ENS App and Explorer are on the Sepolia testnet. Features may change before mainnet.
How much does a .eth name cost?
Two variables determine the cost of a .eth name:
Base price: depends on the character length of the name.
Multi-year discount: depends on how many years you add in one go.
Base price
.eth name pricing is based on character count and charged in USDC, a stablecoin (a token that holds a value of one US dollar).
Name length | Example | Annual fee |
5+ characters |
| $8 |
4 characters |
| $160 |
3 characters |
| $640 |
Multi-year discount
Whether registering or renewing, the time you add in one go sets a discount rate applied to the base price.
Term | Discount off annual rate |
1 year | None |
2 years | ~12.5% |
3 years | ~31% |
4 years | ~31% |
5 years | ~31% |
6 years and above | ~44% (maximum; no cap on term length) |
See Multi-year discounts on registration and renewal for worked examples.
Gas fees
Every registration, renewal, and record change is an Ethereum transaction, which means gas. Gas is paid in ETH and changes with network demand.
What you actually pay
You pay the base price, times the years you add, minus the discount for that many years.
Example (3 years, 5+ character name):
$16.50 = $8 × 3 years × (100% − 31.25%)
Effective $5.50 p.a.
During registration and renewal, the full cost of the time being added appears as a calculation of base price, years added, and discount rate.
What happens to the price when a name expires?
Grace period (28 days after expiry). You can still renew the name at the standard price; nobody else can register it. See Expiry & grace period.
Price Cooldown (21 days after grace ends). Anyone can register the name, but an additional one-time fee applies on top of the standard registration fee. It starts at $100 million (a price nobody is meant to pay) and falls to $0 over the 21 days. You have to register it as new, not renew it. See Price Cooldown.
Available. Once the additional fee reaches $0, the name costs the standard registration fee, like any other.
Common questions
Why does ENS charge fees?
Fees do two things. They stop name hoarding by making it expensive to sit on a large stockpile, which keeps names available for people who will use them. And they fund ongoing ENS development through the ENS DAO, the community that governs ENS. Those are the only two purposes; see the ENS DAO Constitution.
Are there fees on subnames?
ENS only sets fees for .eth second-level names like name.eth. Subnames such as sub.name.eth are issued by whoever controls the parent name, and they decide whether to charge.
Can I register a 1- or 2-character .eth name?
No. The shortest .eth name you can register is 3 characters.