The .kiwi Domain: An Ending That Carries New Zealand
.kiwi was recorded in the root zone on 25 November 2013 under an ICANN registry agreement dated 20 September 2013, and the operator is Auckland based DOT KIWI LIMITED. Kiwi is the word New Zealanders use for themselves, so the ending speaks of belonging rather than of territory. The nTLDstats page accessed on 12 August 2026 shows 14,750 registrations, of which 12,374 sit in the zone file.
New Zealand businesses, expatriates abroad, tourism and agriculture projects and services aimed at the country all use the name. Registry policy sets no residency, citizenship or local-connection condition. Try candidates through a .kiwi domain search, and compare the .koeln page, which belongs to the same class of endings.
Specification 11 §4(a) says something different here than it does across most sibling endings. There the clause is an open registration promise; in this zone it is an acceptable use policy promise: the operator undertakes to run a robust abuse-mitigation process and to publish an enforceable policy that binds registrants. The practical difference is this: nobody examines who you are, but what the name is used for can be examined. You may register without any tie to New Zealand; using the zone for misleading or unlawful activity is a separate matter entirely.
.KIWI Domain at a Glance
- Sponsoring organisation DOT KIWI LIMITED
- Infrastructure provider CIRA (Canadian Internet Registration Authority)
- ICANN registry agreement 20 September 2013
- Root zone record 25 November 2013
- Registered domains 14,750 (nTLDstats, 12 August 2026)
- Present in the zone file 12,374 names, about 84%
- Document Requirement No documents are required to register a .kiwi domain
- Character Length 3 - 63 characters
- Registration Period 1 - 10 years
- Name Server Count 2 - 10 servers
.kiwi 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
$31.30 /year -
Transfer
$31.32 /year -
Renewal
$34.45 /year -
Restore
$121.96 -
Late Renewal
$6.89
Included With Every .kiwi 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.
.kiwi Domain Lifecycle
What happens day by day after it expires
Day 0 is the domain's expiry dateIn short: your .kiwi 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 .kiwi 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 .kiwi 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 $6.89 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 .kiwi 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
.kiwi Domain Specifications and Registration Rules
Registration conditions, supported features and the registry's own timelines in a single table.
.kiwi Domain Registration
- Document Requirement No documents are required to register a .kiwi domain
- Character Length 3 - 63 characters
- Registration Period 1 - 10 years
- Name Server Count 2 - 10 servers
.kiwi Domain Support
- IDN Support Yes
- Transfer Support Yes
- Late Renewal Support Yes
Frequently Asked Questions About .kiwi Domains
The questions people actually ask before registering — answered plainly.
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No. Registry policy sets no residency, citizenship or local-connection condition.
The Registrant Agreement refers only to eligibility criteria prescribed in the registry policies, and those policies prescribe none. The word does carry a strong sense of belonging, though: a visitor expects something connected to New Zealand behind it. If you have no such connection, ask early what the ending is adding for you.
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The operator undertook in its agreement to publish an acceptable use policy binding on registrants and to run a process that mitigates abuse.
That means conduct is examined, not identity: nobody is asked for documents, but phishing, malware distribution or misleading commercial practice can trigger the process. For an ordinary brochure or shop site it raises no practical obstacle at all.
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Of 14,750 registrations, 12,374 sit in the zone file according to the nTLDstats page accessed on 12 August 2026, roughly 84 percent.
That is a high share among new endings and yields a clear rule: if the short name you want is taken, it is very likely in real use, so waiting for it to lapse is a weak strategy. See who currently holds it through whois search.
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Yes. The zone follows the standard gTLD transfer rules.
Lift the lock, obtain the authorisation code, then open the request at the receiving provider. Time zones work in your favour here: approval messages often arrive overnight, so starting the move at the beginning of a working day shortens the wait. Run the process from the domain transfer page.
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Any page taking a form, a sign-up or a payment does.
The operator enforces no mandatory HTTPS regime here, so the choice is yours. On tourism and export-facing addresses, however, most visitors arrive from abroad, and a browser warning damages the first impression directly. Review the options on the SSL certificate page.
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