# Domain Availability — RDAP registration check, no contact data (`hermeskd/domain-availability`) Actor

Check up to 100 domains against registry RDAP services, at one query a second per registry. Return registration availability, status codes, registrar, creation and expiry dates and nameservers. Registrant, admin and technical contacts are never returned.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/hermeskd/domain-availability.md
- **Developed by:** [Logan Parker](https://apify.com/hermeskd) (community)
- **Categories:** SEO tools, Developer tools, Agents
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $0.80 / 1,000 domain checkeds

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.
Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

Give it domain names; it checks each against the registry's RDAP service (the protocol registries publish for this) and returns whether it is registered, and if so its status codes, registrar, creation and expiry dates and nameservers. Registrant, admin and technical contacts are never returned. Meant for checking names before registering them: at most 100 domains a run, one query a second per registry.

Development validation produced actual successful public-input records using the production Dockerfile and SDK entrypoint on GitHub-hosted Linux. The smoke input, all three tasks and every defined benchmark passed their exact expectations. The independent review completed on 2026-10-19; its findings are tracked in the committed fix report. Platform costs, settlement, publication and daily tests remain unverified.

### Call it from an agent

Through Apify's MCP server (https://mcp.apify.com) use `call-actor`:

```json
{
  "actor": "hermeskd/domain-availability",
  "input": {
    "domains": [
      "apify.com",
      "hermes-availability-probe-7f3k2q.com"
    ]
  },
  "callOptions": {
    "maxTotalChargeUsd": 0.05,
    "timeout": 600
  },
  "waitSecs": 30
}
```

Then call `get-dataset-items` with the returned defaultDatasetId. Dedicated tool URL: https://mcp.apify.com?tools=hermeskd/domain-availability

### Input

| Field | Type | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| `domains` | array | Domain names, not URLs or IP addresses; internationalized names use IDNA. |

### Output

| Field | Meaning |
|---|---|
| `domain` | Normalized input domain, or original invalid input. |
| `ok` | True only when the registry answered registered or unregistered. |
| `available` | True only for RDAP 404; false for registered; null for unanswered failures. |
| `status` | Registry domain status codes. |
| `registrar` | Explicit registrar organization only; formatted-person-name fields are not returned. |
| `createdAt` | Registry registration timestamp, when supplied. |
| `expiresAt` | Registry expiration timestamp, when supplied. |
| `nameservers` | Registry-provided nameserver names. |
| `rdapServer` | IANA-selected service base URL. |
| `rdapTermsUrl` | Explicit terms-of-service link from registry notices. |
| `error` | Failure, always uncharged. |

Actual production-container record from 2026-10-18T20:22:57.533175+00:00 (code `f063187693578dd7551fa2bec552281e2f0f3e33`, smoke input, SDK local storage). The saved record is unchanged; local event logs do not prove Apify settlement.

```json
{
  "domain": "apify.com",
  "ok": true,
  "available": false,
  "status": [
    "client transfer prohibited"
  ],
  "registrar": null,
  "createdAt": "2009-06-02T17:14:10Z",
  "expiresAt": "2035-06-02T17:14:10Z",
  "nameservers": [
    "ns-1225.awsdns-25.org",
    "ns-1928.awsdns-49.co.uk",
    "ns-449.awsdns-56.com",
    "ns-839.awsdns-40.net"
  ],
  "rdapServer": "https://rdap.verisign.com/com/v1/",
  "rdapTermsUrl": "https://www.verisign.com/domain-names/registration-data-access-protocol/terms-service/index.xhtml"
}
```

### Events and prices

| Event | Title | Charged when | FREE / BRONZE | SILVER | GOLD / PLATINUM / DIAMOND |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| `domain-checked` | Domain checked | One domain answered available or registered. | $0.001 | $0.0009 | $0.0008 |

Platform usage is not passed through. Apify's automatic actor-start event remains $0.00005 per started GB (one GB or less counts once). The synthetic dataset-item event is absent. Charge limits stop further paying work; unprocessed inputs receive uncharged errors. Completed readable pending events are settled on abort.

Worked cost example: ten successful primary events cost $0.01 at list, plus actor start. Failures are not included in that count.

