.ist Domain: Istanbul's Short City Domain Extension
.ist is one of the two city domain extensions operated by the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality. The registry calls itself the Istanbul Central Registry, and Identity Digital runs the technical back end. The registry agreement signed with ICANN is dated 28 August 2014 and is of the Base, Non-Sponsored type, which means the extension is not a community TLD. Its root zone registration date is 29 May 2015, and the IANA delegation report carries the date 9 July 2015.
The registration policy sets no local presence, residence or business-link condition: clause 3.2.1 gives every applicant the right to request a name that meets the technical requirements, apart from reserved, blocked and locked strings. Outside the Landrush period registrations follow the first come, first served rule, and in General Availability a name can be registered for one to ten years. The price is set not by the registry but by the accredited registrar you choose, and every operation runs through that channel.
The reserved names policy is broad: terms tied to Turkish public bodies, the names of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality and the district municipalities, and the names of the city's historic and cultural sites, parks, squares and neighbourhoods are all held back, while the list of strings blocked for sensitivity is not published. For anyone after the short form, .ist runs under exactly the same registration policy as the long form .istanbul. Try your candidate for both on the domain search page.
.IST Domain at a Glance
- Registry Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality — Istanbul Central Registry
- ICANN agreement 28 August 2014 (Base, Non-Sponsored)
- Root zone registration 29 May 2015
- Technical back end Identity Digital
- Reserved names The municipality and its districts, plus neighbourhood, park and square names
- Document Requirement No documents are required to register a .ist domain
- Country Türkiye
- Character Length 1 - 63 characters
- Registration Period 1 - 10 years
- Name Server Count 2 - 10 servers
Popular Domain Extensions for Türkiye
Registering the same name on more than one extension keeps someone else from taking your brand.
.ist 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
$17.99 /year -
Transfer
$22.01 /year -
Renewal
$23.01 /year -
Restore
$104.90 -
Late Renewal
$4.00
Included With Every .ist 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.
.ist Domain Lifecycle
What happens day by day after it expires
Day 0 is the domain's expiry dateIn short: your .ist 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 .ist 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 .ist 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 $4.00 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 .ist 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
.ist Domain Specifications and Registration Rules
Registration conditions, supported features and the registry's own timelines in a single table.
.ist Domain Registration
- Document Requirement No documents are required to register a .ist domain
- Country Türkiye
- Character Length 1 - 63 characters
- Registration Period 1 - 10 years
- Name Server Count 2 - 10 servers
.ist Domain Support
- IDN Support No
- Transfer Support Yes
- Late Renewal Support Yes
Frequently Asked Questions About .ist Domains
The questions people actually ask before registering — answered plainly.
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Both are operated by the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality and both fall under the same registration policy; the rule text governs the two extensions together. The difference is form: .ist carries the short label of the city and .istanbul carries the full name. The registry presents Istanbul as one of the few cities that hold two domain extensions of their own.
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No. The registration policy sets no local presence, residence or commercial-link condition; clause 3.2.1 gives every applicant the right to request a name that meets the technical requirements, apart from reserved, blocked and locked strings. The registry's own presentation lists its audience as users, businesses, public bodies, associations and entrepreneurs from anywhere in the world.
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No. Clause 3.1.1 of the registration policy states that a label may consist only of letters (a-z, A-Z), digits (0-9) and the hyphen; it must begin and end with a letter or digit, may not begin or end with a hyphen, and may not carry hyphens in the third and fourth positions together. A name containing ç, ğ, ı, ö, ş or ü is therefore not defined in this extension.
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On top of the list ICANN requires, the reserved names policy covers terms tied to the duties and offices of Turkish public bodies and their abbreviations, the names of senior officials and of figures of historical, religious or cultural importance, the names of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, the district municipalities and their subsidiaries, and the city's historic and cultural sites, parks, squares and neighbourhoods. The registry may also hold unallocated names back as premium.
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Clause 3.4 of the registration policy is explicit: the registry is not obliged to notify the holder in advance that the registration is about to expire or has expired. In practice the renewal reminder comes from the registrar serving you. Putting the renewal date in your own calendar is the simplest way to avoid leaving your address hostage to one e-mail going unread.
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No. Clause 3.7 of the registration policy bars the holder from marketing, selling, licensing or sub-licensing to third parties any third-level domains or other subdomains derived from the registered name; subdomains may only be used in connection with operating the registered name itself. If you are planning a business model built on reselling subdomains, this clause is decisive.
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Clause 2.1 of the general dispute resolution policy states that the registry complies with ICANN's Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy (UDRP) and the Uniform Rapid Suspension system (URS). Under clause 3.1 the decisions of Turkish courts and competent administrative authorities are applied; foreign judgments are followed only once recognised and enforced in Türkiye. Separately, under Law No. 5651 the BTK may restrict access.
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