How to Transfer a Domain to Another Registrar (2026 Guide) | Coupo9
How-to7 min read
How to Transfer a Domain to Another Registrar
A domain transfer takes about a week, keeps your site online and adds a year to your expiry date. Here are the steps, ICANN's 60-day locks that block transfers, what it costs and when to start.
To transfer a domain to another registrar, unlock it at your current registrar, get its authorization code, start the transfer at the new registrar and approve the confirmation email. For a .com, that usually takes under a week, and your website and email keep working the whole time.
Most people move a domain to escape a renewal price that has quietly doubled. The transfer itself is cheap insurance against that: for most generic domains like .com, the fee buys a year of registration that gets added to your current expiry date, so you don't lose the time you already paid for.
What stops transfers is timing, not difficulty. ICANN, which sets the rules for generic domains, blocks transfers in a few specific windows, and missing one can cost you two months. Here's the order that works when you transfer a domain to another registrar, and the checks to run first.
Start at least two weeks before your domain expires, never in the final days.
Don't change the owner name or email right before a transfer: it can trigger a 60-day lock.
Unlock the domain, get the auth code, and keep your DNS records written down.
A gTLD transfer adds one year to your expiry date, capped at ten years in total.
Approve the old registrar's email to finish in hours instead of five days.
Check these before you start
Three things can block a transfer under ICANN's rules for generic domains like .com, .net and .org. The ICANN FAQ for domain holders, checked 4 November 2026, lists them:
New domains. A registrar can refuse a transfer within 60 days of the first registration.
Recent transfers. It can also refuse within 60 days of the last registrar change.
Owner changes. Changing the registrant name, organisation or email address can put a 60-day lock on transfers. Some registrars let you opt out when you make the change, but they don't have to.
That last one catches people who tidy up their contact details right before moving. If you need to update the owner email, do it after the transfer, or opt out of the lock if your registrar offers it.
Also check where your DNS lives. If your current registrar also runs your DNS, copy every record (A, CNAME, MX, TXT) into a note now. Some registrars remove their DNS service the moment the domain leaves.
Step by step
11. Unlock the domain
Turn off the registrar lock, sometimes called transfer lock or domain lock. Cloudflare's transfer guide notes that some registrars have more than one lock setting and each needs switching off separately.
22. Get the auth code
The authorization code (also called the EPP or transfer code) proves you own the domain. ICANN requires your registrar to give it to you within five calendar days of asking if you can't generate it yourself. At Namecheap, both the unlock and the code sit under Domain List, Manage, then the Sharing & Transfer tab, and the code goes to the registrant email, which isn't always your account email (Namecheap's transfer-out guide, checked 4 November 2026).
33. Start the transfer at the new registrar
Search for the domain on the new registrar's transfer page, paste the code and pay. The new registrar sends an authorization email to the domain's contact address, so make sure you can receive it.
44. Approve the release
Your old registrar usually emails you too. Under ICANN's Transfer Policy, if it doesn't respond within five calendar days, the transfer is approved by default. Approving it yourself is the fastest way to finish.
What happens to the years you already paid
Nothing is lost. ICANN's Transfer Policy says a completed transfer adds one year to the existing registration, as long as the total remaining term doesn't go past ten years.
So a .com expiring next March, moved in November, will expire the March after. You pay the new registrar's transfer fee, and that fee is effectively your next renewal. If you already hold nine or more years, ask the new registrar how it handles the cap before paying.
Country-code domains follow their own registry rules. Cloudflare's domain transfer documentation, checked 4 November 2026, says some ccTLD transfers add no year and charge no fee.
Just renewed after expiry?
Cloudflare advises waiting at least 45 days after the original expiry date before transferring a domain you renewed late. Otherwise the registry may not add the extra year.
What a transfer costs
The fee depends on the extension, because each registry sets its own base price. Here's what the registrars' own pages said on 4 November 2026:
Registrar
.com transfer price
What it includes
Hostinger
From ₹969, before GST
A year added to the current expiry, free WHOIS privacy on eligible domains
Cloudflare
At cost, no markup (no figure on its docs page)
A year added; you must use Cloudflare's DNS
Namecheap, GoDaddy
Not listed here
Their price pages block automated checks, so open them in your browser
Compare the transfer price with your current renewal quote, then check what the new registrar charges at its next renewal. A cheap transfer into a high renewal only moves the problem a year. Our guide to saving on domain name renewals covers how to read those prices.
When to start
Start two to four weeks before the expiry date. That leaves room for a slow release, a missed email or a lock you didn't know about, without the domain lapsing mid-transfer.
You don't need to rush in the final week to save the renewal, either. ICANN's FAQ says a registrar can't refuse to transfer an expired domain just because it wasn't renewed, unless a previous period was left unpaid. But relying on that leaves your site and email exposed, so don't plan around it.
If you're also changing hosts, move the domain separately from the website. Do the hosting move first with our guide to moving a WordPress site to a new host, check everything works, then transfer the domain. Changing one thing at a time makes problems easy to trace.
Common mistakes that stall a transfer
An old registrant email. The auth code and confirmations go there. Update it well ahead, keeping the 60-day lock in mind.
DNSSEC left on. If you're switching nameservers as part of the move, Cloudflare says to disable DNSSEC first and wait 24 hours, or the domain can stop resolving.
Forgotten DNS records. Re-create your MX records at the new DNS provider before the old one stops answering, or email goes missing.
Bundled domains. A free domain from your host may come with a dated renewal price; our table of web hosting renewal prices shows how those bundles change after year one.
If you're still choosing where the site itself should live, our guide on how to choose web hosting helps you pick a plan by its three-year cost.
Our take
Choosing to transfer a domain to another registrar is one of the easiest savings in your software budget, and the rules mostly protect you. The one-year extension means you lose nothing you paid for, and a quiet old registrar can't hold the domain for more than five days.
The real risks are self-inflicted: starting in the final week, changing the owner email right before the move, or losing DNS records. Avoid those three and the transfer is mostly waiting.
So pick the registrar with the fairest renewal price, not the cheapest first year. Unlock, grab the code, approve the email, and check the new expiry date once it lands. The same habit of pricing the renewal, not the sticker, runs through our guide to saving money on software subscriptions. Do it a few weeks early and you can transfer a domain to another registrar without your site or inbox noticing.
FAQs
Most .com transfers finish within a week. Hostinger quotes up to seven days and Cloudflare up to ten, depending on the old registrar. The old registrar has five calendar days to respond before the transfer is approved by default. Approving the release email yourself can finish it much sooner.
Topics
web hosting
C
Written by
Coupo9 Editorial
Every statistic in our guides names its source, and prices come from the brand's own pricing page. When the facts behind a guide change, we update it or take it down.
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