ENS App and Explorer are on the Sepolia testnet. Features may change before mainnet.
A .eth name is yours for the time you pay for. Nobody can take it while it is registered, and you can renew at any time to push the expiry date forward. If you let it expire, it passes through three more stages: 28 days of Grace Period, 21 days of Price Cooldown, then it is available to anyone at the normal price.
Good to know
Anyone can renew any
.ethname, at any point until Price Cooldown starts. Renewing never changes who owns it.A name cannot be destroyed or released to others before its expiry date, and the expiry date cannot be made shorter.
Names not yet upgraded to ENSv2 keep the 90-day grace period. The end date is the same either way: upgrading adds a free 62-day renewal, and 90 minus 28 is 62.
The four stages
Each stage decides what you can do with the name:
Stage | What it means |
Registered / Owned name | Name resolves. You can renew, edit records, and transfer at any time. |
Grace period (0–28 days after expiry) | Name stops resolving, shows as expired. No transfers or record edits. You can still renew at the standard price. Doing so restores the name. |
Price Cooldown (21 days) | Open to anyone. An additional fee starts at $100 million and drops exponentially to $0. First come, first served. |
Available again | Normal annual price. First come, first served. |
Registered
You own the name and control its records, its subnames and who it points to, until the registration expires. Renew at any time to add time; early renewal just adds to what is left. See Renew (extend) a name.
Grace Period (28 days)
For 28 days after expiry the name stops working, cannot be transferred, and nobody else can register it. Anyone can still renew it at the standard price, which brings it straight back with its records. To transfer a name in grace, renew it first.
Important: a renewal in Grace Period runs from the original expiry date, not from today. If a name expired 25 days ago and you renew by 10 days, it is still in Grace Period for another 15 days. To bring it fully back, renew by more than the time already past expiry.
If nobody renews within the 28 days, the name is released into Price Cooldown and has to be registered as new. For the full guide, see Expiry & grace period.
Price Cooldown (21 days)
Anyone can register the name by paying the standard annual fee plus an additional fee. The additional fee starts at $100 million, a price nobody is meant to pay (it stops bots grabbing names), and falls to $0 over 21 days, fast at first and then slowly. You can watch it drop in the ENS App. Register now at the current fee, or wait for it to fall, knowing someone else may register first. The previous owner has no priority. See Price Cooldown.
Available again
Once the additional fee reaches $0, the name is open at the standard fee like any other: $640 a year for 3 characters, $160 for 4, $8 for 5 or more. See Pricing & Fees.
Common questions
Can anyone renew a name?
Yes. Anyone can renew any .eth name at any point in its registration, including during Grace Period. Renewing never changes ownership: the name stays with its owner, and the payer simply pushes the expiry date forward.
Can I renew a name that is in Price Cooldown?
No. Once Grace Period ends, the name has to be registered as new, not renewed, and the previous owner has no priority over anyone else.