The .science Domain: For Research and Science Communication
The .science domain entered the root zone on 23 October 2014 under an ICANN agreement dated 11 September 2014, and its registry operator is dot Science Limited, incorporated in Gibraltar. The extension forms part of a sixteen-extension portfolio run by the same operator. On 13 August 2026 the zone held 14,299 registrations, 11,699 of them in the zone file.
Research groups, laboratory and institute pages, science communication projects, popular science publications and data archives make up the register. There is no eligibility requirement: no academic title, institutional affiliation or publication record is asked for. Try candidates in .science domain search, and look at the .education page for teaching-led projects.
The registry performs no academic verification in this extension: the agreement carries only the general commitments and sets no eligibility condition. The word in an address therefore says nothing about whether the content behind it is scientific. For readers the rule is simple: look for sources, method and affiliation on the page itself, not in the address. For authors it follows that transparency has to be built into the text.
.SCIENCE Domain at a Glance
- Registry operator dot Science Limited (Gibraltar)
- Root zone entry 23 October 2014
- Eligibility None; no academic title or affiliation is verified
- Zone size 14,299 registrations, 11,699 in the zone file (nTLDstats, 13 August 2026)
- Document Requirement No documents are required to register a .science domain
- Character Length 1 - 63 characters
- Registration Period 1 - 10 years
- Name Server Count 2 - 10 servers
.science 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
$29.99 /year -
Transfer
$29.99 /year -
Renewal
$34.99 /year -
Late Renewal
$7.00
Included With Every .science 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.
.science Domain Lifecycle
What happens day by day after it expires
Day 0 is the domain's expiry dateIn short: your .science 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 .science 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 .science 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 $7.00 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 .science 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
.science Domain Specifications and Registration Rules
Registration conditions, supported features and the registry's own timelines in a single table.
.science Domain Registration
- Document Requirement No documents are required to register a .science domain
- Character Length 1 - 63 characters
- Registration Period 1 - 10 years
- Name Server Count 2 - 10 servers
.science Domain Support
- IDN Support Yes
- Transfer Support Yes
- Late Renewal Support Yes
Frequently Asked Questions About .science Domains
The questions people actually ask before registering — answered plainly.
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No, no title or institutional affiliation is requested. The extension's agreement carries only the general commitments in Specification 11 and sets no eligibility condition. This is why independent science communicators, student societies and museums can register too. Try candidates on the .science search page.
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No, and that distinction deserves to be stated plainly to readers. The extension names a subject area; it does not certify method, peer review or institutional backing. Trust is built on the page itself, through a source list, data access, author information and a corrections policy. The address only helps a visitor grasp the topic at first glance.
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Look at where the work's centre of gravity sits. If you conduct research, publish data or do science communication, the first sets the frame correctly. If you teach, deliver a curriculum or run a certificate programme, .education meets the expectation better. The two belong to different registry operators and their zones are independent.
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On 13 August 2026 the zone held 14,299 registrations with 11,699 in the zone file, roughly eighty-two per cent. That high share shows a zone in genuine use. Since the zone is mid-sized, adding a discipline name to your stem both improves availability and tells a visitor immediately what the site covers.
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Lift the lock, request the authorisation code and open the request at the gaining registrar. In research projects the address often sits in an assistant's account for the duration of a grant, and access disappears when the project closes; tie the record to an institutional mailbox. Run the process from the domain transfer page and check it with whois search.
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