RDAP Domain Lookup and Expiry Checker: registrar, dates, statuses, name servers and DNSSEC for a list of domains

Give the Actor a list of domain names and it queries the responsible RDAP server for each one, returning a single record per domain with the registrar, registration and expiry dates, EPP statuses, name servers and DNSSEC flag. RDAP is the structured, JSON based successor of WHOIS (RFC 7480, 7484, 9082, 9083), so the fields come back typed and ready for a spreadsheet instead of as free text. One plain GET request per domain, no browser, no proxy, no page content.

What it is good for

• Expiry monitoring for a domain portfolio: an MSP or IT team watching 100–300 client domains gets expiresAt and daysToExpiry for each one in a single run; filter the dataset for daysToExpiry < 30 and alert.
• A building block for automations: one normalized JSON record per domain (registrar, dates, statuses, name servers, DNSSEC) with the IANA bootstrap, redirects and registry differences handled for you; no WHOIS parsing, no port 43.
• Registry state checks: see whether a domain is registered or not-found at the registry and which EPP statuses it carries (client transfer prohibited, pending delete, redemption period…). not-found means the registry does not know the name; it does not mean the name is available to register.
• Domain age as a risk signal: createdAt for vendor or counterparty screening, without any registrant personal data.

How to use it

1. Open the Actor and paste your list of domains into the domains field, one per line (or pass a JSON array through the API).
2. Adjust timeoutSecs and maxConcurrency if you need to; the defaults work for most runs.
3. Click Start. When the run finishes, the status message reads Processed N of M domains (X with errors, Y not charged).
4. Download the results from the Dataset tab as JSON, CSV or Excel, or read them through the API.

Input

Field	Type	Default	Description
domains	list of strings	example.com, example.net	Domain names (or URLs, the host is extracted), one per line; exact duplicates skipped; max 1,000 per run
timeoutSecs	integer 1–60	15	Maximum time per domain, including redirects
maxConcurrency	integer 1–50	10	Domains looked up in parallel (10 tested on 50 .com domains without rate limiting; lower it if rate-limited records appear)

Output

One dataset record per input domain. Common fields:

Field	Type	Meaning
inputValue	string	Domain (or URL) as provided, trimmed; credentials masked as user:***@host, also without a scheme (a password containing a raw /, \, ? or # is not recognized as credentials)
error	string or null	INVALID_DOMAIN, UNSUPPORTED_TLD, TIMEOUT, NETWORK_ERROR, TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS, BAD_REDIRECT, RATE_LIMITED, RDAP_ERROR (none of them charged) or null
billable	boolean	true when the record was charged (state is registered or not-found); false for every record with an error, written free of charge
errorMessage	string or null	Human-readable reason
checkedAt	string	ISO 8601 timestamp

Domain-specific fields:

Field	Type	Meaning
domain	string	Normalized domain name (lowercase, punycode for IDNs, no leading www.); same as inputValue for invalid domains
tld	string or null	Last label of the normalized domain (e.g. com, pl); null for INVALID_DOMAIN
state	string or null	registered, not-found, unsupported-tld, rate-limited, error; null only for INVALID_DOMAIN
registrar	string or null	Registrar name from the RDAP response (first entity with role registrar); null when absent or empty
registrarIanaId	string or null	IANA Registrar ID from the same entity; null when absent
createdAt	string or null	Registration date (ISO 8601) from the first registration event
updatedAt	string or null	Last-changed date from the first last changed event
expiresAt	string or null	Expiration date from the first expiration event; may be null even for registered domains (e.g. .pl registry)
daysToExpiry	number or null	Full days until expiry: Math.floor((expiresAt − now) / 86400000); negative for past dates; null when expiresAt is missing or unparseable
statuses	string[]	Domain status codes (lowercase, no duplicates) from the RDAP response; may be empty for some registries (e.g. .pl)
nameservers	string[]	Name server hostnames (lowercase, no duplicates, trailing dot removed)
dnssec	boolean or null	Whether DNSSEC is signed (secureDNS.delegationSigned); null when absent from the response
rdapServer	string or null	Base URL of the RDAP server used (from the IANA bootstrap, with trailing /); null for INVALID_DOMAIN and unsupported-tld
rdapUrl	string or null	URL of the last RDAP request made (after all redirects); null when no request was made
httpStatus	number or null	HTTP status of the last response; null when no response was received (network error, timeout before reply)
redirectCount	number	Number of HTTP redirects followed (0–2)

A SUMMARY record in the default key-value store holds the run counters (inputEntries, inputItems, skippedDuplicates, droppedEmptyOrNonString, truncatedOverLimit, resumedSkipped, processed, checked = charged, failed, notBilled, notSavedAfterLimit, unexpectedErrors, stoppedByChargeLimit).

