Domain Lookup
Check domain availability and registration information.
What a lookup shows you
Availability and price
Whether the name is registered at all — and when it's free, the actual registration, renewal, and transfer price for that extension, with the ICANN fee called out separately.
Registrar of record
Who sponsors the domain today and their IANA ID, as reported by the registry. Domains registered with OrbitFour answer from our own records.
Status codes
The EPP statuses that decide whether a domain can be transferred, whether it can be edited, and whether it's on its way back to the available pool.
Dates and nameservers
Registration, last-changed, and expiration dates, plus the nameservers currently answering for the domain.
WHOIS or RDAP?
Both, really. ICANN has retired the WHOIS protocol — registries and registrars are no longer required to answer the old port-43 text service — and RDAP, the Registration Data Access Protocol, is its mandated successor. It returns the same registration data as structured JSON, with sane rate limits and a consistent shape across every registry.
This page is still called WHOIS because that's what everyone calls it. Underneath, a domain OrbitFour sponsors answers from our own registration records, and every other domain is looked up live against its registry's RDAP service. When a registry can't answer we show you nothing rather than guessing — we never name ourselves as someone else's registrar.
Common status codes
- ok
- No pending operations or restrictions — the ordinary state for a registered domain.
- addPeriod
- The domain was registered within the last few days. Deleting it in this window may earn a credit from the registry.
- clientTransferProhibited
- The current registrar is blocking transfers. Usually that's a lock the owner turned on and can turn off — but ICANN transfer policy also requires registrars to refuse for 60 days after a registration or a previous transfer, and unpaid fees or a dispute can put it there too. If you didn't ask for it, ask your registrar why.
- clientUpdateProhibited
- Updates are locked at the registrar. Nameserver and contact changes are rejected until the lock comes off.
- serverTransferProhibited
- The registry, not the registrar, is blocking transfers. Uncommon: it generally means a legal or ownership dispute, an explicit request from the owner, or a domain already in redemption. Worth looking into rather than waiting out.
- pendingTransfer
- A transfer to another registrar has been requested and is waiting to complete or be rejected.
- autoRenewPeriod
- The domain was just auto-renewed. There is a grace window in which that renewal can still be reversed.
- redemptionPeriod
- The registrar has asked the registry to delete the domain — often but not always because it expired. The owner can still restore it for a fee until the window closes.
- pendingRestore
- A restore out of redemption has been requested and the registry is waiting on the paperwork to confirm it.
- pendingDelete
- Alongside redemptionPeriod or pendingRestore, that other status is the one that matters. On its own it means redemption has closed: the domain is being released and returns to the available pool a few days later.
The full list is published by ICANN at icann.org/epp.
Lookup questions
Which domains can I look up?
Anything on an extension we support. A domain registered with OrbitFour answers from our own registration records, and every other domain is looked up live against its registry, so you see the registry's own answer rather than a cached copy. Extensions outside our catalog, and a handful of country-code registries that publish no lookup service, can't be answered here — ICANN's own lookup covers those.
Why is the contact information hidden?
Registration data is redacted to protect the registrant's privacy — that is standard practice now, and every eligible OrbitFour domain has privacy on by default. You can still reach the owner of a domain we sponsor through the web contact form shown in the results, which forwards your message without exposing their details.
The domain I want is taken. Now what?
A registered domain belongs to its current owner until it expires and is released, so it isn't ours to sell. Domain search checks the same name across every extension we offer and suggests close alternatives that are actually available.
Is a lookup the same thing as WHOIS privacy?
No. A lookup reads public registration data; WHOIS privacy is what keeps your own details out of it. OrbitFour includes privacy free on every eligible domain — an extension whose registry requires real registrant data on file, like .us, can't use it.