The .rest Domain: Four Letters, Three Separate Readings
The .rest domain entered the root zone on 6 March 2014 under an ICANN agreement dated 20 December 2013, and its registry operator is Punto 2012 S.A.P.I. de C.V. of Mexico. The same company also runs .bar. On 13 August 2026 the zone held 225,287 registrations, of which 102,136 appeared in the zone file.
A four-letter stem has grown this zone unusually large: the registration count sits above almost every extension in its category. Restaurants, café chains, rest and hospitality projects and software teams all appear among the registrants. Try your candidates in .rest domain search and settle the meaning before you settle the name.
In Spanish and English the string reads as short for restaurante or restaurant. On its own in English it means to rest. In software it is the name of the REST interface style. That the registry also operates .bar supports the first reading, yet the address alone will not tell a visitor which one you intend. The rule is straightforward: let the stem state the business and let the extension supply only the frame.
.REST Domain at a Glance
- Registry operator Punto 2012 S.A.P.I. de C.V. (Mexico)
- Root zone entry 6 March 2014
- Sibling extension The same registry operator also runs .bar
- Zone size 225,287 registrations, 102,136 in the zone file (nTLDstats, 13 August 2026)
- Document Requirement No documents are required to register a .rest domain
- Character Length 3 - 63 characters
- Registration Period 1 - 10 years
- Name Server Count 2 - 10 servers
.rest 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
$1.99 /year -
Transfer
$41.50 /year -
Renewal
$45.65 /year -
Restore
$109.90 -
Late Renewal
$9.13
Included With Every .rest 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.
.rest Domain Lifecycle
What happens day by day after it expires
Day 0 is the domain's expiry dateIn short: your .rest 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 .rest 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 .rest 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 $9.13 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 .rest 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
.rest Domain Specifications and Registration Rules
Registration conditions, supported features and the registry's own timelines in a single table.
.rest Domain Registration
- Document Requirement No documents are required to register a .rest domain
- Character Length 3 - 63 characters
- Registration Period 1 - 10 years
- Name Server Count 2 - 10 servers
.rest Domain Support
- IDN Support Yes
- Transfer Support Yes
- Late Renewal Support Yes
Frequently Asked Questions About .rest Domains
The questions people actually ask before registering — answered plainly.
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The registry also operating .bar supports that reading, but the agreement imposes no sector restriction and no eligibility test applies. The word also means to rest in English and evokes the REST interface style among developers. The stem therefore has to settle what you do. Try your candidates on the .rest search page once you have chosen which reading you want.
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The difference is both corporate and one of scale. The registry operator for .rest is Punto 2012 in Mexico, while .restaurant belongs to Binky Moon, LLC in the United States, and the two run under separate agreements. Their zones differ in size by a factor above twenty. In meaning, .restaurant reads one way while .rest reads three. Compare them on the .restaurant page.
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On 13 August 2026 the zone held 225,287 registrations, above almost every extension in its category. Length explains most of it: a four-letter stem reads in several languages and attracts anyone hunting for a short address. Against that, only 102,136 names appear in the zone file, a rate of forty-five per cent. Short names look taken while most of them have no working site behind them.
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No. The agreement carries the standard public interest commitments and forbids limiting a generic-string extension to a single person or company. No trading licence, food register entry or tourism permit is requested. Serving food is regulated in its own right, of course, but those duties follow from the activity itself, and registering an address neither creates them nor removes them.
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Remove the lock, request the authorisation code and start the transfer at the gaining registrar. With restaurant addresses the usual obstacle is that the record sits in the account of a booking platform or a menu-app supplier. Confirm you can read mail sent to the address on file first. Run the process from the domain transfer page and inspect the record with whois search.
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