### Limits and run time

1–100 domains per run and at most one request per second per registry host. Registration-check purpose only: use this to consider registrations or modify existing registrations, not high-volume data mining. An unanswered domain has available=null and is uncharged. Only an explicit RDAP 404 answer means available=true. Its body is optional under RFC 7480 section 5.3; an empty answer is accepted only at the exact IANA-selected query URL without redirects. HTML or malformed replies remain uncharged failures. Registrar is returned only from explicit organization data; formatted person names and nested contact cards are omitted.

Default run timeout is 600 seconds. Typical cold platform time, costs and the smallest passing memory have not been measured for this new implementation. Memory probes are evidence to collect later; configured memories are specification defaults, not measured claims.

### Errors

| Code | Meaning |
|---|---|
| `invalid_domain` | Input is not a valid domain name. |
| `tld_not_supported` | IANA lists no RDAP service for the TLD. |
| `rate_limited` | The registry refused the check; availability remains unknown. |
| `http_error` | The source answered an unsuccessful HTTP status. |
| `download_failed` | The request or connection failed within its bounded deadline. |
| `source_schema_changed` | A source or tool response no longer has the verified protocol shape. |
| `robots_disallowed` | robots.txt forbids fetching the URL; no request was made to it. |
| `blocked_host` | The host is on the deny-list or resolves to a private or local address; no request was made. |
| `too_large` | A documented response, expansion or traversal cap was exceeded. |
| `timeout` | The input did not finish within the run's time budget. |
| `invalid_input` | The run input passed the input schema but cannot be used; the message names the field. |
| `internal_error` | Unexpected failure; the message carries the error class. |
| `charge_limit_reached` | The run reached its maximum total charge; this input was not processed. |

No failure record is charged. A run fails only when all input outcomes are Actor-side failures; caller errors and a mixture of caller/Actor failures do not fail the run.

### Sources and terms

Only process content you have the right to process. URL fetches obey HermesBot robots-group selection, the shared deny-list, public-address checks on connections and redirects, honest identity, deadlines and rate limits. No caller credentials, cookies, CAPTCHA solving, residential proxies or evasion. Use only to compare domain names before registration, at most 100 names per run and one request per second per registry server. IANA bootstrap selects the registry; no endpoint is guessed. Verisign terms exclude high-volume automation except reasonable registration needs. Registrant, administrative, technical and abuse contacts are omitted. Registrar is returned only from an explicit organization property, and may be null when the registry supplies only a formatted name. HTTP source probes verify 200/404 protocol shapes; they are not production-path Actor runs.

### Not affiliated

This Actor is not affiliated with Google, Apify, IANA, Verisign or other named protocol/source providers. Third-party names describe compatibility and source material.

### Related Hermes Actors

website-screenshot, lighthouse-audit, seo-page-audit, domain-availability, dns-and-email-auth, broken-links and sitemap-urls.

### Changelog

2026-10-17 (historical): initial implementation and fixture contracts; packaging and public production validation were incomplete on that date.

2026-10-18: all six production images, public smoke inputs, three tasks per Actor and defined benchmarks passed on GitHub-hosted Linux; exact code, records and image provenance are retained with the examples. These local SDK runs do not prove platform costs, settlement, publication, minimum memory, daily tests or payouts.

2026-10-19: independent-review repairs cover DNS privacy, malformed publisher URLs, empty sitemap failures, responsive assets and schema prefill, as applicable to this Actor. See the committed unit 4 fix report for measured verification and remaining platform NO-COVERAGE.

# Actor input Schema

## `domains` (type: `array`):

Domain names, not URLs or IP addresses; internationalized names use IDNA.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "domains": [
    "apify.com",
    "hermes-availability-probe-7f3k2q.com"
  ]
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

No description

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "domains": [
        "apify.com",
        "hermes-availability-probe-7f3k2q.com"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("hermeskd/domain-availability").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = { "domains": [
        "apify.com",
        "hermes-availability-probe-7f3k2q.com",
    ] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("hermeskd/domain-availability").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "domains": [
    "apify.com",
    "hermes-availability-probe-7f3k2q.com"
  ]
}' |
apify call hermeskd/domain-availability --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,hermeskd/domain-availability"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/2LcT3ozlm8GVVNFdu/builds/qIkwkztbCVv1mWLRW/openapi.json