How to transfer a domain to another registrar?

To transfer a domain to another registrar, log in to your current registrar, remove the transfer lock, and request the domain's authorization code (also called an EPP code or auth code). Then go to the new registrar, start a transfer for the domain, enter the auth code, and pay for the transfer, which for most generic domains such as .com also adds a year to the registration. Approve any confirmation email you receive, and the transfer usually completes within a few hours to five days. Your website and email keep working throughout, as long as your DNS stays in place.

Moving a domain is routine, but it touches the one asset everything else depends on, so it pays to prepare. This guide covers the checks to make before you start, the transfer itself step by step, how to keep DNS and DNSSEC working during the move, how to monitor progress from the command line, and what to do once the domain arrives at its new registrar.

Why Move a Domain to Another Registrar?

People change registrars for a handful of practical reasons:

• Renewal price: Many registrars offer a low first-year price and a much higher renewal. Moving to a registrar that charges close to wholesale cost can save money every year.
• Consolidation: Keeping all your domains in one account makes renewals, billing and security easier to manage.
• Features: Better two-factor authentication, registry lock support, an API, free privacy, or DNSSEC support.
• Service quality: Poor support, a clumsy dashboard, or aggressive upselling.
• Selling the domain: The buyer may want it at their own registrar. In that case, many registrars also offer an internal "push" to another account, which is simpler than a full transfer.

If you only want to change who serves your DNS, you don't need to transfer the domain at all. You can point it at a different DNS provider by changing the nameservers and leave the registration where it is. Keeping the registrar and DNS host separate is a common setup, covered in how to use your registrar and DNS host separately.

How a Registrar Transfer Works

Every generic top-level domain (gTLD) such as .com, .net, .org or .io-style new TLDs is run by a registry, and you rent the name through a registrar. A transfer moves the sponsorship of the domain at the registry from one registrar (the losing registrar) to another (the gaining registrar). For background on who does what, see what a domain registrar is.

The process is governed by ICANN's Transfer Policy for gTLDs and runs over EPP (Extensible Provisioning Protocol):

1. You unlock the domain and get its auth code from the losing registrar.
2. The gaining registrar sends a transfer request to the registry, including the auth code.
3. The registry checks the code and puts the domain into pendingTransfer status.
4. The losing registrar can approve the transfer immediately, deny it for a reason the policy allows, or do nothing.
5. If it does nothing, the registry approves the transfer automatically after five days.
6. The domain moves to the gaining registrar, and for most gTLDs the registry adds one year to the expiry date.

Country-code domains (ccTLDs) follow their own registry rules. For example, .uk domains don't use auth codes at all: you change the domain's IPS tag to the new registrar's tag instead. Check the new registrar's help pages for any ccTLD you own.

Before You Start: Pre-Transfer Checklist

Most failed transfers fail because of something that could have been checked in advance. Work through this list first.

1. Check the Domain Is Eligible

A gTLD domain usually can't be transferred:

• Within 60 days of registration or within 60 days of a previous transfer. ICANN's updated Transfer Policy shortens these windows to 30 days (720 hours), and registrars are adopting the new rules, so the exact limit depends on when you're reading this and which registrar you use.
• While it's in redemption or pending delete after expiry.
• While it's subject to a UDRP dispute, a court order, or another legal hold.

Some registrars also apply a lock after a change of registrant name or organisation. Ask your current registrar if you've updated those details recently.

2. Check the Expiry Date

Don't wait until the last week. A domain close to expiry, or already in its post-expiry grace period, can still be transferred in many cases, but some registrars refuse or complicate it, and a failed transfer at that point leaves you very little time. Ideally, transfer with at least a few weeks to spare. Because the transfer adds a year, you don't lose the remaining time on the current registration.

3. Make Sure You Can Receive Email

Your registrar sends transfer notices to the registrant email on the domain. If that address is out of date, or it's on the domain you're transferring and your email is broken, you may miss an approval link or a warning. Update it before you begin, ideally to an address on a different domain. See how to change the registrant contact details for the process and its side effects.

4. Confirm the New Registrar Supports the TLD

Not every registrar sells every extension. Check that the gaining registrar supports your TLD, and whether it treats the domain as premium, which can make the transfer and renewal much more expensive.

5. Record Your Current DNS

Note your current nameservers and export your DNS records if they're hosted at the old registrar. Some registrars delete their DNS zone the moment the domain leaves, which takes your website and email down with it.

dig +short example.com NS

ns1.oldregistrar-dns.com.
ns2.oldregistrar-dns.com.

If those nameservers belong to the losing registrar, you need a DNS plan before you transfer. That's covered in the next section.

Protecting DNS During the Transfer

A registrar transfer doesn't, on its own, change your nameservers. The registry keeps the existing NS records attached to the domain when sponsorship moves. The risk is that the old DNS service stops answering because you're no longer a customer.

If Your DNS Is Hosted Elsewhere

If your nameservers belong to a separate DNS provider such as Cloudflare, Route 53 or your web host, the transfer is almost risk-free for DNS. The NS records stay the same, and nothing about resolution changes. Just leave them as they are.

If Your DNS Is Hosted at the Losing Registrar

Move DNS first, as a separate step, before you transfer the registration:

1. Create the zone at the new DNS provider (often the gaining registrar) and copy every record: A, AAAA, CNAME, MX, TXT, SRV and CAA.
2. Compare the new zone with the old one record by record.
3. Change the nameservers at the old registrar to the new provider.
4. Wait for the old NS records' TTL to expire, usually 24 to 48 hours.
5. Then start the registrar transfer.

