The .life Domain: A Broad Word and a Crowded Zone
.life entered the root zone on 8 May 2014 under an ICANN registry agreement dated 6 February 2014, and the contracting party today is Binky Moon, LLC. Because the word covers so much ground, the ending has spread across very different fields. The nTLDstats page accessed on 12 August 2026 shows 777,898 registrations, of which 436,905 sit in the zone file.
Health and wellbeing projects, coaching and advisory services, insurance and pension products, community and faith groups, personal blogs and portfolios all use the zone. No eligibility condition applies and no documents are requested. Try candidates through a .life domain search, and compare the similarly broad .care page.
At 777,898 registrations this is the largest zone in the group, and the size dictates a working method. Common single-word stems should be treated as exhausted in practice; rather than spending time on them, move to the brand plus service pattern. At the same time the count present in the zone file stops at 436,905, meaning roughly half the registered names never went live. Read together, the two figures say the zone is crowded but not exhausted. Real room remains in two-word descriptive patterns, and your chance of finding the name you want rises noticeably the moment you stop insisting on a short single word.
.LIFE Domain at a Glance
- Sponsoring organisation Binky Moon, LLC
- Infrastructure provider Identity Digital Inc.
- ICANN registry agreement 6 February 2014
- Root zone record 8 May 2014
- Registered domains 777,898 (nTLDstats, 12 August 2026)
- Present in the zone file 436,905 names, about 56%
- Document Requirement No documents are required to register a .life domain
- Character Length 1 - 63 characters
- Registration Period 1 - 10 years
- Name Server Count 2 - 10 servers
.life 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.
-
New Registration
$2.99 /year -
Transfer
$36.39 /year -
Renewal
$39.19 /year -
Restore
$129.90 -
Late Renewal
$6.73
Included With Every .life Domain
-
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.
-
Domain lock
While the lock is on, nobody can move your domain to another registrar without your approval.
-
Domain forwarding
Point the domain at your existing site, a campaign page or a social profile — at no extra cost.
-
Free WHOIS privacy
Your name, address and phone stay out of public WHOIS records, which cuts down spam and scam calls.
.life Domain Lifecycle
What happens day by day after it expires
Day 0 is the domain's expiry dateIn short: your .life 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 .life 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 .life 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 $6.73 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 .life 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
.life Domain Specifications and Registration Rules
Registration conditions, supported features and the registry's own timelines in a single table.
.life Domain Registration
- Document Requirement No documents are required to register a .life domain
- Character Length 1 - 63 characters
- Registration Period 1 - 10 years
- Name Server Count 2 - 10 servers
.life Domain Support
- IDN Support Yes
- Transfer Support Yes
- Late Renewal Support Yes
Frequently Asked Questions About .life Domains
The questions people actually ask before registering — answered plainly.
-
Because the word covers so much, the zone stays open to very different work.
Health and wellbeing projects, coaching, insurance and pension products, community groups and personal pages all sit in the same zone. No eligibility condition or document is required. That breadth looks like an advantage but carries a risk: the address alone does not say what you do, so the stem has to make the subject clear.
-
You can, but you have to change method.
In a zone of 777,898 registrations, trying common single-word stems is time lost. Move to two-word patterns that add a service description to your brand name and the chance of finding something rises markedly. To test several patterns at once, use the bulk domain name search.
-
Of 777,898 registrations, 436,905 sit in the zone file according to the nTLDstats page accessed on 12 August 2026, roughly 56 percent.
Part of the unpublished names were taken for brand protection, part are being held for later use or kept for resale. What that means for you: if the name you want does not load, do not assume it is free, because registration is likely. Confirm the position through whois search.
-
You may, but the duty arises from your activity rather than from the domain.
The operator performs no licence or authorisation check in this zone. If you offer a regulated product, the permissions you need come from your own sector rules, and the address neither provides nor replaces them. Publishing your authority and company details clearly on the page is both a legal and a practical requirement.
-
Yes. The zone follows the standard gTLD transfer rules.
Lift the lock, obtain the authorisation code, then open the request at the receiving provider. On personal projects the frequent problem is an old registration email nobody reads any more: the approval message lands there and the process stalls silently. Update your contact address, then continue from the domain transfer page.
Ready to Claim Your .life Domain?
Type a name and see in seconds whether it is free on .life. If it is taken, we list close alternatives right away.
Get Help for .life Domain Registration
Need help registering a .life domain? Our team is ready to assist.