Free Domain WHOIS Lookup Tool
Enter any domain name to see its registrar, registration and expiry dates, nameservers, status, and DNS records. Works with all gTLDs (.com, .net, .org, .io...) and country-code TLDs (.hr, .de, .co.uk and 250+ others). No signup, no rate limit on the website, results parsed from the authoritative registry, not third-party scrapers.
What a Domain WHOIS Lookup Returns, and How Reliable Each Field Is
Coverage rates measured across our recent lookup history. Registrar, nameservers and status flags are always returned. Registrant identity is heavily redacted post-GDPR for gTLDs; ccTLD policies vary by country registry.
Registry coverage
Live numbers across TLDs and registrars we hitWhat a Domain WHOIS Lookup Tells You
Every lookup pulls the parsed registry record plus a live DNS snapshot. Whether you call it a WHOIS lookup, a domain checker or a registrar lookup, the fields are the same:
- Registrar name, IANA ID and WHOIS/RDAP server URL
- Creation, last-updated and expiry dates (with renewal window)
- Authoritative nameservers (NS records and registry-listed)
- EPP status flags (clientTransferProhibited, redemptionPeriod, pendingDelete...)
- DNSSEC signing state (signed / unsigned)
- Live DNS records (A, AAAA, MX, TXT, SOA) for the apex
- Hosting IP, the ISP behind it and the ASN that announces the route
- Registrant organisation and country where the registry exposes it
What a WHOIS Lookup Will Not Tell You
WHOIS is a registry record, not a search engine. There are limits, and most of them got stricter after GDPR took effect in 2018:
- The registrant's personal name (almost always redacted for gTLDs)
- The registrant's email or phone number directly (only via the registrar's relay form)
- Historical WHOIS data from before the current owner (use historical WHOIS services)
- Whether the domain has ever been suspended, hijacked or seized
- The actual price paid for the domain on the secondary market
For an in-depth investigation (historical owners, sale records, infringement claims) you need a paid intelligence service or a court order to the registrar. Public WHOIS is a quick lookup, not a forensics tool.
How to Look Up a Domain You Already Have
Paste any registered domain into the search box at the top, with or without www. prefix. The tool strips it automatically. You can also pass subdomains (e.g. blog.example.com) and the lookup falls back to the apex domain (example.com) for the registry record. To search by domain alone is enough, you do not need to know the registrar in advance.
If you have a URL, copy just the host portion. From an email address, take everything after the @. From a WHOIS hit you got elsewhere, paste the domain back here to refresh against the live registry. For ccTLDs (example.co.uk, example.hr, example.de) the tool auto-routes to the correct country registry server.
WHOIS vs RDAP, the Modern Replacement
WHOIS is the original protocol, defined in RFC 812 back in 1982 for ARPANET. It runs on TCP port 43 and returns plain text in a registrar-specific format. Every registry chose its own field labels, so parsing WHOIS reliably across 1,500+ TLDs is messy. ICANN started pushing a replacement in 2015.
RDAP (Registration Data Access Protocol) is the modern answer. It runs over HTTPS, returns JSON with standardised field names, supports access control (so registrars can release more data to authenticated abuse investigators than to anonymous users), and handles internationalised domain names cleanly. Since 2019 all gTLD registries support it, and most ccTLDs followed. You see the merged, parsed result on the result page.
If you want the raw record, every result page on IPWhois.net includes both the parsed fields and the original registry response.
GDPR, Redaction, and Why Owners Are Hidden
Until May 2018, full registrant contact details (name, organisation, postal address, phone, email) were public for every gTLD domain. Then GDPR landed and ICANN forced registries serving European registrants to redact personal contact data by default. Most registrars applied the redaction worldwide because policing "is this registrant in the EU?" per domain was harder than just redacting everyone. The new minimum public output is:
- Registrar, technical contact and abuse contact email
- Country and state of the registrant (no street address)
- Organisation name, only if the registrant ticked the "organisation" box during registration
- Dates and status (these were never redacted)
Country-code TLDs set their own rules. .de (DENIC) returns almost nothing publicly. .hr (CARNet) and .fr (AFNIC) follow ICANN-style redaction. .ru still shows organisation details for company registrants. To reach a redacted registrant you submit a contact request through the registrar, which forwards it via an anonymised relay. For abuse or legal matters, registrars must respond within a few business days.
When a Domain WHOIS Lookup Is Actually Useful
Buying a domain. Before you commit, check the expiry date (is the seller about to lose it?), the registrar (is it a hard-to-transfer one?), the status flags (is there a serverHold blocking DNS?). A domain with a near-future expiry and no auto-renew is a deal that can evaporate while the paperwork is moving.
Verifying a partner. The company you are about to wire money to has a domain registered last week and the registrar is in a country known for cheap bulk registrations? Worth a phone call before the wire goes out. Combined with the IP behind their site (we link the hosting IP lookup) you get a 30-second sanity check.
