Your next domain renewal bill may be higher than the last one. Not because your registrar decided to squeeze you, though they can do that too, but because the organisations that control the .com and .org extensions have both raised their prices this year.
One has already happened. The other lands in November. Neither is catastrophic, but both are worth understanding before your renewal notice arrives.
Two domain price rises, one year
The domain name system runs on a layered structure. At the top sits the registry, the organisation that controls a given extension. Below that sit registrars, the companies you actually buy domains from. Namecheap, GoDaddy, Porkbun, and similar services all pay the registry a wholesale fee per domain, then add their own margin before billing you.
When the registry raises its wholesale price, the cost travels down that chain. Sometimes registrars absorb part of the increase. Usually they pass it on, and then some.
Two registries have moved their prices in 2026. Public Interest Registry raised .org in June. Verisign announced a .com increase landing in November. Here is what both mean in practice.
.org renewals went up in June 2026
Public Interest Registry (PIR), the nonprofit organisation that operates .org, raised its wholesale price from $9.93 to $11.00 per year on June 1, 2026.
That is the first .org price increase since 2016. For a decade, the wholesale price sat frozen while inflation, infrastructure costs, and pretty much everything else moved around it. Eleven dollars today is roughly equivalent to $8.50 in 2016, so the real cost of running the .org registry actually fell during that period. Viewed that way, the increase is modest.
The retail impact is less tidy. Porkbun told customers its standard .org pricing could move from $10.74 to roughly $13–$14 per year. Dynadot set its new renewal price at $11.64. The pattern is consistent across registrars: a $1.07 wholesale rise tends to become $2–$3 or more at the checkout. That is the margin layer doing its job, but it is worth knowing the maths before assuming the increase is proportional.
PIR has stated it has no further plans to raise prices at this time. Worth knowing that context, because the .org extension came close to a very different outcome. In 2019, PIR’s parent organisation announced it was selling the registry to a private equity firm for $1.135 billion. Had that deal gone through, and had the new owners raised prices by 10% per year, .org domains would cost around $20 wholesale today. California’s Attorney General intervened, ICANN rejected the sale, and PIR remained a nonprofit. The current $11 wholesale price is, at least in part, a result of that fight.
.com prices go up in November 2026
Verisign, the company that operates .com and .net, announced on April 23, 2026 that it is raising the wholesale price of .com domains from $10.26 to $10.97, effective November 1, 2026.
That is a $0.71 increase, just under 7%. Verisign CEO Jim Bidzos framed it as “about $0.03 per day” during the company’s Q1 2026 earnings call, which is accurate but also not the most useful frame if you are managing multiple domains or running a small business on a tight budget.
The increase is permitted under Verisign’s contract with ICANN. That contract allows Verisign to raise .com prices by up to 7% per year in the final four years of each six-year contract period. The current six-year term runs through to around 2030. The first two pricing years are a freeze. If Verisign takes the maximum permitted rise each year from 2027 onwards, the wholesale price reaches approximately $13.42 by the time the contract cycle ends.
At retail, the numbers vary. Registrars are entirely unregulated when it comes to what they charge above wholesale. GoDaddy, Namecheap, and others will set their own new rates once the November wholesale change takes effect. Some will absorb part of the rise. Others will round up. Checking your registrar’s renewal pricing before November is a simple step that could save you a few dollars per domain.
Here is how all three extensions compare across the 2026 changes.
| Extension | Operator | Old wholesale | New wholesale | Effective | Typical retail renewal |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| .org | Public Interest Registry | $9.93/yr | $11.00/yr | June 1, 2026 | $13–$15/yr |
| .com | Verisign | $10.26/yr | $10.97/yr | November 1, 2026 | $14–$20/yr |
| .info | Identity Digital | $10.84/yr (2019) | $19.00/yr (2026) | Ongoing (uncapped) | $20–$30/yr |
Wholesale vs retail: why your bill goes up more than the registry increase
This is the part that catches most people out. The registry increase is a wholesale movement. What you pay at renewal is a retail price set by your registrar, and the two numbers are rarely the same.
Registrars pay the registry fee, then build in their own margin, payment processing costs, and sometimes promotional pricing that affects how they balance the books elsewhere. A $1.07 increase at the registry level can become $2, $3, or more at the counter, depending on how your registrar prices things.
There is also the first year versus renewal gap to account for. Many registrars offer heavily discounted registration prices to attract new customers, then bill at a much higher rate from year two onwards. The registry price increase adds to that renewal rate, not the promotional rate you may have paid originally.
The short version: the wholesale figure is a floor, not a ceiling. Your actual renewal bill depends on which registrar you use.
What .info shows us about uncapped pricing
Both .com and .org have price constraints built into their agreements. .com has the 7% per year cap under its ICANN contract. .org, as a nonprofit registry, has operated with restraint even when the cap was lifted in 2019.
Not all extensions work this way. Identity Digital, the for-profit company that operates .info, has no such constraints. The wholesale price for .info was $10.84 in 2019. By 2026, it had reached $19 per year. That is a 75% rise in seven years, with retail prices now sitting at $20–$30 per year at most registrars.
The .info trajectory is not a prediction for .com or .org. It is context. The regulatory structure around .com and .org exists precisely to prevent that kind of uncapped movement. Whether those structures stay in place is a separate question, but right now they are doing what they are designed to do.
What to do before November
Neither of these increases requires urgent action, but a few straightforward steps are worth taking before November arrives.
- Check your renewal dates. If your .com domains renew before November 1, 2026, they will renew at the current wholesale rate. If they renew after, expect to see the new pricing reflected in your registrar’s bill.
- Renew early if it makes sense. Most registrars allow you to renew up to 10 years in advance. If you have domains you know you are keeping, locking in the current rate is a simple way to defer the increase.
- Compare registrar renewal prices. The wholesale cost is the same for every registrar. What they charge you on top is not. Checking a few options before your renewal date can make a real difference across a portfolio.
- Verify what you actually own. Use the Domain Checker to confirm which extensions you have registered and when they expire. It is easy to lose track, especially if domains were registered through a hosting provider bundled with a plan.
If you are registered with Namecheap, it is worth checking their renewal rates directly. Namecheap has generally maintained lower renewal pricing than the larger registrars, though they did raise shared hosting renewal costs by around 20% in May 2026, so it is always worth verifying current rates rather than assuming. Read the Namecheap review for a full breakdown of what they offer.
Questions about domain price increases
How much will .com domains cost after November 2026?
The wholesale price moves from $10.26 to $10.97 on November 1, 2026. What you pay at retail depends on your registrar. Most registrars currently charge $13–$20 per year for .com renewals. Expect those figures to rise slightly after the November change, with the exact amount varying by provider.
Did .org prices already go up, or is that still to come?
Already done. Public Interest Registry raised the .org wholesale price from $9.93 to $11.00 on June 1, 2026. Most registrars have already adjusted their retail pricing to reflect the change. If you have renewed an .org domain since June, you have likely paid the new rate.
Can I lock in today’s .com price by renewing early?
Yes. If you renew your .com domain before November 1, 2026, you pay at the current rate for the term you choose. Registrars typically allow renewals of up to 10 years. This is one of the few times where renewing early has a clear financial case beyond just avoiding the hassle of remembering.
Which registrar has the lowest .com renewal price right now?
Retail pricing varies and changes frequently, so checking current rates directly is the only reliable approach. Namecheap has historically offered lower renewal rates than GoDaddy for standard .com domains. Use the Domain Checker to verify your existing registrations, then compare renewal pricing across a couple of registrars before your next renewal date.
