The .pet Domain: A Short Ending for the Animal World
The .pet domain entered the root zone on 16 July 2015 under an ICANN agreement dated 7 May 2015, the youngest contract among the twenty extensions examined in this batch. Delegation originally ran to Afilias plc, while the present contracting party is Identity Digital Limited. The zone holds 38,395 registrations with 19,807 of them in the zone file.
Veterinary clinics, pet shops, food and accessory brands, grooming and boarding services, shelters and adoption projects make up the registrant base. No veterinary licence or trading permit is requested. Try candidates in .pet domain search and compare a species-specific option on the .dog page.
In some zones a registry gives voluntary commitments beyond the baseline: a promise of open registration, a sector-specific usage rule, or a channel to regulatory bodies. This agreement carries no such list at all, only the baseline public interest commitments applied to every new generation extension. Two consequences follow for a visitor: there is no dedicated oversight mechanism in this zone for animal health or welfare claims, and equally there is no written guarantee of open registration to rely on.
.PET Domain at a Glance
- Registry operator Identity Digital Limited
- Root zone entry 16 July 2015
- Eligibility None — no veterinary licence or trading permit is requested
- Zone size 38,395 registrations, 19,807 in the zone file (nTLDstats, 13 August 2026)
- Document Requirement No documents are required to register a .pet domain
- Character Length 1 - 63 characters
- Registration Period 1 - 10 years
- Name Server Count 2 - 10 servers
.pet 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
$16.90 /year -
Transfer
$25.99 /year -
Renewal
$27.99 /year -
Restore
$109.90 -
Late Renewal
$4.10
Included With Every .pet 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.
.pet Domain Lifecycle
What happens day by day after it expires
Day 0 is the domain's expiry dateIn short: your .pet 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 .pet 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 .pet 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 $4.10 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 .pet 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
.pet Domain Specifications and Registration Rules
Registration conditions, supported features and the registry's own timelines in a single table.
.pet Domain Registration
- Document Requirement No documents are required to register a .pet domain
- Character Length 1 - 63 characters
- Registration Period 1 - 10 years
- Name Server Count 2 - 10 servers
.pet Domain Support
- IDN Support Yes
- Transfer Support Yes
- Late Renewal Support Yes
Frequently Asked Questions About .pet Domains
The questions people actually ask before registering — answered plainly.
-
No professional credential is requested. The agreement contains no identity-based eligibility gate, so a shelter volunteer, a food brand and a clinic all register on identical terms. The reverse also holds: the address does not verify a practice licence for the visitor reading it. Try candidates in .pet domain search.
-
Your service scope decides it. If you work only with dogs, an ending naming the species describes the address more precisely and sits closer to how people search. If you serve cats, dogs, birds and small animals together, this broader ending avoids narrowing your scope unnecessarily. Compare on the .dog page.
-
On 13 August 2026 the zone held 38,395 registrations with 19,807 in the zone file, a share of 52 per cent. Roughly half of the registered names are therefore not attached to a site, which suggests part of the short general vocabulary is being held defensively or for resale. Check a holder record with whois search.
-
The extension neither permits nor forbids anything here, because the agreement carries no zone-specific usage rule. Claims about animal health are governed by the veterinary and consumer law of the country you operate in, and that obligation arises from the activity rather than from the domain name. If you offer a licensed service, state that clearly on the page.
-
It does, and that use is common in the zone. Combined with a city name or a project name, the short ending produces an address people remember after hearing it once. If you collect donations, install a valid certificate before launch; on any page gathering donor details that is the first requirement, not a refinement. See the SSL certificate page.
-
The name has to be unlocked, you need the authorisation code, and the registrant email address must be working so the confirmation reaches you. No additional eligibility review applies to this extension and no document is collected; the process follows the ordinary gTLD flow. Begin on the domain transfer page.
Ready to Claim Your .pet Domain?
Type a name and see in seconds whether it is free on .pet. If it is taken, we list close alternatives right away.
Get Help for .pet Domain Registration
Need help registering a .pet domain? Our team is ready to assist.