Hunting phishing. Phishing kits register hundreds of look-alike domains (amazom-support.com, microssoft.help). The WHOIS shows when each was created, who the registrar is, what nameservers they use. Cluster on nameservers or registrar and you map the actor's infrastructure cheaply.
Tracking expirations. If you watch a portfolio of domains for the right moment to backorder a drop, the EPP status flags tell you exactly where each one sits in the lifecycle: clientHold, autoRenewPeriod, redemptionPeriod, pendingDelete. The drop happens roughly 75 days after expiry for most gTLDs.
Transferring registrars. Before initiating a transfer, confirm the status is ok and that clientTransferProhibited is not set. If it is, unlock at the source registrar first. The current expiry tells you whether you need to renew before transferring (some registrars require it).
Spotting brand infringement. Search common typos and TLDs of your brand. Anything that appears in WHOIS with a registrar of record and a date later than your trademark is potentially actionable under UDRP or local IP law. Document the WHOIS record at discovery time, registrars rotate quickly.
Email troubleshooting. Mail bouncing? Check the domain's MX records via the result page, confirm the nameservers actually answer, verify the SPF/DKIM TXT records exist. A surprising number of "mail is broken" tickets resolve to "nameservers were changed and no one updated DNS."
Investment due diligence. A startup pitches a brand. You look up the .com. Created in 2003 by an investor who is asking $250k for the transfer? That changes the negotiation. A WHOIS lookup tells you the age, which is one of the simplest signals of domain value.
Why Some Domains Are Worth Millions
A WHOIS lookup is also a quick history check. The creation date is the simplest signal of value: cars.com (1995, reportedly sold for $872M to Gannett in 2014), voice.com (1995, $30M to Block.one in 2019), cryptocurrency.com (2018, low millions). The earlier the date, the smaller the universe of competitors. A short, generic .com registered in the 1990s is functionally irreplaceable. New gTLDs (.app, .dev, .ai) reset the clock and create fresh inventory at every release.
If you are evaluating a domain to buy or sell, the WHOIS gives you three data points instantly: when it was first registered (age), whether it has changed hands recently (creation vs last-update gap), and whether it is locked at a reputable registrar (transferability). Beyond that, NameBio and DNSelf-sale records reveal historic pricing.
More About How Domains Work and What WHOIS Records Mean
Below are the questions and details people most often ask after running a domain lookup. Skim what is interesting, skip the rest.
The domain name system in 60 seconds
A domain name is a human-readable alias for an IP address. When you type example.com, your resolver asks the root nameservers which servers run the .com registry, then asks those servers which nameservers run example.com, then asks those nameservers for the IP. The answer is cached at every step for the TTL the zone owner set. The whole DNS tree is hierarchical: root → TLD → second-level → subdomains. Domains are leased, not owned. You pay a yearly fee to the registrar, the registrar pays a smaller fee to the registry, and the registry maintains the authoritative records.
Registry, registrar and registrant: who owns what
The registry operates the TLD (Verisign for .com and .net, PIR for .org, Donuts/Identity Digital for hundreds of new gTLDs, CARNet for .hr, DENIC for .de). The registrar is the company you actually pay (GoDaddy, Namecheap, Tucows, Cloudflare Registrar). The registrant is the legal owner of the registration. The registry holds the master record, the registrar manages the contract with the registrant, and the registrant decides what nameservers and contacts to publish. ICANN sets the policies the registry and registrar must follow.
gTLD vs ccTLD
Generic TLDs (gTLDs) are open to anyone worldwide. The legacy seven were .com, .net, .org, .edu, .gov, .mil, .int. The 2012 new-gTLD round added hundreds: .app, .dev, .blog, .shop, .tech and so on. Country-code TLDs (ccTLDs) are tied to an ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code: .de (Germany), .hr (Croatia), .uk (United Kingdom, with the legacy .co.uk second-level), .co (Colombia, but globally repurposed). Each ccTLD registry sets its own eligibility rules, prices, transfer policy and WHOIS disclosure. Some require local presence (.de, .ca), others sell globally (.io, .me, .tv, .co).
Domain lifecycle from purchase to drop
Day 0 you register. The domain is active until expiry, typically 1 to 10 years out. After expiry comes a grace / auto-renew period (about 30 days), where the old owner can still renew at the normal price. Then redemption period (about 30 days), during which only the old owner can recover it, usually with a hefty restore fee from the registrar. Then pending delete (5 days, locked), and finally the domain drops back into the available pool. Backorder services watch for these drops and grab good domains the instant they release. The whole post-expiry window is roughly 75 days for most gTLDs.
EPP status flags
EPP (Extensible Provisioning Protocol) is the standard registrars and registries use to talk to each other. The status flags exposed in WHOIS tell you what state the domain is in:
ok– nothing special, domain is activeclientTransferProhibited– locked by the registrar (good, default for most)clientHold– domain is in the zone but resolution is suspendedserverHold– same as above but applied by the registry, often a legal actionautoRenewPeriod– just past expiry, in the auto-renew grace windowredemptionPeriod– renewal still possible but expensivependingDelete– will drop in 5 days, no renewal possible
Nameservers, glue records and DNSSEC
Nameservers are the authoritative servers for the domain's DNS. The registry stores them in the parent zone (.com knows that example.com is served by ns1.examplehost.com and ns2.examplehost.com). If the nameservers are themselves inside the domain (ns1.example.com), the registry must publish glue records with the nameserver's IP so resolvers can find them without a chicken-and-egg loop. DNSSEC adds cryptographic signatures to the DNS responses; the public key (DS record) is published at the registry level, so a resolver can validate that a response really came from the legitimate nameserver and was not tampered with in transit.
