.UK Domain Name Rules/Requirements

Note

The .uk Right of Registration period ended on 25th June 2019 at 06:00 BST (UTC+1). More information can be viewed here.

Domain Name related Rules

Common Domain Name Rules (Anchor: common)

Domain Name Registration (Anchor: reg)

  • A .UK domain name may be Registered for 1 to 10 years.

  • The maximum length of a .UK domain name is 64 characters (including the extension).

    The minimum length depends upon the extension under which the domain name is being registered:

    • under .CO.UK/.ME.UK extensions - 6 characters (including the extension)

    • under .ORG.UK extension - 7 characters (including the extension)

  • Allowed characters (excluding the extension):

    • The domain name may consist of only the following: a - z, 0 - 9 and hyphen (-).

    • The domain name may not have a hyphen as the first and/or last character as well as the third and fourth character (simultaneously).

    • The domain name may not consist of only 2 letters; however, it may have a letter and a number or 2 numbers.

      Example:

      Registration for ab.co.uk is not allowed whereas Registration of 1c.co.uk or 23.co.uk is permitted.

    • The domain name may not be identical to any existing Second Level extension (CO, LTD, ME, NET, ORG, PLC, AC, GOV, MOD, MIL, NHS, POLICE, NIC, SCH) or any Second Level extension under .UK the creation of which has formally been announced by the .UK Registry. For example, Registration of org.co.uk or nhs.org.uk is not permitted.

    • The domain name may not be identical to any existing Top Level extension (COM, NET, UK, EU, etc.) or any Top Level extension the formal approval of which has been announced by ICANN (the regulatory body overseeing the functioning of the Internet). For example, Registration of com.co.uk or eu.org.uk is not allowed.

  • Note

    Grandfathering process is no longer applicable to .UK domain names.

  • A .UK domain name does not have a Money Back Grace Period.

  • The Bulk Registration feature is not available for .UK domain names.

    Additional Information

    Bulk Registration

  • .UK domain names do not support Internationalized Domain Names (IDN).

Domain Name Renewal (Anchor: ren)

  • A .UK domain name may be Renewed for 1 to 10 years.

  • You may renew your .UK domain name anytime before its Expiry, upto 90 days after its Expiry.

  • Upon Expiry of a .UK domain name:

    • any service such as email, website, etc., configured for this domain name will continue to work till 30 days, post which the domain will be suspended at the registry and any associated services will stop working.

    • if the .UK domain name is not Renewed until 90 days, the domain name would get Deleted and made available for fresh registration.

      It is important to note that there is no concept of a Redemption Grace Period in case of a .UK domain name.

      Additional Information

      What is Redemption Grace Period?

Domain Name Transfer (Anchor: trf)

  • Transfer of a .UK domain name does not include one year Renewal.

  • The 60 day Registration/Transfer Lock is not applicable in case of .UK domain names.

  • .UK domain names do not have a Domain (Transfer) Secret Key/Authorization Code.

  • The Bulk Transfer feature is not available for .UK domain names.

    Additional Information

    Bulk Transfer

Contact Details related Rules (Anchor: contact)

  • .UK domain names use the .UK Contact Contact database in the system.

    .UK domain names use only the Registrant Contact.

  • .UK domain names do not support IPNIC.COM's Privacy Protection feature.

    Additional Information

    What is Privacy Protection?

  • The Bulk Modify and Bulk Privacy Protection features are not available for .UK domain names.

    Additional Information

    Bulk Modify

    Bulk Privacy Protection

  • Registrants who are non-trading individuals (those who do not use or plan to use their domain name for business, trade [including registration of domain names for monetization purposes] or professional transactions) can choose to opt out of having their Contact Details displayed in the Whois lookup.

    This option can be enabled by the Registrant from within his Nominet control panel.

  • The Identity of the Registrant Contact cannot be modified for free.

    Identity refers to:

    • Name of the Registrant Contact, if the Registrant Contact is an individual

    • Company Name of the Registrant Contact, if the Registrant Contact is a non-individual

  • Note

    Service Contact is no longer required for .UK domain names.

Name Servers and Child Name Servers related Rules (Anchor: ns)

  • Each .UK domain name needs to have at least 2 Name Servers and may have upto 10 Name Servers.

  • There is no limitation on the number of Child Name Servers you may create.

  • You may associate only a single unique IP Address per Child Name Server.

  • You may modify both Name Servers as well as any Child Name Servers associated with your .UK domain name.

    Additional Information

    Changing Name Servers of a Domain Name

    Registering and Managing Child Name Servers

  • Deletion of a Child Name Server under a .UK domain name is not allowed.