The .ink Domain: Writing, Drawing and Tattoos
.ink was recorded in the root zone on 27 February 2014; its ICANN registry agreement is dated 5 December 2013 and was assigned in 2023 to Registry Services, LLC, part of GoDaddy Registry. The nTLDstats page accessed on 12 August 2026 shows 209,575 registrations, with 132,157 of them in the zone file. This is the second largest zone in the group.
The operator associates the ending with creative work, blogging and writing above all, naming writers, visual artists, bloggers and tattooists as its audience. There is no eligibility condition, yet the registration policy does carry a usage undertaking. Try candidates through an .ink domain search, and look at the .design page for a comparable creative tone.
The operator's Registration Policy of March 2026 lists .ink by name and takes these undertakings from the registrant: to be the intended beneficiary of the registration; that the name and its use will be consistent with the mission and purpose of the TLD, with applicable law and with the published policies; that its details are true and are updated within 14 days of any change. If an undertaking proves untrue, the operator may cancel, lock, place on hold, transfer or delete the name at its own discretion, and it reserves the right to review at any point in the name's lifecycle. On a transfer, the receiving party must meet the same requirements independently.
.INK Domain at a Glance
- Sponsoring organisation Registry Services, LLC (GoDaddy Registry)
- ICANN registry agreement 5 December 2013
- Root zone record 27 February 2014
- Agreement assignment 2023, Registry Services, LLC
- Registered names 209,575 (nTLDstats, 12 August 2026)
- Present in the zone file 132,157 names, about 63%
- Document Requirement No documents are required to register a .ink domain
- Character Length 1 - 63 characters
- Registration Period 1 - 10 years
- Name Server Count 2 - 10 servers
.ink 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
$32.49 /year -
Transfer
$32.49 /year -
Renewal
$34.99 /year -
Restore
$129.90 -
Late Renewal
$6.98
Included With Every .ink 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.
.ink Domain Lifecycle
What happens day by day after it expires
Day 0 is the domain's expiry dateIn short: your .ink 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 .ink 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 .ink 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 $6.98 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 .ink 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
.ink Domain Specifications and Registration Rules
Registration conditions, supported features and the registry's own timelines in a single table.
.ink Domain Registration
- Document Requirement No documents are required to register a .ink domain
- Character Length 1 - 63 characters
- Registration Period 1 - 10 years
- Name Server Count 2 - 10 servers
.ink Domain Support
- IDN Support Yes
- Transfer Support Yes
- Late Renewal Support Yes
Frequently Asked Questions About .ink Domains
The questions people actually ask before registering — answered plainly.
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It does; the operator's Registration Policy lists the ending by name and takes undertakings.
The registrant undertakes that the name and its use will be consistent with the purpose of the TLD, with applicable law and with the published policies. Keeping your details accurate and updating them within fourteen days of a change forms part of that undertaking. On breach, the operator may lock or delete the name.
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Yes; the operator names tattooists explicitly among the audiences for this ending.
The ending reads easily in that field and produces a short address alongside a studio name. If you are building a portfolio-led site, compress the images and give each artist a page of their own. Where you run a booking form, review your certificate with the SSL checker.
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The agreement passed to Registry Services, LLC in 2023; your existing registrations are unaffected.
Your name, your term and your authorisation code stay as they are. What changed is the policy documents: the Registration Policy now in force is dated March 2026 and the Acceptable Use Policy August 2023. Reading the current text before renewal beats trusting an older copy.
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132,157 of 209,575 registrations appear in the zone file, roughly 63 percent.
So about one registered name in three has never gone live. Large as the zone is, that ratio says something useful: the chance that nothing runs behind a taken name is not small. Widening your candidate list with bulk domain name search is more productive than waiting.
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The policy requires the receiving party to meet the same registration requirements independently.
Whoever buys the name therefore becomes party to the usage undertaking; passing the name on does not discharge the obligation. Update the contact details before the handover and confirm the record's current state through whois search. Share the authorisation code only with the buyer.
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