WHOIS Lookup

WHOIS Lookup - Check Domain Registration Information

WHOIS — short for 'Who Is' — has been the public lookup protocol for domain ownership since 1982 (RFC 812), originally a plain-text service over TCP port 43 that returned free-form registrar data. In 2015 the IETF standardised RDAP (Registration Data Access Protocol, RFC 7480-7485) as the modern JSON-based replacement, and ICANN mandated it for all gTLDs by 2019. This tool queries the official RDAP bootstrap registry maintained by IANA, which routes your lookup to the correct authoritative server for any of the 1500+ recognised TLDs — .com to .xyz, every ccTLD from .ac to .zw, and modern brand TLDs. You get the registrar name and IANA ID, original registration date, last-update timestamp, expiration date with a visible countdown, the full list of authoritative nameservers, the protection status flags (clientTransferProhibited, serverDeleteProhibited, etc. — the locks that prevent unauthorized transfers), and the DNSSEC signing state. Personal contact data is intentionally redacted under GDPR for any domain registered to an EU/EEA resident; you'll see organisation and country fields populated for businesses but registrant names hidden for individuals. The raw RDAP JSON response is available via 'Show Raw Data' for custom parsing or integration into your own tooling.

What is WHOIS Lookup?

WHOIS is a protocol for querying databases that store registration information about domain names. It provides:

- Domain registrar and registry information
- Registration, update, and expiry dates
- Nameserver configuration
- Domain status flags (transfer lock, delete prohibition, etc.)
- DNSSEC signing status

This tool uses RDAP (Registration Data Access Protocol), the modern replacement for traditional WHOIS, which provides structured JSON responses for better accuracy.

How do I use this tool?

Using the WHOIS Lookup tool:

1. Enter a domain name (e.g., example.com)
2. Click 'Lookup' or press Enter
3. View the domain registration information

The tool will display:
- Domain and registry information
- Registrar details and IANA ID
- Important dates (created, updated, expiry)
- Nameserver list
- Domain status and DNSSEC info

You can also view the raw RDAP response data by clicking 'Show Raw Data'.

What is RDAP?

RDAP (Registration Data Access Protocol) is the modern replacement for the legacy WHOIS protocol. Benefits include:

- Structured JSON responses (easier to parse)
- Standardized across all registries
- Better internationalization support (Unicode)
- Secure access via HTTPS
- More consistent data format
- Support for authentication and access control

RDAP is now the recommended protocol by ICANN for domain registration data queries.

What do domain status codes mean?

Common domain status codes:

Protection statuses:
- clientTransferProhibited: Transfer locked by registrar
- clientDeleteProhibited: Delete locked by registrar
- serverTransferProhibited: Transfer locked by registry
- serverDeleteProhibited: Delete locked by registry

Pending statuses:
- pendingCreate: Domain being created
- pendingDelete: Domain being deleted
- pendingTransfer: Transfer in progress
- redemptionPeriod: Domain in grace period after expiry

These statuses help protect domains from unauthorized changes.

How many days until my domain expires?

After you run a lookup, the Important Dates section shows a 'Days Until Expiry' row with a live countdown computed from the registry's expiration date — for example '128 days (expires in ~4 months)'. The badge is color-coded by renewal urgency so you can read it at a glance:

- Red: the domain has already expired, or expires within 14 days — renew immediately
- Amber: expires within 30 days — schedule renewal now
- Green: more than 30 days remain — no action needed yet

A 'Domain Age' row also shows how long ago it was first registered (e.g. 'Registered 12 years 4 months ago'), a useful trust/seniority signal when evaluating a domain. Expired domains show 'EXPIRED 3 days ago' instead of a positive countdown so you can spot a lapse instantly.

How do I read EPP status codes and what does each one block?

