.com Price Increase 2026: What Resellers Need to Check Before November 1

On November 1, 2026, Verisign raises its annual registry fee for new and renewed .com registrations from $10.26 to $10.97, an increase of $0.71 (about 6.92%). For domain resellers, that means every .com renewal processed from that date carries a higher cost at the top of the supply chain, so renewal prices and margins need a review first.

Where the $10.97 figure comes from

$10.97 is the registry-level fee Verisign charges ICANN-accredited registrars; it is not a reseller price or a retail price. Verisign announced it with its first-quarter 2026 results on April 23, 2026. The price a reseller pays Domain Name API, ICANN’s fee and the price an end customer sees at checkout are all set further down the chain.

The timing follows the .com pricing framework. According to the U.S. NTIA, the current terms allow a 7% increase in four out of six years and did not permit any wholesale increase before September 1, 2026. This is the first change since the fee reached $10.26 in September 2024.

How the increase reaches your price list

A .com price moves through four layers, and each one adds its own costs and margin, so a registry increase rarely arrives as the identical amount at every step.

• Registry (Verisign) charges the accredited registrar the registry fee.
• Registrar also pays ICANN a transaction fee and covers payment processing, currency conversion, support and infrastructure, then sets a wholesale price for resellers.
• Reseller (a hosting company, agency or domain shop) adds its own margin and often bundles the domain with hosting, email, DNS or SSL.
• End customer pays the retail price, sometimes in local currency and including taxes.

The ICANN fee is a separate line. Under ICANN’s registrar fee schedule, accredited registrars pay $0.20 on each annual increment of a registration, renewal or transfer that survives the related grace period. Verisign’s announcement does not change it. Added together for illustration only, the two components go from $10.46 to $11.17 per year; that is not a price anyone quotes you.

Your pricing method decides how the change shows up at retail:

• With a fixed-amount markup (cost + $3.00, for example), retail rises by roughly the same amount as your cost.
• With a percentage markup on cost, retail rises by more than your cost. With a 30% markup on cost, a $0.71 increase adds about $0.92 to retail.
• If you keep retail prices unchanged, you absorb the full increase in your margin.

If you sell in another currency, work it out in two steps. First calculate the change in your US-dollar cost, then apply your exchange-rate assumption and, if your prices include VAT or sales tax, the tax. A currency move can have a bigger effect than the $0.71 registry increase, so update your local-currency price list from your current cost and exchange-rate assumption, not from Verisign’s announcement alone.

Before you reprice anything, check your own cost. Compare current .com registration, renewal and transfer prices on the Domain Name API price list, then apply the pricing method above to your actual numbers.

What $0.71 means for 100, 1,000 and 10,000 .com domains

These figures show the change in the Verisign registry component only. They are not your invoice from Domain Name API or any other provider. Actual costs also include the ICANN fee, registrar pricing, currency conversion and taxes.

The margin effect is usually the bigger story. Suppose a reseller earns a $3.00 gross margin on each .com renewal. If their cost rises by the full $0.71 and retail stays the same, the margin falls to $2.29, a drop of almost 24%. A cost increase of under 7% can remove a much larger share of a thin renewal margin.

Check registration, renewal and transfer prices separately

Registration, renewal and transfer are priced as separate products, so each needs its own check. For the extension’s registration rules, see the .com domain page.

• Registration. First-year prices are often promotional. Make sure the renewal price customers see after year one covers your post-November cost.
• Renewal. This is where the increase compounds, because the same domain renews every year for as long as the customer stays. Review it first.
• Transfer. Verisign’s announcement names new and renewal registrations, but a .com transfer generally adds one year to the registration. Check your provider’s transfer price separately rather than assuming it stays the same. If you are moving many domains, see our bulk domain transfer guide.
• Restore. Redemption and restore fees are priced separately; check them if your renewal flow lets domains lapse.

When early renewal makes sense: a hypothetical model

If your provider processes the renewal at its current price before the change takes effect, renewing early keeps the lower cost for the years you add. It only pays off when the domain would have been renewed anyway, so treat it as a domain-by-domain decision.

Five factors decide whether it is worth doing:

• Time is added, not replaced. An early renewal extends the domain from its current expiry date. No time already paid for is lost.
• The ten-year limit. A .com can be registered at most ten years ahead, so domains with long remaining terms have less room to extend.
• Renewal likelihood. If you prepay a domain the customer later drops, you have paid the full renewal cost to save $0.71. In a simple model, the break-even renewal rate is old cost ÷ new cost. Using registry fees alone, that is 10.26 ÷ 10.97, or about 93.5%. This is an illustration built on registry fees, not a threshold for every reseller: run the same formula with your own costs.
• Cash flow. Prepaying moves spending up to twelve months earlier.
• Who pays. If the customer pays for the early renewal, you carry no renewal risk. If you prepay on their behalf, you carry all of it.

