The .school Domain: For Schools and Teaching Institutions
The .school domain entered the root zone on 13 February 2015 under an ICANN agreement dated 18 December 2014, and its registry operator is Binky Moon, LLC. On 13 August 2026 the zone held 30,346 registrations, of which 24,243 appeared in the zone file, putting the live share close to eighty per cent.
Private schools from primary to secondary level, language and arts courses, driving schools, vocational training centres and online learning platforms fill the register. There is no eligibility requirement and the registry verifies no accreditation. Try candidates in .school domain search and compare the .schule page for German-speaking markets.
Specification 11 §4(a) of the agreement forbids the registry from setting identity-based eligibility limits. No ministry approval, accreditation or institutional registration is verified at any point. For parents the practical consequence is direct: the word in an address says nothing about whether a school is licensed. Always confirm institutional standing on the register published by the responsible authority.
.SCHOOL Domain at a Glance
- Registry operator Binky Moon, LLC
- Root zone entry 13 February 2015
- Eligibility None; the registry verifies no accreditation or registration
- Zone size 30,346 registrations, 24,243 in the zone file (nTLDstats, 13 August 2026)
- Document Requirement No documents are required to register a .school domain
- Character Length 1 - 63 characters
- Registration Period 1 - 10 years
- Name Server Count 2 - 10 servers
.school 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
$8.99 /year -
Transfer
$36.39 /year -
Renewal
$39.19 /year -
Restore
$129.90 -
Late Renewal
$6.73
Included With Every .school 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.
.school Domain Lifecycle
What happens day by day after it expires
Day 0 is the domain's expiry dateIn short: your .school 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 .school 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 .school 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 $6.73 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 .school 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
.school Domain Specifications and Registration Rules
Registration conditions, supported features and the registry's own timelines in a single table.
.school Domain Registration
- Document Requirement No documents are required to register a .school domain
- Character Length 1 - 63 characters
- Registration Period 1 - 10 years
- Name Server Count 2 - 10 servers
.school Domain Support
- IDN Support Yes
- Transfer Support Yes
- Late Renewal Support Yes
Frequently Asked Questions About .school Domains
The questions people actually ask before registering — answered plainly.
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No. The agreement forbids the registry from setting identity-based eligibility limits, so no ministry approval, accreditation certificate or institutional registration is requested. That is why language courses and online learning projects can register too. The address, however, certifies nothing. Try candidates on the .school search page.
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The difference is language alone. Both belong to the same registry operator and their contractual commitment sets are identical; neither carries an eligibility requirement. Choose according to the language of your audience: for German-speaking markets .schule reads naturally, while the English form suits an international audience better.
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Not on its own, and the distinction matters. The extension states a subject; it does not show that a school is licensed, accredited or inspected. The reliable method for parents is to check institutional standing on the register published by the responsible ministry. What the address contributes is recognition and recall, not oversight.
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On 13 August 2026 the zone held 30,346 registrations with 24,243 in the zone file, roughly eighty per cent. That high share indicates a zone in genuine use. What follows for you: if a short name you want is taken, a working institution stands behind it, so building a two-part name with a city or a subject is more productive.
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Lift the lock, request the authorisation code and open the request at the gaining registrar. In schools the recurring problem is an address left in an IT teacher's personal account, with access lost when roles change; move the record onto an institutional mailbox. Run the process from the domain transfer page and check it with whois search.
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