Checking a list? Use the bulk domain age checker for up to 100 at once.
What domain age actually measures
Domain age is the time elapsed since a domain name was first registered in its registry's database. That date is set once, at the moment of first registration, and it is the only date the registry treats as the domain's origin.
It is worth being precise about what this does not tell you, because most tools blur the distinction:
- It is not the website's age. A domain can sit unused for years before anyone builds on it.
- It is not the current owner's tenure. Transfers do not reset the creation date, so an old date may belong to a previous owner.
- An expired domain that lapses and is re-registered gets a new date. The original history is gone from the registry record.
Why people check domain age
Assessing trust
A domain registered days ago and already sending you payment requests is a meaningful warning sign. Most fraudulent sites use domains that are weeks old at most, because their domains get taken down and replaced constantly.
Buying and valuing domains
Registration date is one input into what a domain is worth, alongside its length, extension and history. It is a fact you can verify rather than take a seller's word for.
SEO research
Google has stated plainly that domain age is not a ranking factor. What age correlates with is opportunity — an older domain has had longer to earn links and build a history. That is worth knowing when you study a competitor, but registering a domain earlier does not itself lift rankings.
Where this data comes from
Every answer here comes from the registry that actually operates the
top-level domain — Verisign for .com, Nominet for .uk,
AFNIC for .fr, and so on. There is no data vendor in between, and
nothing is estimated.
Two protocols carry that data:
RDAP (Registration Data Access Protocol) is the modern standard. It returns structured JSON with typed fields, so the creation date is read rather than guessed at. It is used wherever a registry publishes it — 1,200 top-level domains at the time of writing.
WHOIS is the older text-based protocol, used here only for the
handful of TLDs that publish no RDAP service, such as .io and
.jp. WHOIS output is free-form text that differs between
registries, so those results are pattern-matched and labelled as such in the
response.
Coverage, including what does not work
Most tools quietly report "not found" when a registry simply refuses to answer. Here is the honest picture:
| Extension | Source | What you get |
|---|---|---|
.com .org .net .dev .app .fr .co.uk | RDAP | Full record |
.io | WHOIS | Date, registrar, nameservers |
.jp | WHOIS | Date only |
.au | RDAP | No creation date published |
.de | — | DENIC publishes no date at all |
Around 1,200 top-level domains resolve. Where a registry publishes nothing, this tool says so rather than implying the domain is unregistered.
Frequently asked questions
Does domain age affect SEO?
Not directly. Google has repeatedly said domain age is not a ranking factor. Older domains often rank better because they have had longer to accumulate links and content, not because of the registration date itself.
Why does a domain show a date newer than I expected?
The domain most likely expired at some point and was re-registered. The registry only stores the current registration's creation date.
Can I check several domains at once?
Yes — the bulk checker handles up to 100 domains and exports the results as CSV.
Is it free?
Yes, with no signup and no API key. Results are cached for a week, since a registration date can never change once set.
Why do some domains return no date?
Because the registry does not publish one. .de and
.au are the common cases. No tool can retrieve data a registry
withholds, and any tool that shows you a date for these is estimating.