The .institute Domain: An Ending That Names a Body
.institute entered the root zone on 19 December 2013; its ICANN registry agreement is dated 7 November 2013 and names Binky Moon, LLC as the contracting party. The nTLDstats page accessed on 12 August 2026 shows 26,786 registrations, 21,355 of them in the zone file. It is the fourth largest zone in the group, with a high publication rate.
Research centres, vocational training bodies, think tanks, institutes under association umbrellas and certificate programmes all use the ending. The operator requests no evidence of corporate status; the single ending in its portfolio that requires a status form is .ltd. Try candidates through an .institute domain search, and compare the teaching-led .education page.
The commitment in the agreement is explicit: the operator runs this zone without any identity-based eligibility limit and is barred from reserving names for those associated with the most common usage of the word. A page carrying this address therefore shows nothing about whether an incorporated institute, an accredited teaching body or a supervised research programme stands behind it. Before you trust a certificate, a credential or a course, look up the organisation's legal name, its register entry and any accreditation number. When presenting your own institution, stating those details plainly on the page is the fastest trust you can build.
.INSTITUTE Domain at a Glance
- Sponsoring organisation Binky Moon, LLC
- Infrastructure provider Identity Digital Limited
- ICANN registry agreement 7 November 2013
- Root zone record 19 December 2013
- Registered names 26,786 (nTLDstats, 12 August 2026)
- Present in the zone file 21,355 names, about 80%
- Document Requirement No documents are required to register a .institute domain
- Character Length 1 - 63 characters
- Registration Period 1 - 10 years
- Name Server Count 2 - 10 servers
Related Domain Extensions
Registering the same name on more than one extension keeps someone else from taking your brand.
.institute 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
$8.99 /year -
Transfer
$27.29 /year -
Renewal
$29.39 /year -
Restore
$114.90 -
Late Renewal
$4.68
Included With Every .institute 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.
.institute Domain Lifecycle
What happens day by day after it expires
Day 0 is the domain's expiry dateIn short: your .institute 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 .institute 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 .institute 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 $4.68 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 .institute 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
.institute Domain Specifications and Registration Rules
Registration conditions, supported features and the registry's own timelines in a single table.
.institute Domain Registration
- Document Requirement No documents are required to register a .institute domain
- Character Length 1 - 63 characters
- Registration Period 1 - 10 years
- Name Server Count 2 - 10 servers
.institute Domain Support
- IDN Support Yes
- Transfer Support Yes
- Late Renewal Support Yes
Frequently Asked Questions About .institute Domains
The questions people actually ask before registering — answered plainly.
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No; the agreement expressly forbids identity-based eligibility limits.
No proof of incorporation, accreditation or teaching permit is requested. The single ending in this operator's portfolio that requires a corporate status form is .ltd. Authority to teach or to conduct research still arises from the law where you operate, and the address is no substitute for it.
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Programme length, who delivers it, who recognises the certificate, and any accreditation number.
Without those four items a visitor cannot judge whether the programme is worth anything. Keeping instructor biographies and the curriculum on separate pages also shortens the decision. If you claim recognition, cite the source rather than leaving the claim standing alone.
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Pick .institute to foreground the organisation, .education to foreground the teaching.
The first carries connotations of research and expertise; the second describes courses and learning. If your body does both, try each and see which keeps your root shorter; the .education page suits that comparison.
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21,355 of 26,786 registrations appear in the zone file, roughly 80 percent.
The high ratio shows names in genuine use. Single-word names will mostly read as taken, while combinations adding a discipline or a city remain open. You can test a candidate list together through bulk domain name search.
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You can; an authorisation code is enough and the operator requests no extra documents.
A frequent problem in research bodies is a name taken in a researcher's own name during a project, so the registration leaves with the person. Check the ownership through whois search before the move and switch the contact address to an institutional one.
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