How to check when a domain was registered
This domain age checker reads the public registration record and counts from its registration date to today. The record comes from the registry, the organization that keeps records for a domain ending such as .com. You're checking a date attached to the name, not guessing from how the website looks.
Enter the domain, such as example.com, or paste a website address. An address like https://shop.example.com/products checks example.com; the shop doesn't have a separate domain registration. The result shows the name we checked, so you can spot that difference. Names with non-English characters work too.
The large age is rounded for readability. Use the registration date on the timeline when the exact date matters. If you're checking a seller's claim that a domain is 20 years old, this is the record to compare it with. It won't prove that the seller owned it for all those years.
Domain age isn't the same as website age
Someone could buy a 20-year-old domain today and launch a shop tomorrow. The domain would look reassuringly old, but the shop would still be new. The same name can host different websites and belong to different people without a new registration date.
That makes age useful for asking better questions, not handing out trust scores. If a shop says it has used this address for a decade but the current registration began last week, ask about the gap. There may be an earlier registration that this record doesn't show. And a business claiming a decade of trading may have moved to a new domain. Neither a recent date nor an old one settles whether you should trust it.
To investigate the website itself, look for older captures in the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine. Open captures from different years and check what was actually there. A parked page or an unrelated business tells a different story from years of the same shop. The first capture is evidence that a page existed by then, not its launch date. The archive has gaps and can't capture every website.
Does domain age reset after renewal, transfer, or expiry?
A renewal keeps an existing registration going. Moving it to another registrar, the company you register through, also keeps that registration. Deletion followed by a new registration is the event that can make an old name look new.
| What happens to the domain | What it means for its age |
|---|---|
| The owner renews it | The registration continues. Its expiry date moves forward; its age doesn't start over. |
| It moves to another registrar | The registration continues. A transfer date doesn't establish when the owner changed. |
| Its expiry date passes | Expiry alone doesn't restart the age or make the name available to buy. |
| It is deleted, then registered again | The public record may start from the new registration. Earlier use of the name may be missing. |
These are different events in the domain registration protocol. After expiry, renewal or recovery may still be possible; ICANN explains the expiry process. If you're following an expiry date rather than researching age, use the domain expiry checker.
When a registry publishes a separate re-registration date, this checker uses it for the current age and keeps both dates on the timeline. Without that history, we can't reconstruct earlier registrations or tell you why the name was registered again.
What can domain age tell you about SEO?
If you're buying a domain for a website, its age gives you a reason to investigate its history. It doesn't tell you what that history is worth. This checker doesn't inspect search traffic, links from other sites, past content, or penalties, so its result isn't an SEO score or a promise of rankings.
Check the old website in the archive and examine the sites linking to it before paying extra for its age. A long registration history doesn't tell you whether those links are relevant to what you plan to publish. Google also prohibits expired domain abuse: buying an expired name and repurposing it mainly to manipulate rankings with content that offers little value. Buying an old domain isn't, by itself, the abuse described in that policy.
Why is a domain's age missing or different elsewhere?
The checker needs a registration date to calculate an age. Some registries don't publish one, and some domain endings have no lookup service this tool supports. Neither case means the name is new or available. If the service times out or limits requests, try again later rather than treating the failed lookup as a result about the domain.
If another checker shows a different age, compare the underlying dates before comparing the big numbers. This tool uses a reported re-registration date when present and rounds the displayed age. A saved response can also be older than a fresh one. The source and fetch time below the result let you see which record you're using; the raw response lets you inspect it directly.
For the rest of that record, including published registrar details and domain statuses, continue with the domain registration lookup. Neither tool can fill in a history the source doesn't provide.
Domain registration terms explained
- RDAP. Short for Registration Data Access Protocol. It's how we request the public record. Your lookup sends the domain name through stack127 to the registry's service, rather than contacting the website.
- Last changed. When the registration record changed. It doesn't say what changed and isn't the date someone edited the website.
- Registry expiry. The end of the registration term reported by the registry. It isn't a predicted deletion date.
- Fetched. When we retrieved the registry's reply. A cached reply is a saved response from an earlier lookup. Registered-domain responses can be reused for up to 24 hours, so check this time when a registration has just changed.