# Domain Availability Checker: Registered or Available (RDAP) (`ucchiii/domain-availability-checker`) Actor

Bulk-check whether domain names are registered or likely available, using RDAP from the registries. Returns registrar, created and expiry dates for registered names. No personal data. Empty input = free demo. $0.50 per 1,000 domains.

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

## Pricing

from $0.35 / 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

## Domain Availability Checker — which of these domains are registered, and which look free?

**Got a long list of name ideas, expiring domains or competitor domains, and checking them one by one on a registrar site takes forever?**
Paste the list and get **one row per domain: registered or likely available, plus the registrar, creation date and expiry date for registered names.**
It asks the registries directly through **RDAP** (the modern replacement for WHOIS). No scraping, no proxies, no API keys.

**Try it free:** leave the input empty and press **Start** — you get a demo table in seconds, nothing is charged.

| domain | status | available | registrar | createdAt | expiresAt |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| example-registered.com | registered | false | Example Registrar, Inc. | 2015-04-02T10:00:00Z | 2027-04-02T10:00:00Z |
| another-registered.org | registered | false | Sample Registry Services | 2008-11-20T00:00:00Z | 2026-11-20T00:00:00Z |
| surely-not-registered-9f3k2.com | available | true | | | |
| something.nordf | unknown | | | | |

*(illustrative sample rows showing the output format; the free demo shows real results)*

- **Who it's for:** founders and naming agencies shortlisting brand names, domain investors and brokers, SEO people vetting expired or competitor domains, IT teams tracking client domains.
- **Bulk:** up to 1,000 domains per run. Messy input is fine: URLs are cut down to the host name, duplicates are removed, typos come back as `invalid` rows.
- **Price:** $0.0005 per domain checked — **$0.50 per 1,000 domains** (100 domains cost 5 cents). Invalid names and `unknown` results are **not charged**.
  Store discounts apply automatically: BRONZE −10%, SILVER −20%, GOLD −30%.

### What it does

- **Registered or likely available**: HTTP 200 from the registry means registered; 404 ("not found") means likely available
- **For registered names**: registrar and its IANA ID, creation, last-changed and expiry dates, days to expiry, `expired` flag, registry status codes
- **`unknown` instead of guessing**: if the TLD has no RDAP service, or the registry times out or rate-limits you, the row says `unknown` with the reason in `error` (and is free) — you can run those again later
- **Polite to the registries**: small concurrency (default 3, max 5), at most 2 connections and 0.25 s spacing per registry server, 429 and server errors retried up to 3 times with a growing pause (honours `Retry-After`)

### Privacy: no personal data

Registrant, administrative, technical and billing contacts are **never read or output** — no names, e-mails, phone numbers or addresses. Only the registrar (a company), dates and status codes are used. Every row carries `registrantRedacted: true`. E-mail addresses typed into the input are rejected as invalid, not looked up.

### Input example

```json
{
  "domains": ["apify.com", "python.org", "this-domain-should-not-exist-9f3k2.com"],
  "concurrency": 3
}
```

**Empty input runs a free demo** on three domains (not charged, rows carry `_demo: true`).

### Output

One row per domain in the dataset (a table view is included):

```json
{
  "domain": "example.com",
  "status": "registered",
  "available": false,
  "registrar": "Example Registrar, Inc.",
  "registrarIanaId": "9999",
  "createdAt": "2001-01-01T00:00:00Z",
  "updatedAt": "2026-01-01T00:00:00Z",
  "expiresAt": "2027-01-01T00:00:00Z",
  "daysToExpiry": 100,
  "expired": false,
  "domainStatus": ["client transfer prohibited"],
  "rdapServer": "rdap.example-registry.test",
  "rdapDomain": "example.com",
  "registrantRedacted": true,
  "error": null,
  "checkedAt": "2026-10-23T09:00:00Z"
}
```

(Made-up placeholder values that show the shape of a row.) `status` is one of:
| status | meaning | charged |
|---|---|---|
| `registered` | the registry returned registration data | yes |
| `available` | the registry says "not found": the name is likely available | yes |
| `unknown` | no RDAP service for the TLD, or a timeout, rate limit or server error (see `error`) | no |
| `invalid` | not a valid domain name | no |

The record `SUMMARY` in the key-value store counts each status and the number of charged domains.

