The .ltd Domain: The Limited Company Abbreviation Itself
.ltd has been delegated in the root zone since 23 September 2015 under an ICANN registry agreement dated 25 September 2014, and the contracting party today is Binky Moon, LLC. The abbreviation marks a limited company in the British commercial tradition and is recognised well beyond it. The nTLDstats page accessed on 28 October 2026 shows 119,573 registrations, of which 112,985 sit in the zone file.
Limited companies, import and export firms, engineering and contracting practices, family businesses, consultancies and organisations opening branches abroad all use the zone. Because the abbreviation sets a corporate tone, it reads comfortably in commercial correspondence. Try candidates through a .ltd domain search, and compare the .llc page.
This ending carries a notable contractual combination. On one side sit regulated-sector commitments: the registrar must obtain the registrant's declaration of holding the authorisations, charter and licences required. On the other sits an open registration commitment: because the string counts as a dictionary term, the operator may not impose eligibility limits based on identity. Together they mean nobody asks you to upload incorporation papers, and nothing blocks a registrant who is not a limited company; but you carry the accuracy of what you declare. The address proves no company status.
.LTD Domain at a Glance
- Sponsoring organisation Binky Moon, LLC
- Infrastructure provider Identity Digital Inc.
- ICANN registry agreement 25 September 2014
- Root zone record 23 September 2015
- Registered domains 119,573 (nTLDstats, 28 October 2026)
- Present in the zone file 112,985 names, about 94%
- Document Requirement No documents are required to register a .ltd domain
- Character Length 1 - 63 characters
- Registration Period 1 - 10 years
- Name Server Count 2 - 13 servers
Related Domain Extensions
Registering the same name on more than one extension keeps someone else from taking your brand.
.ltd 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
$10.99 /year -
Transfer
$31.19 /year -
Renewal
$33.59 /year -
Restore
$119.90 -
Late Renewal Surcharge
+$4.97 on top of the renewal fee
Included With Every .ltd 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.
.ltd Domain Lifecycle
What happens day by day after it expires
Day 0 is the domain's expiry dateIn short: your .ltd 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 .ltd 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 .ltd 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 $4.97 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 .ltd 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
.ltd Domain Specifications and Registration Rules
Registration conditions, supported features and the registry's own timelines in a single table.
.ltd Domain Registration
- Document Requirement No documents are required to register a .ltd domain
- Character Length 1 - 63 characters
- Registration Period 1 - 10 years
- Name Server Count 2 - 13 servers
.ltd Domain Support
- IDN Support Yes
- Transfer Support Yes
- Late Renewal Support Yes
Frequently Asked Questions About .ltd Domains
The questions people actually ask before registering — answered plainly.
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No. The operator may not impose eligibility limits based on identity.
The agreement treats the string as a dictionary term and carries an open registration commitment, so sole traders and associations register on identical terms. The registrar does, however, take your declaration that you hold the authorisations and charter documents your sector requires, and the accuracy of that statement rests with you.
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No. The process rests on a declaration rather than on documents.
Even the one TLD-specific form the operator publishes for this ending is addressed not to registrants but to a government authority: where a question arises about organisational status, the relevant body uses that form to notify the registry. Verification therefore runs through an administrative channel when needed, not through the checkout screen.
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It does not. A domain is a registration record, not a company certificate.
Because no status verification happens at application, the address produces no legal effect of its own. If you present a claim resting on limited liability, publish your company number, tax details and service address on the page; in most jurisdictions that disclosure is already a legal duty.
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Only a search shows which names are free; patterns joining a brand name to the abbreviation are a place to start.
Of 119,573 registrations, 112,985 sit in the zone file, which shows that names are delegated to name servers, not that free names remain. Run your pattern list in one pass through the bulk domain name search.
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Lift the lock, obtain the authorisation code, then open the request at the new provider.
With corporate addresses the recurring problem is that the named contact has left and the approval message reaches a closed mailbox. Before you begin, point the registration contact at a shared company mailbox rather than an individual. Run the process from the domain transfer page.
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Type a name and see in seconds whether it is free on .ltd. If it is taken, we list close alternatives right away.
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