You can compare answers from the old and new nameservers directly:

for type in A AAAA MX TXT CAA; do
  echo "== $type =="
  diff <(dig @ns1.oldregistrar-dns.com +short example.com $type | sort) \
       <(dig @ns1.newdns.example.net +short example.com $type | sort) \
    && echo "match"
done

The full approach is described in how to move DNS hosting without downtime, and lowering TTLs beforehand makes the switch faster.

If You Use DNSSEC

DNSSEC is where transfers most often cause real outages. The registry holds a DS record that must match the key that signs your zone. If your DNS provider changes and the DS record still points at the old key, validating resolvers treat your domain as broken.

If your DNS host isn't changing, the DS record normally carries over and nothing needs to happen. If DNS is moving as well, the safest option for most people is:

1. Remove the DS record at the current registrar (disable DNSSEC).
2. Wait for the DS record's TTL to expire, typically one to two days.
3. Move DNS and complete the transfer.
4. Re-enable DNSSEC with the new provider and publish the new DS record at the new registrar.

You can check whether a DS record exists:

dig +short example.com DS

An empty response means DNSSEC isn't enabled at the registry. For more detail, see what DNSSEC is and how it works.

Step-by-Step: Transferring Your Domain

With the checks done, the transfer itself takes about ten minutes of your time.

Step 1: Unlock the Domain

At the current registrar, open the domain's settings and turn off Domain Lock, Transfer Lock or Registrar Lock. This removes the clientTransferProhibited status. Registrar lock explains what this status does. Confirm it's gone:

whois example.com | grep -i "domain status"

Domain Status: ok https://icann.org/epp#ok

Registrars update the registry quickly, but some lookups lag behind by a few minutes.

Step 2: Disable Privacy If Required

Most registrars no longer need privacy turned off, because transfer confirmation emails go through the registrar rather than the public record. A few still ask you to disable it. Follow your registrar's instructions, and turn privacy back on at the new registrar afterwards.

Step 3: Get the Authorization Code

Request the auth code from the current registrar. Depending on the registrar, it's shown in the dashboard, emailed to the registrant address, or generated on request. Copy it exactly. Codes are case sensitive and often contain symbols. If you can't find it, where to find your domain's EPP code covers the usual locations.

Step 4: Start the Transfer at the New Registrar

At the gaining registrar:

1. Choose Transfer (not Register) and enter the domain name.
2. Paste the auth code when asked.
3. Choose whether to keep the existing nameservers. If your DNS is already somewhere you trust, keep them.
4. Pay the transfer fee, which normally includes the one-year extension.

Step 5: Approve the Transfer

Look for emails from both registrars:

• The gaining registrar may ask you to confirm the request.
• The losing registrar usually sends a notice with a link to approve or reject the transfer.

Approving at the losing registrar is optional, but it speeds things up. Many transfers complete within an hour of approval. If you do nothing, the registry approves the transfer automatically after five days, unless the losing registrar denies it.

Step 6: Watch the Status

While the transfer is in progress, the domain shows pendingTransfer. You can check it via RDAP, which has replaced port-43 WHOIS as the official lookup protocol for gTLDs:

curl -sL https://rdap.org/domain/example.com | jq '{status, registrar: [.entities[] | select(.roles[] == "registrar") | .vcardArray[1][] | select(.[0] == "fn") | .[3]]}'

{
  "status": [
    "pending transfer"
  ],
  "registrar": [
    "Old Registrar, Inc."
  ]
}

Once the registrar name changes and the status no longer includes pending transfer, the move is done.

If you want to keep an eye on it without refreshing, a small loop works:

#!/usr/bin/env bash
DOMAIN="${1:?usage: $0 domain}"

while true; do
  status=$(curl -sL "https://rdap.org/domain/$DOMAIN" | jq -r '.status | join(", ")')
  echo "$(date '+%H:%M') $status"
  case "$status" in
    *"pending transfer"*) sleep 900 ;;
    *) echo "Transfer no longer pending"; break ;;
  esac
done

If the status hasn't changed after five days, or the transfer was rejected, see why your domain transfer is stuck or failing.

Timeline at a Glance

Stage	Typical time
Unlock and get auth code	Minutes
Gaining registrar submits request	Minutes to a few hours
Losing registrar approves manually	Minutes after you click approve
Automatic approval if no action	Five days
ccTLDs	Varies, from instant to a few days

After the Transfer Completes

Don't close the old account the moment the domain arrives. Run through these checks first:

1. Turn the transfer lock back on: It isn't always applied automatically at the new registrar.
2. Check the expiry date: It should have moved forward by a year for most gTLDs.
3. Check the nameservers and DNS: Confirm dig +short example.com NS returns what you expect, and that your website and mail resolve.
4. Re-enable privacy: If you turned it off, turn it on again where your registrar offers it.
5. Re-enable DNSSEC: If you disabled it, publish the new DS record.
6. Set up auto-renew and billing: Add a payment method and switch on auto-renew. See how to set up domain auto-renewal.
7. Secure the new account: Two-factor authentication, a strong unique password, and a recovery email on another domain.
8. Cancel old services: Only after everything works, cancel any DNS, email forwarding or hosting you no longer need at the old registrar.

Under the Transfer Policy, a domain usually can't move again for a period after a transfer, so pick a registrar you're happy to stay with for at least a few months.

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FAQ: Transferring a Domain

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Conclusion

Transferring a domain to another registrar comes down to three actions: unlock it, get the auth code, and start the transfer at the new registrar. The registry does the rest, and if the losing registrar doesn't act, the transfer approves itself after five days. For most generic domains, you also gain a year on the registration, so nothing is lost by moving.

The real work is in the preparation. Check that the domain is eligible, keep the registrant email current, and make sure DNS and DNSSEC don't depend on the registrar you're leaving. Once the domain arrives, lock it again, confirm the expiry date and DNS, and turn on auto-renew. Handled in that order, a transfer is a quiet administrative change rather than an outage.