WHOIS domain lookup

What is WHOIS domain lookup?

WHOIS is the public registration record of a domain. Every domain has one, showing who sells it, when it was registered, when it expires, and which locks are currently applied. It is the first thing to check before buying a domain, before starting a transfer to another provider, or when you need to know how long an unfamiliar domain has existed.

Since 2025 ICANN has moved to RDAP, a replacement protocol that returns structured data instead of raw text. This tool tries RDAP first, and where a top-level domain has no RDAP service it falls back to WHOIS on port 43, discovering the right server through IANA. That is how it still covers older suffixes that RDAP has not reached, such as .cn.

One thing worth knowing up front: since GDPR came into force, the personal details of the registrant are redacted almost everywhere. What remains visible are the dates, the registrar and the status flags, which in practice is the useful part anyway. The .vn suffix is a special case with no automated lookup at all, because the registry publishes neither a port 43 service nor an RDAP endpoint.

Domain status is the field people skip and then regret. clientTransferProhibited means the domain is locked against transfer, so you have to unlock it at your current registrar first, otherwise the transfer will simply fail with no clear explanation.

How to use

• Enter the domain. Pasting a full URL or an email address works too, the domain is extracted for you.
• Look at the expiry date first, it is the field people need most often.
• Check the status flags if you are planning to move the domain to another registrar.
• Compare the name servers against your current DNS setup; a mismatch means your changes have not taken effect.
• Open the raw data section if you need a field the table above does not show.

Frequently asked questions