Ending With Written Rules
.gay was recorded in the root zone on 19 July 2019, and the contracting party in the IANA entry today is Registry Services, LLC. The zone was first delegated to Top Level Design, LLC and transferred to its present holder on 26 June 2023. The nTLDstats page accessed on 12 August 2026 shows 27,712 registrations, of which 18,359 appear in the zone file.
The ending is positioned for LGBTQIA+ people, communities, organisations and businesses, together with those who support them. There is no eligibility test at registration: the restriction attaches to how a name is used rather than to who is using it. Try candidates with a .gay domain search, and plan the certificate a community site will need from the SSL certificate page.
The registry's Community Protection Policy of 30 August 2023 lists prohibited conduct explicitly: inciting or promoting violence against LGBTQIA+ people, bullying and cyber bullying, harassment, stalking, abusive intent to cause fear or threaten violence, hate speech, and activity intended to organise any of these. Registration is closed to parties that are, or are associated with, recognised hate groups. Names running forum sites must have enforcement policies and the capability to act on contributor behaviour. The registry reviews complaints case by case and reserves the right to suspend, revoke or cancel a registration.
.GAY Domain at a Glance
- Sponsoring organisation Registry Services, LLC
- Root zone record 19 July 2019
- Transfer to current holder 26 June 2023
- Usage rule Community Protection Policy, 30 August 2023
- Registered names 27,712 (nTLDstats, 12 August 2026)
- Present in the zone file 18,359 names, about 66%
- Document Requirement No documents are required to register a .gay domain
- Character Length 1 - 63 characters
- Registration Period 1 - 10 years
- Name Server Count 2 - 10 servers
.gay 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
$38.99 /year -
Transfer
$38.99 /year -
Renewal
$41.99 /year
Included With Every .gay 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.
.gay Domain Lifecycle
What happens day by day after it expires
Day 0 is the domain's expiry dateIn short: your .gay 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 .gay 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 .gay 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 .gay 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
.gay Domain Specifications and Registration Rules
Registration conditions, supported features and the registry's own timelines in a single table.
.gay Domain Registration
- Document Requirement No documents are required to register a .gay domain
- Character Length 1 - 63 characters
- Registration Period 1 - 10 years
- Name Server Count 2 - 10 servers
.gay Domain Support
- IDN Support Yes
- Transfer Support Yes
- Late Renewal Support Yes
Frequently Asked Questions About .gay Domains
The questions people actually ask before registering — answered plainly.
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There is not. The registry asks for no declaration of identity and no proof of membership.
The ending is open to allies, and organisations and brands register in it too. What is closed off runs the other way: registration is prohibited to parties that are, or are associated with, recognised hate groups. The line is drawn at what the name is used for, not at who you are.
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Inciting violence, bullying, harassment, stalking, causing fear, threatening violence and hate speech are all listed.
Activity intended to organise or enable any of those falls under the same heading. The registry states plainly that it cannot monitor all content in real time, but undertakes to accept and investigate complaints, and may suspend, revoke or cancel a registration where it upholds one.
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It does. The policy requires names running forum sites to have enforcement policies and the capability to act.
That reaches any structure open to visitor contributions: a comment area, a message board, an events wall. Three things generally cover it — a written rules page, an address where reports arrive, and a short note on how removal requests are handled. If the discussion deserves an address of its own, look at the .forum page as well.
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Complaints go by email or through the registry's online case form.
You are asked to state the domain name, summarise the violation and include any details or evidence supporting the claim. The registry reviews reports case by case: sometimes it acts immediately, sometimes it consults externally or allows the sponsoring registrar time to remediate. It also reserves the right not to respond to claims made in bad faith.
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Yes. The policy states that a percentage of all new registration revenue goes to LGBTQIA+ charitable organisations.
The registry sets and may update both the percentage and the charities; its own page gives that share as twenty per cent as at 12 August 2026. The document also asks registrars to give notice of the donation during the registration process, so the information should reach you at the point of sale.
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Yes. It runs on an authorisation code and the registry asks for no documents.
The usage rule does not end with the transfer; the obligation moves to the new registrar along with the name. On a community site, review two more things as you go: whether the abuse and contact addresses still work, and whether the moderation team actually receives what arrives there. Start from the domain transfer page.
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