The .porn Domain: Usage Rules Written Into the Contract
The .porn domain entered the root zone on 26 November 2014 under an ICANN agreement dated 16 October 2014, with ICM Registry PN LLC as contracting party. The registry operates it alongside .xxx, .adult and .sex under a single set of policies it labels the Adult TLDs. On 13 August 2026 the zone held 8,851 registrations and 7,717 of them appeared in the zone file.
There is no eligibility condition for registration: no sector credential and no identity verification are requested. What sets this zone apart is that its usage rules are written directly into the ICANN agreement, and they are the most extensive set found anywhere in this programme. Test candidates in .porn domain search and compare the sibling extension on the .adult page.
The agreement obliges the registry through three concrete mechanisms. It had to build a proprietary child protection keyword list before launch and reserve those labels from registration, it must run that list against the entire zone file every quarter, and it must report matching names to child safety hotlines such as NCMEC, the IWF and INHOPE. Registrants are additionally taken to have consented to their sites being labelled for child protection purposes, and the registry operates an abuse point of contact with a public reporting form.
.PORN Domain at a Glance
- Registry operator ICM Registry PN LLC
- Root zone entry 26 November 2014
- Eligibility None — the constraint attaches to use, not to identity
- Zone size 8,851 registrations, 7,717 in the zone file (nTLDstats, 13 August 2026)
- Document Requirement No documents are required to register a .porn domain
- Character Length 1 - 63 characters
- Registration Period 1 - 10 years
- Name Server Count 2 - 10 servers
.porn 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
$109.90 /year -
Transfer
$110.49 /year -
Renewal
$118.99 /year -
Restore
$331.50 -
Late Renewal
$19.80
Included With Every .porn 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.
.porn Domain Lifecycle
What happens day by day after it expires
Day 0 is the domain's expiry dateIn short: your .porn 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 .porn 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 .porn 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 $19.80 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 .porn 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
.porn Domain Specifications and Registration Rules
Registration conditions, supported features and the registry's own timelines in a single table.
.porn Domain Registration
- Document Requirement No documents are required to register a .porn domain
- Character Length 1 - 63 characters
- Registration Period 1 - 10 years
- Name Server Count 2 - 10 servers
.porn Domain Support
- IDN Support Yes
- Transfer Support Yes
- Late Renewal Support Yes
Frequently Asked Questions About .porn Domains
The questions people actually ask before registering — answered plainly.
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You need not. The registry requests no identity or trading document and allocates names first come, first served, which is why companies also hold names here purely to protect a brand. The usage rules, by contrast, are written into the contract, and registering means accepting them. Try candidates in .porn domain search.
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The registry's acceptable use policy imposes duties under four headings: keeping registration data accurate and current, an absolute prohibition on child abuse images and on labels designed to suggest their presence, a prohibition on names that infringe trademarks or are obvious variants of well-known marks, and a prohibition on malicious use such as phishing or spam. Breach allows the registry to suspend the name.
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Where your brand operates outside this sector, the practice is common, and the zone's 87 per cent publication rate partly reflects it: most names here are attached to something. The decision rule is this: if misuse of your brand name in this zone would create reputational risk, holding it is reasonable; if it would not, it is an avoidable cost. Check a holder via whois search.
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In policy terms there is none. The registry publishes one rulebook covering .porn, .xxx, .adult and .sex, and applies identical obligations to all four. The differences that remain are zone size and the register the word itself carries. To judge which suits your address better, compare the .adult page.
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Any page carrying an age check, a member login or a payment step needs a certificate, because identity and card details pass through those fields. An age gate served without one both triggers a browser warning and is indefensible in data protection terms, since the visitor is asked to disclose something before any encryption exists. Review the options on the SSL certificate page.
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The name must be unlocked, you need the authorisation code from your current registrar, and the contact address on the record has to work. No document request specific to this extension applies. One point deserves attention: accuracy of registration data is a material contractual duty in this zone, so update the details on the record before you begin. Start at the domain transfer page.
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