Automatic renewal

At Gandi, domain names are not automatically renewed unless you have deliberately activated this service.

If you do not activate this service and do not renew manually, you will not be billed, your domain name registration will expire, and it will eventually be deleted. The time required for deletion after the expiration date varies from -6 days to over 65 days, depending on the extension.

Automatic renewals are paid for via your prepaid account. For this to happen, your prepaid account must have sufficient funds to cover the renewal, or you must have a credit card on file. The renewal operation will first attempt to debit your prepaid account to pay for the order created by the system. If there are insufficient funds, the system will use one of the payment methods saved under the respective organization. If no payment method is available, the renewal will not be processed.

Only the domain owner (or a member of the domain owner's team), a user with Administrative rights or Billing rights can activate or deactivate automatic domain renewal.

The date and time at which a domain is deleted depends entirely on the registry in question and may vary for each extension. You can find more information on these deletion dates on our Renewal Deadlines page. Please also note that a domain marked for deletion is not necessarily deleted on the precise date indicated. Some registries add a random delay before making the domain available for registration again, in order to preserve registration neutrality.

As a general rule, to ensure that automatic renewal occurs, it's best to activate this option at least 32 days before the domain expires.

How to activate / deactivate automatic renewal

You can activate automatic renewal for new products when you place your domain registration order.

Warning

Domain name renewals cannot be canceled, and therefore cannot be refunded.

For a single domain

Only the domain owner or a member of the domain "Owner" team, the Administrative contact or the Billing contact can activate/deactivate this option for a domain.

In the Overview menu, click on "Change" to the right of "Automatic renewal disabled" in the Domain Information section. On the next page toggle the "Automatic renewal disabled" switch so that it turns purple and reads "Automatic renewal enabled", then select the account to be billed for this operation from the drop down menu below. Confirm your choice by clicking on "Update".

To deactivate automatic renewal, follow the same process, but make sure that the switch displays "Automatic renewal disabled".

For multiple domains

To activate / deactivate automatic renewal for several domains at once:

1. Switch to Advanced View. 
2. Check the box to the left of the domains you wish to activate automatic renewal, and select [Automatic Renewal] at the bottom of the page. 
3. Toggle the switch to "On" (purple). 
4. Select the organization that will be billed for these operations, and update. 
5. To deactivate these automatic renewals, perform the same operation, but set the switch to "Disabled".

IMPORTANT Automatic renewal will not work if your domain has already expired. Your prepaid account must have sufficient funds in it (or a payment method must be available on it) for automatic renewal to work.

How does it work?

For most extensions, the system will attempt to renew your domain 31 days, 15 days, and 1 day before the expiry date (or mandatory renewal date for some extensions). 

In order for the order to be validated, your prepaid account (of the organization chosen for Billing) must have sufficient funds OR a credit card must be linked to the prepaid account. 

GANDI can't renew products prior to a payment having been validated for the transaction (deferred payment), due to registry rules. Once the renewal is complete, the domain's billing contact will be informed by email.

Most Corporate extensions require manual renewal, which is usually initiated 45 days before the domain name expires. If you wish to deactivate automatic renewal on a Corporate extension, please do so at least 45 days before expiration. Otherwise, the renewal operation will have already been initiated and cannot be cancelled. No refund will be issued.

If you do not wish a domain to be renewed, you must deactivate automatic renewal at least 32 days prior to the domain's expiration date.

The deadline for renewal varies from one extension to another and is not necessarily the same as the expiration date.

Tip

When auto-renewal is enabled for a domain, an [A] will be displayed to the right of the domain in your domain lists, and expiration dates will be displayed in green.

Renewal reminders 

When does Gandi send renewal reminders?

Domain renewal reminders are sent by Gandi as follows:

2 months before the renewal end date (billing contact only)

1 month before renewal end date (to billing and administrative contacts, and to the owner)

15 days before renewal end date (to billing and administrative contacts, and to the owner)

1 day before renewal end date (to all contacts)

The day of deletion of the domain at Gandi (to all contacts)

However, if the domain name is managed by a reseller, reminder emails are only sent to the reseller responsible for managing the domain as only they can renew it via their Gandi account.

For domain names with an extension managed by ICANN

In addition to the reminders mentioned above, the owner contact receives reminders by email:

1 month before expiration

7 days before expiration