Dr.Who
← blog

Your domain expired but the site still resolves: here is why

· whois · dns · ttl · domain-expiry · redemption

whoisdnsttldomain-expiryredemption

If your domain's expiry date has passed but the website still loads, that is normal and temporary. Two things keep it alive: DNS caching — resolvers continue serving your records until their TTL elapses — and the registry lifecycle, which gives an expired domain weeks of grace before it is actually deleted. The site only truly goes down when the registrar sets the clientHold status (which pulls the domain from DNS) or when the domain finally drops and someone else registers it.

DNS TTL caching keeps records alive

Every DNS record carries a TTL (time to live). Recursive resolvers cache your A, AAAA, MX, and NS records for that many seconds, so even after registration lapses, anyone whose resolver already has the answer keeps getting the old IP until the cache expires.

example.com.   3600   IN   A   203.0.113.10

A TTL of 3600 means up to an hour of stale resolution; a TTL of 86400 means up to a day. This is also why expiry does not instantly take a site offline — nothing has told resolvers to forget the record yet.

The registry lifecycle has grace periods

For most gTLDs (per ICANN's expired registration and redemption policies), a lapsed domain moves through predictable phases rather than vanishing:

  • Auto-renew grace period (typically up to ~45 days): the domain often still resolves; the registrar may park it or keep DNS live while it chases renewal.
  • Redemption Grace Period (RGP), ~30 days: the domain is removed from the zone and stops resolving, but the original owner can still restore it (usually for a hefty fee). Status shows redemptionPeriod.
  • Pending delete, ~5 days: no restore possible. Status shows pendingDelete.
  • Drop: the domain is released and anyone can register it.

The exact windows vary by registrar and TLD, so always check the actual status.

What actually pulls it from DNS

Within the grace window, the lever that takes a site offline is the EPP status code clientHold. When a registrar applies it, the registry removes the domain from the zone, so it stops resolving regardless of any cached TTL still ticking down. Check the status and the dates in WHOIS:

Registry Expiry Date: 2026-06-10T00:00:00Z
Domain Status: clientHold
Domain Status: redemptionPeriod

clientHold plus redemptionPeriod here means the site is already dark and you are inside the restore window — renew now, before it reaches pendingDelete.

The real risk window

The danger is not the brief period where a forgotten domain still works — it is the moment it drops and is re-registered by someone else, who then controls your email and any service that trusts the domain. Treat the expiry date as a hard deadline, watch for redemptionPeriod in WHOIS, and renew before pending-delete.

Check your domain's status and dates →

Further reading