# RDAP WHOIS Domain Lookup Scraper (`talcoe/rdap-whois`) Actor

Look up registrar, creation and expiration dates, nameservers, DNSSEC and status for any list of domains via the official RDAP registries. Filter by your own domain list, pay only per domain returned.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/talcoe/rdap-whois.md
- **Developed by:** [M Usama](https://apify.com/talcoe) (community)
- **Categories:** Developer tools
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $3.00 / 1,000 results

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

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

### What does RDAP WHOIS Domain Lookup Scraper do?

Give it a list of domains and it returns the registrar, registration and expiration dates, last update date, nameservers, DNSSEC status and domain status codes for each one. It is built for anyone who tracks a portfolio of domains: brand protection teams watching expiration dates, buyers checking a domain before an offer, agencies auditing a client's DNS setup, or researchers mapping who registers what.

### Data source

Each domain is queried against `https://rdap.org/domain/{domain}`, the public bootstrap proxy for the IETF RDAP protocol (RFC 9082/9083), which redirects to the authoritative registry (Verisign, PIR, Identity Digital and others) and returns a live JSON record. Data reflects the registry's current state at query time, there is no caching or crawl delay.

### Why use it?

- Renewal and brand monitoring: flag domains approaching `expirationDate` before a competitor or squatter can grab them.
- Domain due diligence: check registrar, age and DNSSEC before buying or investing in a domain.
- DNS auditing: confirm the nameservers a client's domain actually points to.
- Portfolio hygiene: spot domains with unexpected registrars or missing DNSSEC across a list.
- Replaces manually pasting domains into a WHOIS website one at a time, or parsing unstructured raw WHOIS text yourself. RDAP returns structured JSON directly from the registry, so fields are clean and consistent.

### How to use it

1. Open the Actor and paste your list of domains into the `domains` field.
2. Click Start. Download results as JSON, CSV or Excel, or read them through the API.
3. Add a Schedule and an Integration (Slack, Google Sheets, webhook) to get renewal alerts automatically.

### Input

| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| `domains` | List of domain names to look up, one RDAP query per domain. Include the TLD, for example `example.com`. |
| `maxResults` | Hard stop for the run. You are billed per result, so this caps the cost. |
| `proxyConfiguration` | Apify proxy is recommended for large domain lists. |

Example input:

```json
{
  "domains": ["google.com", "apple.com", "wikipedia.org"]
}
```

### Output

Every record has the same shape:

```json
{
  "id": "google.com",
  "domain": "google.com",
  "registrar": "MarkMonitor Inc.",
  "creationDate": "1997-09-15T04:00:00Z",
  "expirationDate": "2028-09-14T04:00:00Z",
  "updatedDate": "2019-09-09T15:39:04Z",
  "status": [
    "client delete prohibited",
    "client transfer prohibited",
    "client update prohibited",
    "server delete prohibited",
    "server transfer prohibited",
    "server update prohibited"
  ],
  "nameservers": ["ns1.google.com", "ns2.google.com", "ns3.google.com", "ns4.google.com"],
  "dnssecEnabled": false,
  "registrarIanaId": "292",
  "abuseEmail": "abusecomplaints@markmonitor.com",
  "rdapServer": "https://rdap.verisign.com/com/v1/domain/google.com",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-09-24T08:14:26.081Z"
}
```

| Field | Meaning |
|---|---|
| `id` | Stable key (the domain itself), safe for deduplication between runs |
| `domain` | The domain name, as returned by the registry |
| `registrar` | Registrar of record |
| `creationDate` | Original registration date, ISO 8601 |
| `expirationDate` | Current expiration date, ISO 8601 |
| `updatedDate` | Last change recorded by the registry, ISO 8601 |
| `status` | EPP domain status codes (transfer lock, hold, pending delete, and so on) |
| `nameservers` | Authoritative nameservers currently delegated |
| `dnssecEnabled` | Whether DNSSEC delegation is signed |
| `registrarIanaId` | IANA registrar ID, useful for grouping domains by registrar |
| `abuseEmail` | Registrar's published abuse contact |
| `rdapServer` | The authoritative RDAP server that answered the query |

### Pricing

Pay per event: a small fee when a run starts, then a fixed price per result returned. Domains with no registered record, or a TLD with no public RDAP service, are skipped and never charged. Set `maxResults` to cap any run.