EPP status codes are the locks and lifecycle flags the registry/registrar applies to a domain. Map each to the action it blocks or signals:

- clientTransferProhibited / serverTransferProhibited: blocks transferring the domain to another registrar — clear it before initiating a transfer
- clientDeleteProhibited / serverDeleteProhibited: blocks deletion of the domain
- clientUpdateProhibited / serverUpdateProhibited: blocks editing nameservers, contacts or DNSSEC records
- clientRenewProhibited / serverRenewProhibited: blocks renewal (rare; usually a dispute)
- clientHold / serverHold: domain is removed from the DNS zone — the site stops resolving even though registration is intact
- pendingTransfer: a transfer is in progress; do not start another
- redemptionPeriod: the domain expired and is recoverable only by paying a redemption fee
- pendingDelete: the redemption window closed; the domain will drop and become available

'client*' codes are set by your registrar (usually toggleable in the control panel); 'server*' codes are set by the registry and need a support request to change. For maximum protection on a key domain, set all three of clientTransferProhibited, clientDeleteProhibited and clientUpdateProhibited.

Can I monitor or bulk-check domain expiry at scale, and is RDAP rate-limited?

This tool checks one domain per lookup and is ideal for an at-a-glance renewal check using the expiry countdown. For monitoring many domains, note that RDAP servers do enforce rate limits (commonly via HTTP 429 responses), and limits vary by registry. Best practices for bulk expiry monitoring:

- Query the authoritative RDAP endpoint for each TLD rather than a single proxy, and cache results — expiry dates change at most once per renewal cycle
- Space requests out (a few per second per registry) and honor any Retry-After header on 429s
- Re-check each domain on a schedule (weekly is plenty) and alert when 'Days Until Expiry' crosses your renewal threshold (e.g. 30 days)
- Prefer auto-renew at your registrar as the primary safeguard; treat monitoring as a backstop

For a handful of domains, just run them through this tool periodically and watch for amber/red badges.

Why is some information hidden?

Due to privacy regulations like GDPR, registrars now redact personal information:

Commonly hidden data:
- Registrant name and organization
- Contact email addresses
- Phone numbers
- Physical addresses

Still available:
- Domain name and status
- Registrar information
- Registration and expiry dates
- Nameservers
- DNSSEC status

To contact a domain owner, use the registrar's contact form or WHOIS privacy service.

How does WHOIS differ from a DNS query?

They answer completely different questions and use different infrastructure. A DNS query (the kind your browser makes when you visit a site) asks 'which IP address does this hostname currently resolve to?' and gets back A/AAAA/CNAME/MX records served by the domain's own nameservers — answered in milliseconds, used for every page load. A WHOIS/RDAP query asks 'who registered this domain, when does it expire, and who is the registrar?' — that data lives in the registry/registrar databases, not in DNS, and changes only when ownership or registration metadata changes. You can have a perfectly working domain (DNS resolves fine) whose WHOIS shows it expires in 3 days — DNS will keep answering until the registry pulls it from the root zone at expiration. Use this tool for the latter; use a DNS lookup tool for the former. Both together give you the complete picture of who owns a domain and where it points.

Why can't I look up a brand-new domain I just registered?

RDAP propagation typically takes 15 minutes to 2 hours from the moment of registration. The pipeline is: your registrar accepts payment → submits the EPP create command to the registry → the registry updates its database and pushes the new record into RDAP — that final push is what's not immediate. Some registries (Verisign for .com/.net, PIR for .org) update RDAP within seconds; others (especially smaller ccTLDs) batch updates every 15-60 minutes. Additionally, your registrar might not surface registrant-specific data via RDAP until your account configuration is fully provisioned. If a domain shows 'not found' immediately after registration, wait 30 minutes and retry. If it's still missing after 24 hours, contact your registrar's support — that's outside normal propagation behaviour.

Which TLDs are supported?

This tool supports most major TLDs via RDAP:

Generic TLDs: .com, .net, .org, .info, .biz, .dev, .app, .xyz, .online, .site, .shop, .tech, .blog, .cloud, and more

Country code TLDs: .io, .co, .me, .tv, .ai, .us, .uk, .de, .fr, .nl, .eu, .au, .ca, .br, .jp, .kr, .in, and more

If a specific TLD is not directly supported, the tool falls back to the RDAP.org bootstrap service which covers most registered domains.

Key Features

• Modern RDAP protocol for accurate data
• Domain registration and expiry dates
• Registrar and registry information
• IANA registrar ID lookup
• Nameserver configuration
• Domain status flags
• DNSSEC signing status
• Expiry countdown with renewal-urgency color and domain age
• Support for 1500+ TLDs
• Raw JSON data view
• No API key required
• Free and unlimited lookups
• Dark mode support
• Mobile-friendly design