### Use cases

- Shortlist brand or startup names: which `.com` / `.io` / `.org` names are taken
- Watch domains you want to buy: who is the registrar, how old is the name, when does it expire
- Screen a list of competitor or backlink domains for expired or never-registered names
- Clean a list of domains from another scraper before further processing

### Limits (cannot be raised by input)

- 1,000 domains per run; up to 5 in parallel; at most 2 connections to one registry server at a time, at least 0.25 s between requests to the same server
- Each request has a timeout (default 15 s, max 60 s) and is retried at most 3 times
- **"Available" means "the registry has no record"**, not a guarantee that you can register it: reserved, blocked or premium-priced names and registry rules can still stop a purchase. Check with your registrar before you rely on it
- TLDs without an RDAP service in the IANA bootstrap return `unknown` (many country-code TLDs)
- Registry data can differ slightly between TLDs (some omit the updated date, for example). A domain in a grace period can show a past expiry date (`expired: true`)
- Reusing registry data is subject to each registry's terms; that is your responsibility

### Pricing

Pay per event: **$0.0005 per domain checked** ($0.50 per 1,000). Invalid and unknown results are free. Set a maximum charge per run to cap spend; the Actor stops cleanly when it is reached.

### FAQ

**Is this the same as WHOIS?** It returns the same kind of registration data, through RDAP, the protocol ICANN requires registries and registrars to run. It does not connect to port-43 WHOIS servers.
**Why no owner name?** By design (see Privacy). The Actor is for registration status and dates, not for finding people.
**Can I check subdomains?** Yes. Registration belongs to the registered domain, so for `www.example.com` the Actor checks `example.com` and shows it in `rdapDomain`. (It has no public-suffix list: for names under multi-part suffixes such as `co.uk`, give the registered domain itself.)
**Need DNS records too?** See the domain WHOIS & DNS lookup Actor from the same developer.

### More tools from the same developer

- [Domain WHOIS & DNS Lookup](https://apify.com/ucchiii/domain-whois) — bulk WHOIS (RDAP) and DNS lookup: registrar, expiry, days left, A/MX/NS, no personal data
- [DNS Records Lookup](https://apify.com/ucchiii/dns-records-lookup) — bulk DNS lookup: A, AAAA, MX, NS, TXT, SPF and DMARC per domain
- [Website Technology Detector](https://apify.com/ucchiii/website-technology-detector) — tech stack of websites in bulk: CMS, frameworks, analytics and tag IDs, CDN, consent tools
- [Bulk URL Status Checker](https://apify.com/ucchiii/url-status-checker) — bulk HTTP status and redirect-chain checker for URL lists

# Actor input Schema

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

Domain names to check, one per entry, e.g. 'example.com'. URLs ('https://www.example.com/page') are cut down to the host name; internationalized names (münchen.de) are converted to punycode. Duplicates are removed. Leave empty to run a free demo (not charged). Up to 1,000 domains per run.

## `timeoutSecs` (type: `integer`):

Timeout for each request, in seconds. Failed requests (including rate limits, HTTP 429) are retried up to 3 times with a growing pause. Allowed range 1 to 60 (default 15).

## `concurrency` (type: `integer`):

How many domains are checked in parallel. Allowed range 1 to 5 (default 3). At most 2 connections per registry server are used at a time, with at least 0.25 s between requests to the same server, whatever you set here.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "domains": [
    "apify.com",
    "python.org",
    "this-domain-should-not-exist-9f3k2.com"
  ],
  "timeoutSecs": 15,
  "concurrency": 3
}
```

# Actor output Schema

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

One row per domain in the default dataset: status (registered, available, unknown), registrar, created and expiry dates. Download as CSV, JSON, Excel and more from here.

## `summary` (type: `string`):

Record SUMMARY: how many domains were registered, likely available, unknown or invalid, and how many were charged.

# 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",
        "python.org",
        "this-domain-should-not-exist-9f3k2.com"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("ucchiii/domain-availability-checker").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",
        "python.org",
        "this-domain-should-not-exist-9f3k2.com",
    ] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("ucchiii/domain-availability-checker").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",
    "python.org",
    "this-domain-should-not-exist-9f3k2.com"
  ]
}' |
apify call ucchiii/domain-availability-checker --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

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

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/6nv9IdcoacPXVZXmr/builds/AtVpFsJtuyAWG16yc/openapi.json