### Limitations

- No registrant name, address or personal contact details. Registries redact that under GDPR and similar privacy rules, and RDAP does not expose it publicly for most gTLDs and ccTLDs.
- A small number of ccTLDs have no public RDAP service yet. Those domains are skipped and logged, not charged.
- Registries throttle high query volumes, so very large domain lists run at a fixed, moderate pace rather than in parallel bursts.

### FAQ

**Is this legal?** The Actor queries RDAP, the public successor to WHOIS that every gTLD registry runs for anyone to look up published domain registration data without a login. You are responsible for how you use the data.

**Why do some domains come back empty?** Either the domain is not registered, or its TLD registry does not run a public RDAP server yet. Both cases are skipped rather than charged.

**Something is missing or broken?** Open an issue in the Issues tab; response time is usually under a day.

# Actor input Schema

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

Domain names to look up, one RDAP query per domain. Include the TLD, for example example.com. Domains with no registered record, or a TLD with no public RDAP service, are skipped and not charged.

## `maxResults` (type: `integer`):

Hard stop for the run. You are billed per result, so this caps the cost.

## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`):

Apify proxy is recommended for large domain lists.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "domains": [
    "google.com",
    "apple.com",
    "microsoft.com",
    "amazon.com",
    "cloudflare.com",
    "github.com",
    "stripe.com",
    "shopify.com",
    "netflix.com",
    "wikipedia.org",
    "mozilla.org",
    "wordpress.org",
    "apache.org",
    "python.org",
    "nodejs.org",
    "wikimedia.org",
    "cloudflare.net",
    "akamai.net",
    "identity.digital",
    "example.ai"
  ],
  "maxResults": 100,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": false
  }
}
```

# 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": [
        "google.com",
        "apple.com",
        "microsoft.com",
        "amazon.com",
        "cloudflare.com",
        "github.com",
        "stripe.com",
        "shopify.com",
        "netflix.com",
        "wikipedia.org",
        "mozilla.org",
        "wordpress.org",
        "apache.org",
        "python.org",
        "nodejs.org",
        "wikimedia.org",
        "cloudflare.net",
        "akamai.net",
        "identity.digital",
        "example.ai"
    ],
    "proxyConfiguration": {
        "useApifyProxy": false
    }
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("talcoe/rdap-whois").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": [
        "google.com",
        "apple.com",
        "microsoft.com",
        "amazon.com",
        "cloudflare.com",
        "github.com",
        "stripe.com",
        "shopify.com",
        "netflix.com",
        "wikipedia.org",
        "mozilla.org",
        "wordpress.org",
        "apache.org",
        "python.org",
        "nodejs.org",
        "wikimedia.org",
        "cloudflare.net",
        "akamai.net",
        "identity.digital",
        "example.ai",
    ],
    "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": False },
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("talcoe/rdap-whois").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": [
    "google.com",
    "apple.com",
    "microsoft.com",
    "amazon.com",
    "cloudflare.com",
    "github.com",
    "stripe.com",
    "shopify.com",
    "netflix.com",
    "wikipedia.org",
    "mozilla.org",
    "wordpress.org",
    "apache.org",
    "python.org",
    "nodejs.org",
    "wikimedia.org",
    "cloudflare.net",
    "akamai.net",
    "identity.digital",
    "example.ai"
  ],
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": false
  }
}' |
apify call talcoe/rdap-whois --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

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

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/Zj8zry4yMseSvkmM0/builds/kTOCEdj3mP9gBmugn/openapi.json