.com Price Increase 2026: What Changes on 1 November and Should You Renew Early?
By Thomas Lovas Lokoy — researched and drafted with AI assistance, then fact-checked and approved by Thomas before publishing · Editorial policy
The short answer
On 1 November 2026, Verisign raises the wholesale price of a .com from $10.26 to $10.97 a year. That is the fee every registrar pays the registry for each new registration and each renewal year. Registrars set their own retail prices, so your bill will not necessarily rise by exactly 71 cents, but most .com prices are built on top of that fee and many are likely to move.
If you own a .com you plan to keep for years, renewing before 1 November can lock in today's price for the years you pay for. Whether it is worth doing depends on your registrar's current renewal price, how many years you can afford to prepay and whether you might move the name. This guide sets out the facts, the arithmetic and a short checklist.
What exactly is changing
Verisign announced the change with its first-quarter 2026 results. On the Q1 2026 earnings call on 23 April, CEO Jim Bidzos said it "raises the wholesale price from $10.26 to $10.97, effective 11/01/2026", that the new figure "is the maximum price that we can charge registrars", and that "registrars, however, are entirely price-unrestricted and can sell .com registrations at any retail price they choose." He put the combined .com and .net base at a record 176.1 million names.
On top of the registry fee, ICANN charges registrars a transaction fee of US$0.20 per domain-year for each add, renewal or transfer year. So the cost floor for a registrar selling a .com at cost moves from $10.46 to $11.17 a year.
| Until 31 October 2026 | From 1 November 2026 | |
|---|---|---|
| Verisign .com wholesale fee | $10.26 | $10.97 |
| ICANN fee per domain-year | $0.20 | $0.20 |
| Floor for an at-cost registrar | $10.46 | $11.17 |
| Change | +$0.71 a year (about 6.9%) |
Why .com prices can keep rising
The increase is allowed by the .com registry agreement. Verisign's 2020 quarterly report explains that the third amendment to that agreement permits the price of a .com to be increased by up to 7% "in each of the final four years of each six-year period beginning on October 26, 2018." The 2026 rise is the first in the current window, and the contract leaves room for further increases in later years. Nobody outside Verisign knows whether it will use all of them, so treat future rises as possible, not certain.
Does it hit renewals and transfers too?
Yes. Openprovider, a registrar that sells to resellers, says in its September 2026 explainer that the change applies to every .com registration, renewal and transfer, and that renewals completed before the date are billed at the old fee. Because an inbound transfer adds a year to the registration, it is priced like a renewal.
The domain reseller TLDES puts the practical point plainly on its price-change page: a renewal paid before 1 November 2026 is charged at the current price, and renewing now locks in that price for the whole period you pay for. It adds that most registrars let you renew up to 10 years ahead.
What registrars charge as of October 2026
Retail prices vary far more than the 71-cent wholesale change. These are prices published on each registrar's own page on 23 October 2026:
| Registrar | .com register | .com renew | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Porkbun | $11.08 | $11.08 | Single-year price including ICANN and other fees, per its domain price list |
| Dynadot | $10.88 | $10.88 | Same figure for transfer; first-year coupon shown, per its .com page |
| Cloudflare Registrar | At cost | At cost | Charges only what the registry charges, no markup, per its Registrar docs |
| Domain.com | Not shown | Not shown | 25% off eligible products with code NOTRICKS25 until 31 October 2026, per its domains page |
Two things stand out. First, prices sitting barely above the old floor, such as Dynadot's $10.88 and Porkbun's $11.08, have little room to absorb a higher wholesale fee, so watch them after 1 November. Second, a registrar that has always charged well above cost may not change its renewal price at all; its margin simply shrinks. Read your own registrar's renewal price rather than assuming.
When renewing early pays, and when it does not
The saving from renewing early is the price difference times the years you prepay. If your registrar passes the wholesale change through exactly, as an at-cost registrar does, each prepaid year saves $0.71. Five extra years would save $3.55 a name, and ten years $7.10.
That is real money on a portfolio of 100 names and pocket change on one. Weigh it against two costs:
- Cash tied up. Ten years of renewals is paid today.
- Names you might drop. Prepaying a name you abandon in two years wastes the rest.
A worked example. Say you run a small business with 20 .com names at an at-cost registrar: one main domain, a few typo and product names, and a handful bought for ideas you never built. Renewing all 20 for five extra years before 1 November saves 20 x 5 x $0.71, or $71, and ties up roughly 20 x 5 x $10.46, about $1,046, today. Renewing only the four names you will certainly keep saves $14.20 on about $209 prepaid. The second choice gives up most of the saving and almost none of the risk, which is why the keep, maybe and drop sort below comes first.
Openprovider's own advice to resellers is not to renew everything early: review which .com names expire in the next 12 months, check your auto-renew settings, and remember that a misconfigured auto-renew costs more than the early-renewal saving.
A checklist before 1 November
- List every .com you own and its expiry date. Our WHOIS lookup shows the expiry date and registrar for each name.
- Sort them into keep, maybe and drop. Prepay only the keepers.
- Check your registrar's current renewal price, not the first-year price. Our domain registration fees explainer shows where each part of the price comes from.
- Renew the keepers for the years you can afford, before 31 October in your registrar's time zone to be safe.
- Confirm auto-renew is on and the card on file is current. Our guide to renewing and protecting domains covers the grace periods if a renewal fails.
- Look for a promotion that covers renewals. Domain.com's NOTRICKS25 code applies to eligible products until 31 October 2026; check at checkout whether your renewal qualifies. See Domain.com's current offer.
Should you move to a cheaper registrar first?
Possibly, but timing matters. A transfer adds a year at the gaining registrar's price, and a name registered or transferred in the last 60 days usually cannot move again, as explained in our guide on the 60-day change-of-registrant lock. If you are going to switch anyway, doing it before 1 November means the year added by the transfer is priced on the old wholesale fee. If you are not sure, renewing where you are is the simpler choice. Our domain transfer guide walks through the steps.
Frequently asked questions
How much is the .com price increase in 2026?
Verisign's wholesale fee rises from $10.26 to $10.97 a year on 1 November 2026, an increase of 71 cents. Your registrar decides how much of that reaches your retail price.
Does the .com price increase apply to renewals?
Yes. The new fee applies to new registrations, renewals and transfers from 1 November 2026. Renewals paid before that date are billed at the old wholesale fee.
Can I lock in the old .com price?
Yes, by renewing before 1 November 2026 for as many years as you want to cover, usually up to 10 years ahead. You pay today's price for every year you prepay.
Will .com prices go up again?
They can. The .com registry agreement allows increases of up to 7% in each of the final four years of each six-year period that began on 26 October 2018. Whether Verisign uses that headroom is its decision.
Does the change affect .net?
This article covers .com. Verisign also runs .net under a separate agreement with its own pricing terms, so check your registrar's .net price separately.
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