Domains

Domains Help

About .io Domains

Nic.io (operated by Donuts) is the sponsor and Donuts is GoDaddy's backend provider for the country-code top-level domain name (ccTLD) .io extensions that represents British Indian Ocean Territory.

Who can register .io domains?

Anyone can register .io domain names.

Registration restrictions

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

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

Features

  • Registration length: 1-10 years
  • Renewal length: 1-10 years
    • You must renew your .io 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 .io 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 23rd, December 27th, and January 4th
    • Due to time zone differences, registry updates to your .io 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 the expiration date, you can attempt to recover it. There might be a fee to do so. See Renew my expired domain for more information.
  • Backorders: Not supported
  • Transfers to GoDaddy: Supported
    • Must use: 1 - 63 characters
  • Transfers away from GoDaddy: Supported
  • Transfers to another GoDaddy account: Supported
  • Basic privacy protection: Supported
  • Protection plan upgrades: Supported
  • CashParking: 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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