Worked example. A hypothetical reseller has 400 .com domains expiring between November 2026 and March 2027. Using the illustrative combined cost of $10.46 now and $11.17 after the change:

• Group A, 150 domains: customers have already paid for the next term or are on prepaid multi-year contracts, so renewal is effectively certain. Renewing early saves 150 × $0.71 = $106.50, at the cost of paying $1,569 now rather than over the next five months.
• Group B, 250 domains: customers renew at about 80% historically. Renewing all 250 early saves $142 on the 200 expected renewals but wastes 50 × $10.46 = $523 on the expected drops, an expected loss of $381.

In this example, the sensible move is to renew Group A early, or offer those customers early renewal at the current price, and leave Group B on its normal cycle.

Will .com prices rise again after 2026?

Further increases are possible, but none has been announced. The current agreement permits up to 7% in four of the six years of the term, and Verisign is not required to use every permitted increase. No prices for 2027, 2028 or 2029 have been published, so plan with a scenario that includes and excludes further increases rather than a fixed forecast.

Your pre-November checklist in Domain Name API

Work through these steps before the new registry fee takes effect. Each one pairs a general reseller check with where to do it if you resell through Domain Name API.

• Upcoming expiries. Export every .com expiring in the next twelve months, especially late October through December 2026, from your reseller panel or billing system.
• Your current costs. Check your current .com registration, renewal, transfer and restore prices in the reseller panel and on the domain prices page, which lists them side by side for the Reseller, Premium and Platinum tiers. Note them so you can compare against any updated list.
• Customer price lists and billing. Review how your billing system prices .com, whether you use WHMCS, WiseCP, HostBill, Blesta, ClientExec or your own storefront built on the REST API. Update registration, renewal and transfer prices in every currency you sell in, and check conversion and rounding before they reach invoices.
• Post-promotion renewal prices. Make sure promotional registrations will renew at a price that covers your new cost.
• Margins. Recalculate your margin per .com renewal and choose how you pass the change through.
• Auto-renew settings. Confirm auto-renew is on or off exactly where you expect, in both the reseller panel and your billing system.
• Renewals near the change date. Before relying on an early-renewal plan, check the price shown for the transaction when you submit it, and ask Domain Name API support if a renewal near November 1 is unclear.
• Account balance. Top up your reseller balance ahead of October and November renewals so none fails for lack of funds.
• Customer notice. Tell customers what is changing and from when, in plain terms and within the notice period your terms of service require.

Frequently asked questions

When does the .com price increase take effect?

Verisign’s new registry fee applies from November 1, 2026. When your own price changes depends on your provider, so check their price list and notices.

How much is the increase?

$0.71 per domain-year at the registry level, from $10.26 to $10.97. ICANN’s $0.20 transaction fee is separate and unchanged.

Will my reseller price rise by exactly $0.71?

Not necessarily. Your provider’s price reflects its own costs, currency conversion, rounding and pricing policy. If you sell in another currency, factor in the exchange rate separately.

Should I renew .com domains early?

Only for domains that are very likely to renew, or where the customer pays for the early renewal, and only if the renewal is processed at the current price before the change.

Do existing domain terms change?

No. Domains keep their current expiry dates, and time already paid for is not repriced.

Does the increase affect .com transfers?

It can. A .com transfer generally adds one year to the registration, so check your provider’s transfer price separately after November 1.

Will .com prices rise again?

They may. The pricing terms allow further increases in the current term, but Verisign has announced only the November 1, 2026 change.

Your three next steps

1. Export your .com expiries for the next twelve months and confirm auto-renew settings for each.
2. Recalculate your renewal margins using your provider’s post-change cost, then update your price list and billing system.
3. Decide on early renewal domain by domain, limited to domains that are almost certain to renew or where the customer covers the cost.

Sources and assumptions

• Verisign, First Quarter 2026 Results, April 23, 2026: registry fee change and effective date.
• ICANN, Registrar Fees: $0.20 transaction-based fee.
• NTIA, The .com Cooperative Agreement, November 29, 2024: pricing framework.
• All portfolio, margin and early-renewal figures are hypothetical examples built on registry fees and stated assumptions. They are not Domain Name API prices or customer data.