Insight .com price increase 2026: renew a year or two early, but skip the ten-year lock-in

The .com price increase on 1 November 2026 is real, but it is small and capped. If you plan to keep a .com and it renews within the next year or two, renewing it before 1 November is a sensible move. Paying for ten years now, to dodge rises that may never be as steep as the contract allows, rarely is.

What the .com price increase in 2026 actually is

Verisign, which runs the .com registry, announced on 23 April 2026 that the wholesale fee it charges registrars for each new and renewed .com will rise on 1 November 2026. On the figures in its own filing, that is a rise of about 6.9%. Some registrars round it to 7%, and one registrar's notice gives a slightly different new fee, so the estimates differ by a fraction of a percent.

This is the wholesale fee, not what you pay. Your registrar adds its own margin on top, so the change to your bill depends on how your registrar passes it on.

The rise follows a familiar pattern. Under its agreement with ICANN, Verisign may raise the .com fee by up to 7% in each of the final four years of every six-year period. The current period began on 26 October 2024. That makes the November 2026 rise the first of up to four that the contract allows before the period ends.

Before 2021 the fee had been frozen since January 2012. Since then, every rise has been close to the 7% limit.

Why renewing a year or two early makes sense

The contract works in your favour here. Verisign must give registrars at least six months' notice of a rise, and it must keep offering new and renewal registrations of up to ten years at the price in effect when the order is accepted. At least one registrar has told its customers that renewals completed before 1 November are billed at the old fee.

So a renewal you were going to pay for anyway, placed a few weeks earlier, avoids this rise at no extra risk. If the domain is one you rely on, such as your business site or your email address, adding one or two years now also covers you against the next rise, which the contract allows from late 2027.

Why ten years rarely pays off

The obvious objection is that prices keep going up, so you should lock in the longest term you can. It is a fair point. If Verisign took the full 7% in every remaining year of this period, the wholesale fee would end up roughly 31% above where it stood before November. For a domain you are certain to keep for a decade, locking in today's fee does protect you from that.

For most site owners, though, the trade is poor:

• The ceiling is not a forecast. The 31% figure assumes the maximum every year. Verisign does not publish its future pricing, so you would be paying a decade up front to avoid rises that are allowed, not announced.

• Plans change. In the first quarter of 2026, the final renewal rate for .com and .net names was 76.3%. Roughly a quarter of names up for renewal were let go. Side projects, old brands and spare domains often end up in that group, and money paid for years you never use is gone.

• You only lock in the wholesale part. The saving applies to a fee that rises by about 7% at a time. Your registrar's margin, and any promotion it offers later, sit outside that.

• You tie yourself to one registrar's account. A decade is a long time to depend on one company's billing and support.

Ten years can still be right for a core brand domain that you will never give up. For everything else, a year or two early gets you most of the benefit without the bet.

What about .co.uk and .in

The 1 November change applies to .com only. It does not affect country domains. Nominet, which runs .uk, still lists the same wholesale fee for .co.uk and .uk names that has applied since 13 January 2020, and its schedule (last updated in April 2026) shows no planned rise. There is no reason to renew a .co.uk early because of the .com change. We could not find a current official notice on the .in registry fee, so check with your registrar before acting on .in names.

What to do now

1. List your .com domains and their expiry dates. Check whether auto-renew is on and which card it uses.

2. Read your registrar's own notice. Registrars set their own retail prices and cut-off dates.

3. Renew the domains you will keep for one or two years before 1 November. Start with your main site and email domain.

4. Let go of names you no longer use rather than paying the higher fee on them next year.

5. Save ten-year terms for the one or two domains you are certain to keep, and only with a registrar you trust.

6. Leave .co.uk renewals on their normal schedule, and check with your registrar about .in.