Reactivating an expired Squarespace domain

Domain renewal grace periods and how to reactivate an expired domain.

Last updated February 5, 2025

Squarespace domains renew automatically to keep your site running smoothly. If we're unable to charge your payment method for a renewal after multiple tries or if you've disabled auto-renew, your domain expires. You'll then enter a grace period for more time to renew your domain.

Depending on the registrar of record for your domain, the grace period for how long you have to renew your domain varies. Past your domain's grace period, we can't guarantee your domain will be available for renewal.

Note

If your domain expires, it's important to reactivate it before its renewal grace period ends. After that, you could permanently lose access to your domain if someone else purchases it. To ensure you retain access to your domain, keep its billing information up to date, and if the domain expires, reactivate it before its grace period ends.

Before you begin

  • When you register or transfer your domain to Squarespace, we are the domain provider. We manage our domain registrations through multiple registrars: Squarespace Domains LLC, Squarespace Domains II LLC, the Tucows family of registrars, and the Key Systems family of registrars. If you're unsure who your domain registrar is, visit Who’s my domain provider?
  • It's not possible to reactivate a domain that's transferring away from Squarespace. If your new domain provider requires an active Squarespace domain, first cancel the transfer, then reactivate the domain before restarting the transfer process.
  • If you have a country code top-level domain (ccTLD), review your ccTLD’s guidelines to determine if expired domains are eligible for renewal.

Identify an expired domain

Unless you intentionally chose to not renew, domains typically expire when there's an issue with your payment method. You'll know your domain expired when:

  • We send you an email notification about the expiration
  • You see an expiration notification under the domain in your domains dashboard

Tip

If you see an error message that says “Payment is past due" in your domains dashboard, update your payment information and retry the payment.

Grace periods for expired domains

After your domain expires, you'll enter a grace period to renew your domain. The length of your grace period depends on your domain's registrar.

Domain registrar Grace period
Squarespace Domains LLC
Squarespace Domains II LLC
  • 30 days
  • To renew an expired domain, ensure you have a valid payment method linked to your domain, then renew your domain in your domains dashboard.
  • Past 30 days, we can't guarantee your domain will be available for renewal.
Tucows
Key Systems
  • 25 days
  • Country code top-level domains (ccTLDs) follow different rules than other TLDs. To learn more about the grace period for your ccTLD, visit ccTLD basics.

Reactivate an expired domain

To reactivate your domain:

  1. Open your domains dashboard.
  2. Click the expired domain.
  3. Click Renew Domain.
  4. Review the order summary and payment information that appears. To use a different card for this payment, click Edit next to your payment information.
  5. Click Confirm payment to renew the domain.

After renewing, it may take up to 72 hours for your domain to renew and direct to your site.

Reactivating expired domains doesn't affect billing cycles

Reactivating your expired domain won't affect its billing cycle. You'll stay on the same domain billing cycle, and your domain will continue to renew at the original renewal date. You can find the renewal date of your domain in your domains dashboard.

Stay on an annual plan to keep a free domain

Eligible Squarespace sites on an annual billing plan include one free custom domain for one year. If you’re using a free Squarespace domain, your site must remain on an annual billing plan. If you switch to a monthly plan, you'll see a message asking you to either keep your domain and renew it for its listed price annually or cancel the domain completely.

If you have a free legacy domain, your site must stay active and on an annual billing plan to keep the domain active.

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Reactivating an expired Squarespace domain