Domains

Domains Help

About .ac Domains

Nic.ac (operated by Donuts) is the sponsor and Donuts is our backend provider for the country-code top-level domain name (ccTLD) .ac extensions that represents Ascension and Tristan da Cunha Islands.

Who can register .ac domains?

Anyone can register .ac domain names.

Registration restrictions

When registering a .ac domain, you must follow specific requirements.

  • Must use: 3 - 63 Characters
  • Can use: Letters: a-z, Numbers: 0-9, Hyphens (except in the 1st or last characters of the domain name)
  • Cannot use: Special Characters (e.g.,& and #)
  • IDNs: Not supported

Features

  • Registration length: 1-10 years
  • Renewal length: 1-10 years
    • You must renew your .ac domain name by its expiration date.
    • If you set your domain name to auto-renew, we first attempt auto-renewal 39 days prior to the domain name's expiration date. If the renewal attempt fails, we re-attempt renewal 35 days prior to the domain name's expiration date. If the second attempt fails, we make a final attempt to renew 28 days prior to the expiration date.
    • For example: Your .ac domain name expires on January 31st. If your domain name does not renew automatically, you can renew it manually by that date. For automatic renewals, we attempt to renew the domain name on December 25th, December 29th, and January 3rd.
    • Due to time zone differences, registry updates to your .ac domain name occur very early in the day. If you decide to manually renew your domain name, we recommend that you do so prior to its expiration date.
    • If we cannot auto-renew the domain name and you do not manually renew it by its expiration date, you can attempt to recover it, and there might be a fee to do so. See Renew my expired domains for instructions.
  • Backorders: Not supported
  • Transfers to GoDaddy: Supported
  • Transfers away from GoDaddy: Supported
  • Transfers to another GoDaddy account: Supported
  • Basic privacy protection: Supported
  • Protection plan upgrades: Supported
  • Cash Parking: Supported
  • Contact Updates: Supported

Nameserver requirements

  • Must use: 1-13 Nameservers
  • Can use: IPv4, IPv6, DNSSEC

Refunds

For details on refunds, see our refund policy. Most domains will follow the Standard Refund Terms, but certain domains may have exceptions or may not be refundable at all. Review the information under Products with Special Refund Terms, and then Domain Name Registrations/Renewals and Products Not Eligible for Refunds.

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