Know which of three prices you are quoted

Three prices, three sellers

Type a name into a registrar's search and one figure comes back. It is one of three prices, set by three parties, and the figure alone does not tell you which one.

The first is a standard registration. The registry, the company that runs the ending, charges every registrar the same wholesale feeWholesale feeWhat the company that runs an ending charges a registrar for each name a year. The registrar adds its own markup to reach the price you pay.Read the definition per name and per year. The registrar, the company that sells you the name, adds its own markup. The resulting price is the same for every unregistered name on the ending.

The second is a registry premium. Before any buyer arrives, the registry picks names on its ending for the word they contain, and puts a higher price on each one. Donuts, which was then launching its new endings, planned several fixed price levels within each ending: "two, three, four, five, six", in the words of its operating chief (Kevin Murphy, Domain Incite, 17 December 2013).

That report puts a standard name at about $10, $20 or $30 a year at retail in 2013, and a premium at hundreds of dollars a year, with the vast majority under $1,000. At one registrar in December 2013, a standard .clothing name cost $34.99 and used.clothing cost $400. Both of those figures include the registrar's markup.

The third is an owner's ask. This is a price set by someone who already registered the name and offers it for resale. Registrars show these listings in the same search results as unregistered names, usually under the word premium, and they sell them with the same button.

The standard registration: one fee, many markups

Of the three prices, only the standard registration is public and the same for every name on its ending. On .com, the wholesale fee was held at $7.85 a year from 2012, reached $10.26 on 1 September 2024 and rose to $10.97 on 1 November 2026 (Andrew Allemann, Domain Name Wire, 20 August 2024 and 23 April 2026).

The markup belongs to the registrar. In August 2024, Allemann found GoDaddy's list priceList priceThe price a registrar publishes for an ending, before any coupon or bundle. It is what anyone pays who simply adds the name to the cart.Read the definition for a .com at $21.99 a year and Namecheap's at $13.98, discounted to $10.28 for up to two years. Cloudflare sold at the wholesale fee. At list price, the same name cost twice as much at one registrar as at another.

Across the registrars we price, .com's median first year is $11.62, and the median renewalRenewalThe yearly fee that keeps a domain yours. You pay it for as long as you hold the name, and on some endings it costs far more than the first year did.Read the definition is $13.40. At Cloudflare the first year is $11.17, and at GoDaddy it is $9.19. The gap between them is the registrars' pricing, and it says nothing about the name.

So with a standard registration, you are deciding on the name alone. Its price says nothing about what the word is worth. A first year that costs one dollar is an advertisement, not a verdict.

The registry premium: set on the word before you came

A registry premium is a price on one name. The registry chooses that name for its word, and the price applies to whoever registers it. Kevin Murphy's report of 17 December 2013 noted that, before that year's new endings, no notable ending except .tv had priced names this way.

The price levels run high. Radix, the company that runs .tech, .space and .fun, reported 4,424 new premium registrations in the first half of 2026. Among them were 112 at $5,000 a year, 37 at $10,000 a year and two at $25,000 a year (Domain Name Wire, 22 July 2026).

Most registry premiums renew at the premium price. Some endings charge the higher price for the first year only and then go back to regular fees, Allemann wrote on Domain Name Wire on 1 June 2022. Most endings, the article says, charge more at registration and at every renewal. So ask the registrar before you register.

A registry can also change its list of premium names. On 21 February 2024, the .art registry moved about one million names, most of them priced at $70 wholesale, from its premium price levels to the regular price. It kept about 2.375 million names at premium, on an ending with about 250,000 registered names (Domain Name Wire).

So with a registry premium, you are deciding on a yearly cost. Read that cost on the name itself, and never guess it from the ending. Open such a name in Browse, and the Price line in its drawer reads Premium at the registry.

The owner's ask: a listing shown as a registration

The owner's ask is the price most founders meet without knowing it. Someone else registered the name years ago and listed it for resale, and it appears in a registrar's search beside the unregistered names. It often sits under the word premium, with the same Buy button.