Privacy services and the redacted output
Before GDPR, registrars sold privacy as a paid add-on (typically $5 to $15 per year). The registrar replaced your details with the privacy service's own contact, then forwarded mail to you. After GDPR, the same redaction is the default for free, at least for gTLDs. The downside: you can no longer just lift the registrant's email from WHOIS. For legitimate contact, every modern gTLD record exposes a registrar relay form that hides the registrant's address but still delivers the message.
Internationalised domain names (IDNs) and punycode
DNS only allows ASCII characters in domain labels. To register a domain with non-ASCII characters (café.com, пример.рф, 例子.中国) the name is encoded in Punycode: café.com becomes xn--caf-dma.com. Browsers display the original Unicode form but DNS, WHOIS and certificates all carry the punycode version. Our lookup accepts both forms and shows both on the result page.
What the DNS records on the result page mean
- A and AAAA – IPv4 and IPv6 addresses the domain points to
- MX – mail exchangers that accept email for the domain
- NS – nameservers (should match what the registry has)
- TXT – arbitrary text records, used for SPF, DKIM, domain ownership verification
- SOA – Start of Authority, master record with serial number and refresh intervals
- CAA – which certificate authorities are allowed to issue SSL for this domain
Domain age, history and value
Older domains tend to carry SEO weight because backlinks built over time count more than newly minted ones. A WHOIS creation date in the 1990s is a hard signal. The last-updated field is a softer one: it may reflect a registrar transfer, a contact change, a renewal. NameBio aggregates historic sales data so you can look up what comparable domains sold for, which is the single most useful input to valuation. ICANN does not regulate prices, the market does.
Why one WHOIS tool shows different data than another
The authoritative record sits at the registry. Every tool queries either the registry directly (RDAP/WHOIS), the registrar (WHOIS), or a third-party scraper. Registry responses are the truth. Registrar responses sometimes lag behind registry changes by a few minutes. Scrapers cache aggressively and can be hours or days out of date. We go to the registry, which is why a domain you just registered will appear here as soon as the registry zone is updated.
How to transfer a domain to a new registrar
Five steps. (1) Unlock at the current registrar (clear clientTransferProhibited). (2) Request the authorisation code (auth code, sometimes called EPP code). (3) At the new registrar, initiate a transfer using that code. (4) The current registrar emails you a confirmation; approve it (or wait 5 days for an automatic approval). (5) The transfer completes, the registry rewrites the registrar field, and you pay one extra year of registration at the new registrar (added to the existing expiry, so no time is lost). ICANN forbids transfers in the first 60 days after registration or a previous transfer.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a domain WHOIS lookup?
A WHOIS lookup queries the registry record for a domain. It returns the registrar, the registration and expiry dates, the nameservers, the status flags and (where not redacted) the registrant contact information. Our result page also runs a live DNS resolve and shows the hosting IP behind the apex.
Why is the registrant name redacted?
Since GDPR took effect in 2018, registries serving European registrants must redact personal contact data by default. Most gTLD registrars apply redaction worldwide for consistency. Registrar, nameservers, dates and status are still public.
What is the difference between WHOIS and RDAP?
WHOIS is the original port-43 protocol from 1982 that returns plain text. RDAP is the modern HTTPS replacement that returns structured JSON. Both expose the same registry data, RDAP just handles it cleaner. We query RDAP first and fall back to WHOIS where needed.
Does this work for ccTLDs like .hr, .de or .co.uk?
Yes. The lookup auto-routes to the correct country registry server. Each ccTLD has its own disclosure policy: .de exposes almost nothing, .hr and .fr follow ICANN-style redaction, others are more open.
Can I see the DNS records?
Yes. The result page includes A, AAAA, MX, NS, TXT and SOA records along with the WHOIS data so you can verify hosting and email setup in one place.
Is this tool free?
Yes. Unlimited lookups, no registration, no API key needed for the web interface. The free API at api.ipwhois.net is available for programmatic access.
How fresh is the data?
Results come straight from the authoritative registry, so what you see matches what the TLD operator currently has on record. DNS records are resolved each time.
Can I find expired or deleted domains?
You can see if a domain is in redemptionPeriod or pendingDelete, which are the warning windows before it drops. Once fully deleted, the registry returns no record at all.
How is this related to an IP lookup?
A domain resolves to an IP, the IP belongs to an ASN. The result page links to the IP lookup for the hosting IP so you can see the ISP, country and abuse contact behind the server too. Together they answer "who owns this domain and where is it hosted".