redemption period.

The redemption grace period — RGP, or just redemption — is the last stage at which an expired domain can still be saved. For gTLDs it runs for about 30 days and is signalled by the redemptionPeriod status code. Nobody else can register the domain during it, which is the good news. The bad news is that you cannot simply renew it either: the registrar has to submit a restore request to the registry on your behalf.

By this point the domain has already been pulled from the zone. The website is down, mail is bouncing, and anything authenticating against the domain has stopped working. Redemption is not a soft warning stage; it is the stage where the outage has already happened and you are negotiating the cost of undoing it.

That cost is deliberately punitive. Registries charge a substantial restore fee and registrars add their own handling on top, so restoring a domain typically costs a large multiple of the renewal that was missed. Restores are frequently not self-service — you may have to raise a ticket and wait — and registrars are under no obligation to offer restoration at all. Some simply do not. Exact windows and fees vary by registry, and several ccTLDs run nothing resembling a redemption period, so never assume the gTLD pattern applies to a .uk or a .de.

After redemption comes pending delete, which is the point at which nothing can be done by anyone, including you. The whole sequence, with its typical timings, is in the domain deletion lifecycle. If you are watching someone else's domain rather than rescuing your own, redemption is the sensible moment to line up a backorder. If it is your own, check where it actually stands with the expiry checker before assuming you have time.