The .krd Domain: The Kurdistan Region's Official Namespace
.krd was recorded in the root zone on 10 July 2014 under an ICANN registry agreement dated 5 December 2013, and the operator is a public authority in its own right: the Kurdistan Regional Government's Department of Information Technology in Erbil. The nTLDstats page accessed on 12 August 2026 shows 2,664 registrations, of which 1,966 sit in the zone file.
The registry states its purpose plainly in its own registration policy: to promote the region, to offer an online space that develops its culture and language, and to build a namespace representing Kurdish people inside the region and abroad. That purpose becomes an eligibility condition. Try candidates through a .krd domain search, and compare the .kiwi page, which carries no nexus condition.
The registry's registration policy asks an applicant to satisfy one of two criteria. Criterion A covers being, or representing, an educational institution or service that operates in the region or that teaches, promotes, researches or records its people, language, culture or history. Criterion B applies to commercial entities: being in good standing in the jurisdiction of registration, holding the rights to any trademark used in the name, and either operating in the region or serving its people and culture. In both cases evidence must reach the registry within fourteen days of the application. The name must also be used in support of the extension's purpose, and control of it may not be sold on to a third party. Prepare the evidence before you apply; missing the window puts the registration at risk.
.KRD Domain at a Glance
- Sponsoring organisation KRG Department of Information Technology
- ICANN registry agreement 5 December 2013
- Root zone record 10 July 2014
- Eligibility requirement Yes; Criterion A or B plus evidence within 14 days
- Registered domains 2,664 (nTLDstats, 12 August 2026)
- Present in the zone file 1,966 names, about 74%
- Document Requirement No documents are required to register a .krd domain
- Character Length 1 - 63 characters
- Registration Period 1 - 10 years
- Name Server Count 2 - 10 servers
.krd 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
$49.90 /year -
Transfer
$49.99 /year -
Renewal
$65.99 /year -
Restore
$95.90
Included With Every .krd 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.
.krd Domain Lifecycle
What happens day by day after it expires
Day 0 is the domain's expiry dateIn short: your .krd 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 .krd 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 .krd 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 .krd 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
.krd Domain Specifications and Registration Rules
Registration conditions, supported features and the registry's own timelines in a single table.
.krd Domain Registration
- Document Requirement No documents are required to register a .krd domain
- Character Length 1 - 63 characters
- Registration Period 1 - 10 years
- Name Server Count 2 - 10 servers
.krd Domain Support
- IDN Support No
- Transfer Support Yes
- Late Renewal Support No
Frequently Asked Questions About .krd Domains
The questions people actually ask before registering — answered plainly.
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The registry defines two criteria and an applicant must satisfy one of them.
The first covers educational institutions and services: operating in the region, or teaching, promoting, researching or recording its people, language, culture or history. The second covers commercial entities: being in good standing in their own jurisdiction and either operating in the region or serving its people and culture. Purely personal pages fall outside both criteria.
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Evidence must reach the registry's registered address within fourteen days of the application.
The process therefore does not end at registration; if the proof arrives late, the name is at risk. Decide before you apply which document you will send: a company register extract is typical for commercial entities, an institutional letter on the education side. Put both the application date and the deadline in your calendar at the same time.
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No. The registry's policy permits only the letters a-z, the digits 0-9 and the hyphen.
Internationalised characters are therefore not accepted in this zone, and the tables published by IANA agree with that position. Names must be written using the basic Latin alphabet. Hyphens are allowed, but a name may neither begin nor end with one.
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The registry's policy takes an undertaking that control of the name will not be sold, distributed or transferred to a third party.
This zone is therefore unsuited to buying for investment or resale. Registering a name for your own activity raises no issue, but building a portfolio conflicts with the undertaking you give. You can inspect the registration record of an existing name through whois search.
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There are 2,664 registrations and 1,966 of them sit in the zone file according to the nTLDstats page accessed on 12 August 2026, roughly 74 percent.
The zone is small because the eligibility condition draws a natural boundary, yet the published share is high, meaning most registered names are genuinely in use. The practical consequence: short descriptive stems remain largely free and competition is low. Test a shortlist quickly through the bulk domain name search.
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