.moe Domain: A Short Ending Out of Japanese Fan Culture
.moe entered the root zone on 13 March 2014 under an ICANN registry agreement dated 13 November 2013, and the agreement was assigned on 19 April 2022. The present contracting party is Interlink Systems Innovation Institute K.K. of Tokyo. The word comes from Japanese fan culture and describes affection for a character. As of 12 August 2026 the zone holds 21,090 registrations, 17,014 of them published.
Anime and manga communities, illustrators, game projects, doujin publications, personal sites and short-link addresses fill this zone. The registry keeps it explicitly open today: in its own words, you do not have to be a certified otaku to register your own .moe. Try candidates on the .moe domain search screen, and see the .nagoya page for another ending run from Japan.
Of 21,090 registered names, 17,014 appear in the zone file. Endings built on a playful word usually score much lower than that; here the opposite is true. The decision rule follows: the short root you like is probably neither free nor for sale, because a working community site sits behind it. Save yourself the search by building the shortlist in two parts from the start — project name plus content type — and treat bare roots as the fallback. An active community also makes it easier to pick up links once your address goes live.
.MOE Domain at a Glance
- Registry operator Interlink Systems Innovation Institute K.K. (Japan)
- Root zone entry 13 March 2014
- Eligibility None; the registry keeps the extension open to everyone
- Zone size 21,090 registrations, 17,014 published (12 August 2026)
- Document Requirement There are no requirements for buying .moe domain registration
- Character Length 2 - 63 characters
- Registration Period 1 - 10 years
- Name Server Count 2 - 10 servers
.moe 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
$25.50 / years -
Transfer
$25.50 / years -
Renewal
$28.05 / years -
Restore
$153.00 -
Late Renewal
$5.61
Included With Every .moe 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.
.moe Domain Lifecycle
Domain lifecycle
The stages in order, from registration to releaseDomain Is Available (Available)
A .moe 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 yours for the term you chose. You can renew at any point before expiry to keep it uninterrupted, or switch on auto-renewal so you never have to watch the date.
Redemption Period (Redemption Period)
The domain is not released the moment it expires — during this window it is still yours and can be recovered. Some extensions charge an extra restore fee at this stage, so renewing before expiry is always the cheaper route.
Pending Delete Period (Pending Delete Period)
If the redemption window is missed too, the domain enters the final stage and waits to be deleted. Renewal and recovery are no longer possible here; when the period ends the registration is removed for good.
Domain Is Available Again
Once deletion completes, the domain leaves the system and anyone can register it — popular names are often taken the same minute by someone watching. Keep auto-renewal on so a name you care about never gets this far.
.moe Domain Specifications and Registration Rules
Registration conditions, supported features and the registry's own timelines in a single table.
.moe Domain Registration
- Document Requirement There are no requirements for buying .moe domain registration
- Character Length 2 - 63 characters
- Registration Period 1 - 10 years
- Name Server Count 2 - 10 servers
.moe Domain Support
- IDN Support Yes
- Transfer Support Yes
- Late Renewal Support Yes
.moe Domain Registration Periods
- Registration Periods 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 years
- Renewal Periods 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 years
- Pre-registration 1 days
- Accounting Period 45 days
- Finalization Period 1 days
- Failure Period 45 days
- Payment Period 45 days
- Redemption Period 30 days
- Deletion Hold Period 30 days
- Renewal Time 30 Day
Frequently Asked Questions About .moe Domains
The questions people actually ask before registering — answered plainly.
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No. The registry is based in Tokyo, but the extension sets no residence, nationality or activity test; the registry describes it as intended for broad use by individuals, organisations and businesses. The origin of the word is Japanese, not a restriction. Check whether a name is free on the .moe search page.
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Yes, the registry permits them. Its registration terms allow internationalised domain names explicitly and define the accepted spelling in their own document. Which languages are open in practice is reported by your registrar during the availability check. If you take an internationalised name, register the plain Latin equivalent alongside it — email and advertising systems do not behave identically everywhere. Test the variants together on the bulk domain search screen.
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Two characters is the floor. The registry's registration terms set that minimum and a maximum of 63; a name may not begin with a hyphen, and it may not carry hyphens in both the third and fourth positions. Most two- and three-letter names have been held for years, so they are not available in practice. If you want something short, combining syllables is a more productive search than chasing bare letters.
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The extension is three letters long, so the full address stays short, and this use is common in the zone. If you operate your own shortener, do not leave an open redirect and review the destinations you serve; otherwise your address collects abuse reports. Links should also be served over HTTPS — certificate options are on the SSL certificate page.
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The extension follows standard gTLD transfer rules. Take the authorisation code from your current provider, lift the transfer lock and start the request at the new one. In community projects the name usually sits in the founder's personal account; if the team has changed, updating the registrant first and transferring second causes fewer problems. Run it from the domain transfer page.
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Community sites take uneven traffic: publishing a new chapter or announcing an event multiplies requests within minutes. Serving static pages from cache, delivering images in a modern format and separating dynamic parts such as comments therefore helps more than adding raw server capacity. Compare the options on the hosting page.
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