.trade Domain: A Short, General Address for Commerce
The .trade extension entered the root on 6 March 2014; its ICANN agreement is dated 23 January 2014 and the registry operator is Elite Registry Limited, based in Gibraltar. The extension belongs to a sixteen-name portfolio run under the GRS Domains brand. Wholesalers, import and export companies, trading platforms, craft and trade sites and second-hand marketplaces all take names here.
Because the word covers both commerce and a skilled trade, the extension alone does not describe a narrow field, and the root has to do that work. On 14 August 2026, 24,450 of 36,414 registrations appeared in the zone file, so two names in three are live. Sector and region combinations leave a wide field open; compare candidates on the .trade domain search page.
.trade speaks about commerce in general, while .trading sits closer to financial dealing, markets and commodities, and its agreement carries obligations tied to matters such as fair lending and financial disclosure. The two answer to different registry operators. The decision rule: choose .trade if you buy and sell physical goods, and .trading if you publish trading or investment material.
.TRADE Domain at a Glance
- Registry operator Elite Registry Limited (Gibraltar)
- Root zone entry 6 March 2014
- Eligibility None; no trade register entry or professional document is requested
- Portfolio One of sixteen extensions run under the GRS Domains brand
- Zone size 36,414 registrations, 24,450 live (14 August 2026)
- Document Requirement No documents are required to register a .trade domain
- Character Length 1 - 63 characters
- Registration Period 1 - 10 years
- Name Server Count 2 - 10 servers
.trade 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
$30.01 /year -
Renewal
$35.01 /year -
Restore
$134.90 -
Late Renewal
$7.00
Included With Every .trade 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.
.trade Domain Lifecycle
What happens day by day after it expires
Day 0 is the domain's expiry dateIn short: your .trade 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 .trade 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 .trade 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 .trade 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
.trade Domain Specifications and Registration Rules
Registration conditions, supported features and the registry's own timelines in a single table.
.trade Domain Registration
- Document Requirement No documents are required to register a .trade domain
- Character Length 1 - 63 characters
- Registration Period 1 - 10 years
- Name Server Count 2 - 10 servers
.trade Domain Support
- IDN Support Yes
- Transfer Support Yes
- Late Renewal Support Yes
Frequently Asked Questions About .trade Domains
The questions people actually ask before registering — answered plainly.
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Their meaning and their operators both differ. The .trade zone speaks about commerce in general and belongs to Elite Registry Limited, while .trading sits closer to financial dealing and belongs to Dog Beach, LLC. Their agreements differ too, since .trading spells out financial disclosure and consumer protection duties. Pick the first for physical goods and the second for investment or market content; you can review the second zone on the .trading domain search page.
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None is required. The agreement is of the base type and carries no eligibility condition, so a company, tax registration or professional document is never requested. That does not remove your commercial duties, because the law of the country where you sell arises from the activity and does not change with the domain. To reassure corporate buyers, publish your company details plainly on the site.
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The Gibraltar-based group runs sixteen extensions under the GRS Domains brand. The family includes names such as .accountant, .bid, .cricket, .date, .download, .faith, .science and .stream. Sitting under one group means shared technical infrastructure, yet each extension keeps its own agreement and its own size, so a rule that applies to one does not carry over automatically.
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Two thirds of it. On 14 August 2026, 24,450 of 36,414 registrations appeared in the zone file, close to sixty-seven percent. The remainder consists of parked names and names not yet put into service. The reading is straightforward: the zone has moderate density, some short roots are taken, and sector combinations stay open. Test candidates together with bulk domain name search.
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It does, because the word is understood directly across international markets. For a company publishing its catalogue in several languages, the address needs no further explanation. Compared with a country extension its advantage is neutrality and its drawback is local familiarity. The decision rule: sell into one market and use that country's extension, sell into several and this one works better.
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