.museum Domain: A Contract-Bound Ending for the Museum Community
.museum entered the root zone on 20 October 2001 and is among the oldest extensions in this catalogue. The ICANN agreement in force is dated 11 March 2025 and its type is Community (Specification 12), Non-Sponsored, meaning the extension is reserved to the international museum community by the contract itself. The contracting party is the Museum Domain Management Association, housed with the International Council of Museums in Paris.
Museums, museum associations, collection and archive projects, exhibition sites and people working in the field all register here. The extension stands apart from the other endings in this group: eligibility is a genuine requirement, and the section below sets out who is covered. Try candidates on the .museum domain search screen, and see the .gallery page for exhibition and art projects.
Eligibility rests on the definition of a museum in the statutes of the International Council of Museums, and that definition is not confined to a classical museum building. The contract text also counts botanical and zoological gardens, aquaria, science centres, planetaria, non-profit art galleries, nature reserves, archaeological and ethnographic sites, and cultural heritage institutions as museums. Registration is further open to professional associations of museums, to individuals with an interest or a link to the museum profession, and to bona fide museum users. So do not assume you fall outside because your institution has no museum in its name — read the definition first.
View required documents →
.MUSEUM Domain at a Glance
- Registry operator Museum Domain Management Association (Paris)
- Root zone entry 20 October 2001
- Agreement type Community (Specification 12), Non-Sponsored — 11 March 2025
- Eligibility Required; tied to the museum definition in the ICOM statutes
- Document Requirement View required documents
- Character Length 3 - 63 characters
- Registration Period 1 - 10 years
- Name Server Count 2 - 10 servers
.museum 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
$79.00 /year -
Transfer
$79.00 /year -
Renewal
$97.90 /year -
Restore
$119.90
Included With Every .museum 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.
.museum Domain Lifecycle
What happens day by day after it expires
Day 0 is the domain's expiry dateIn short: your .museum 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 .museum 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 .museum 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 .museum 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
.museum Domain Specifications and Registration Rules
Registration conditions, supported features and the registry's own timelines in a single table.
.museum Domain Registration
- Document Requirement View required documents
- Character Length 3 - 63 characters
- Registration Period 1 - 10 years
- Name Server Count 2 - 10 servers
.museum Domain Support
- IDN Support No
- Transfer Support Yes
- Late Renewal Support No
Documents Required for a .museum Domain
Frequently Asked Questions About .museum Domains
The questions people actually ask before registering — answered plainly.
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If it meets the definition, yes. Eligibility is not confined to institutional museums: professional associations of museums, individuals with an interest or a link to the museum profession, and bona fide museum users are all covered. Non-profit exhibition spaces and heritage institutions fall inside the definition as well. Check whether a name is free on the .museum search page.
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No — the registry prohibits that expressly. The Registration Policy forbids using a name for the sole purpose of selling, reselling or otherwise transferring it, and separately closes off offering third-level registrations to others as a commercial registry-type service. The same policy requires the use to serve the interests of the international museum community and to rest on good faith. Together those rules shut the zone to investment registration.
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The registry may refuse, suspend or delete a name whose holder no longer meets the eligibility criteria, and its decision can be challenged through the eligibility dispute procedure. Where a compliance shortcoming is found instead, you are contacted first; if it is not resolved within 30 days the name is suspended for at least 30 days, during which a separate reconsideration procedure runs. Keeping the contact record current is therefore critical.
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The registry's Registration Policy accepts digits, letters, hyphens and the characters of the Latin script table, while excluding accented and special characters. If your institution's name carries an accent, register the plain spelling — that is what a visitor is most likely to type anyway. To test the variants together, use the bulk domain search screen.
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Yes, the extension follows gTLD transfer rules. Obtain the authorisation code, lift the transfer lock and start the request at the new registrar; confirm in advance that the gaining provider carries this extension, because the choice can be narrow. Check the registrant record via whois search and begin at the domain transfer page.
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Two policy limits apply. The Registration Policy requires that the use not damage the image of the museum community, and that it not run contrary to the ICOM Code of Ethics for Museums. In practice that means stating object credits and rights status clearly, and settling permissions before publishing high-resolution images. Because those images make pages heavy, choose hosting accordingly — the options are on the hosting page.
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