Namecheap's help page on premium names, updated in May 2026, separates two kinds. A name sold by its current holder usually carries a one-time purchase fee, and after that it renews and transfers at the ending's regular cost. The registrar arranges the deal with the holder, who may take days to hand the name over.

A registry premium, the same page says, often carries its own pricing for the purchase, the renewal and the transfer. A holder can also list a registry premium for resale, so one name can carry both kinds of price.

Fixed asks are the norm. In the Global Domain Report 2026 by InterNetX and Sedo, 76% of Sedo's sales were Buy NowBuy nowA listing with a fixed price you can pay at once to get the name.Read the definition and 8% were negotiated offers. And 56% of the sales went through partners, such as registrars that show Sedo's listings in their own search (Domain Name Wire, 23 March 2026).

The figures are smaller than the ones in the headlines. The same Global Domain Report 2026 put Sedo's median sale at $818, and its median for .com at $595.

Allemann's article of 1 June 2022 says that the majority of names sell for $5,000 or less, and that sellers sometimes take payment over months. On .com, the 12-month median of the sales we track is $810, and the number of those sales is 28,214.

So an ask is a one-time purchase, and after it the name renews like any other name on its ending. The figure is one holder's opening price. Buying from a holder has its own chapter. In this one, name the kind of price first.

The same name at two registrars

One more thing makes the figure unreliable, and that is the registrar. For a registry premium, the registry sets the wholesale price level and each registrar adds its own markup, as the .clothing prices of 2013 showed. So one premium name can carry three different prices at three registrars on the same day.

The same is true of an owner's ask. One marketplaceMarketplaceA site where owners list domains for sale and buyers make offers, such as Sedo or Afternic.Read the definition listing is shown by many registrars at once, and the seller's price may leave out the transfer fee, as Namecheap's page warns. So the holder's figure is where your price starts, not where it ends.

New endings add a fourth price for a week. Early accessEarly accessThe days before general availability when anyone can register a name on a new ending for a one-time fee that falls each day.Read the definition is the days before general availabilityGeneral availabilityThe day anyone can register names on a new ending, first come, first served.Read the definition, when an ending opens to everyone. During those days, registrars charge a fee that falls each day and then disappears. The second case below follows the prices of one such week.

So ask two questions before you read the figure: who set it, and what does it commit you to next year? A registration commits you to the ending's renewal. A registry premium commits you to its price level. An ask commits you once, and then to the ending's renewal. A launch fee commits you to a date.

Read the kind on the name in Browse

Unique Domains reads the kind of each price from the status the scanner stores. That is how Browse can name the kind beside the figure.

1. 1In Browse's table view, hover over the Price column of a row. Its card shows Price now, Sold by and Listing type. Listing type reads registration, premium, listed or auction.
2. 2Open the name. Its Price line reads Free to register, Premium at the registry or Listed for sale. Its main button carries the verb and the registrar. The verb is Register for a standard name, and Buy for a premium or a listing.
3. 3Under Price and cost, read Year 1Year 1What a new domain costs to register for its first year. Registrars often lower it to win the sale, so it can be far below the renewal.Read the definition, Renewal and Five years together. A high Year 1 with a Renewal at the ending's regular price is a listing, or a premium that goes back to regular fees after the first year. A Renewal near Year 1 is a premium that renews at the premium.
4. 4Under The ending, each registrar we price shows its first year and its renewal. Price source marks the registrar that the name's price comes from. The gap between that list and the name's price is the premium or the ask.

Before you read the figure

• Read the kind of price before the figure: registration, registry premium, listing or auction.
• Compare the name's price with the ending's first year at the same registrar.
• For any price above the ending's price, ask the registrar in writing which kind it is.
• Read the renewal on the name, not on the ending, because a registry premium can renew at the premium.
• For a listing, ask when the name reaches your account and whether a transfer fee is included.
• Treat a listed figure as the holder's opening price, even when it sits behind a Buy Now button.
• On a new ending, check which day of the launch you are on before you pay a launch fee.
• Check the same name at a second registrar, because the markup is the registrar's.