Also called grace period · auto-renew grace period
Renewal grace period, explained
Its length is set by each registrar, not by one rule. For .com, the registry automatically renews an expired name and gives the registrar 45 days to delete it for a refund; for a typical gTLD ICANN describes the period as up to 45 days, so registrar grace periods fall within that window, commonly about a month. ICANN's Expired Registration Recovery Policy requires the website and email to stop working for at least the last eight days the name can be renewed, as a final warning. A gTLD name that is then deleted enters a 30-day redemption period, followed by five days of pending delete.
Treat the grace period as a safety net, not a plan. Many registrars list expiring names in their own auctions during it, and some ccTLDs offer little or no grace at all. Keep auto-renew on and payment methods current. When you are the buyer, remember that the owner can renew at any point in this window, so an expiring name you are watching is not available yet, and depending on the registrar's terms, an auction win can be cancelled if the original owner recovers the name in time.
Example. Renewing a forgotten .com twenty days after it expired, at the regular price and with no restore fee, is using the renewal grace period.
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