Pricing

This Actor uses Apify pay per event pricing. Each run costs a small fixed start fee plus a price per domain answered by the registry; the exact amounts are shown in the Pricing tab. Only registered and not-found records are charged; INVALID_DOMAIN, UNSUPPORTED_TLD, RATE_LIMITED, timeouts and other errors are written with billable: false and cost nothing. There are no additional platform usage fees.

A domain is charged only when its record is written, and every charged record is written. When the run's "Maximum cost per run" is reached, the Actor stops and reports how many domains were left unprocessed.

Limits and behavior

• Up to 1,000 domains per run; exact duplicates are skipped (two spellings of one domain are two records).
• IP addresses, single-label names (localhost) and malformed names are reported as INVALID_DOMAIN without any request and without charge; TLDs without an RDAP server in the IANA bootstrap (as of September 2026 this includes e.g. .de, .eu, .io, .ch, .it, .es, .jp) are UNSUPPORTED_TLD (free).
• A run interrupted by a platform migration resumes without processing or charging the same domain twice.
• Redirects: Up to 2 HTTP redirects (301/302/303/307/308) are followed; the third consecutive 3xx gives TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS. Only https:// redirect targets are allowed. Non-https targets or redirects to private addresses give BAD_REDIRECT.
• Response size: RDAP responses larger than 1 MB are rejected with Response too large. The IANA bootstrap is limited to 2 MB.
• Timeouts: Every domain is subject to a single timeout period (timeoutSecs) covering all requests and redirects. A domain that exceeds the timeout receives TIMEOUT, no retries.
• No cache: Every domain sends a fresh HTTP request; there is no in-memory or disk cache.
• Because every error record is free, the status message and SUMMARY count errors under "not charged" rather than "with errors".
• Registry without expiry: Some registries (e.g. .pl by NASK) may omit expiration events and/or status codes; the record will have expiresAt: null, daysToExpiry: null, statuses: [], which is valid for a registered domain.

FAQ

• Does the Actor support IDN (internationalized domain names)? Yes. Domain names containing non-ASCII characters are normalized to punycode (RFC 5891) before the RDAP lookup. The domain field in the output contains the ASCII form; the original value is preserved in inputValue.
• What happens when a domain is not found in RDAP? The RDAP server returns HTTP 404. The record is stored with state: 'not-found' and billable: true: the answer from the registry is charged.
• Are redirects followed to a different host? Yes. A redirect to any https:// host is accepted, as long as it is not a private address. Only the redirect limit (2) and the overall timeout constrain the chain.
• Does this Actor work with WHOIS (port 43)? No. Only RDAP (HTTP-based) registries listed in the IANA bootstrap are queried.
• Why did I get expiresAt: null for a registered domain? Some TLD registries (e.g. .pl) do not publish expiration dates via RDAP. The domain is still registered and charged, but the expiry-related fields are empty.

Other Actors by Gridline Tools

Other checks from the same publisher, each with one row per address and the same pricing rule (start fee plus price per checked item):

• HTTP Status and Headers Checker: Audit a list of URLs in one run: status code, every hop of the redirect chain and the final URL, response time, server and content type, and six key security headers.
• Robots.txt Checker: Test a list of URLs against each site's robots.txt for a chosen user agent (RFC 9309).
• AI Crawler Access Audit: See which AI and search crawlers (GPTBot, ClaudeBot, Google-Extended, CCBot and 150+ more) each site allows or blocks in robots.txt, and whether llms.txt is published.

Disclaimer

The Actor sends plain HTTPS requests to the IANA RDAP bootstrap file and to the RDAP server of each domain's registry (no WHOIS, no port 43) and reads the public domain object. Only the registrar entity (name and IANA ID) is extracted from the RDAP response; registrant, administrative, technical, billing, and abuse contacts (including their names, addresses, phone numbers and email addresses) are never read or stored. You are responsible for complying with the registries' RDAP terms of use and rate limits. Gridline Tools does not store the domains or results beyond your own Apify account.