Registering a new domain
Register a new domain or update name servers for an existing domain
You can use Amazon Route 53 with domains you register with Route 53, and with domains you have registered with other DNS providers. Depending on your DNS provider, choose one of the following procedures to register and use a new domain with Route 53:
For registering a new domain, see To register a new domain using Route 53.
For an existing domain, see Making Amazon Route 53 the DNS service for an existing domain.
For moving a domain to another registrar, see update name servers when you want to use another DNS service.
Considerations for domain registration
Before you start, note the following:
- Contacting AWS Support
If you encounter issues while registering a domain, you can contact AWS Support for free. For more information, see Contacting AWS Support about domain registration issues.
- Domain registration pricing
For information about the cost to register domains, see Amazon Route 53 Pricing for Domain Registration
. - Supported domains
For a list of supported TLDs, see Domains that you can register with Amazon Route 53.
- You can't change a domain name after you register it
If you accidentally register the wrong domain name, you can't change it. Instead, you need to register another domain name and specify the correct name. You also can't get a refund for a domain name that you registered accidentally.
- AWS credits
You can't use AWS credits to pay the fee for registering a new domain with Route 53.
- Special or premium prices
TLD registries have assigned special or premium prices to some domain names. You can't use Route 53 to register a domain that has a special or premium price.
- Charges for hosted zones
When you register a domain with Route 53, we automatically create a hosted zone for the domain and charge a small monthly fee for the hosted zone in addition to the annual charge for the domain registration. This hosted zone is where you store information about how to route traffic for your domain, for example, to an Amazon EC2 instance or a CloudFront distribution. If you don't want to use your domain right now, you can delete the hosted zone; if you delete it within 12 hours of registering the domain, there won't be any charge for the hosted zone on your AWS bill. We also charge a small fee for the DNS queries that we receive for your domain. For more information, see Amazon Route 53 Pricing
. - Replacing the hosted zone for a domain
If you create a new hosted zone for a domain, you must also update the name servers for the domain to use the same name servers as the new hosted zone. For details see, Replacing the hosted zone for a domain that is registered with Route 53
To register a new domain using Route 53
To register a new domain using Route 53
Sign in to the AWS Management Console and open the Route 53 console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/route53/
. In the navigation pane, choose Domains and then Registered domains.
On the Registered domains page, choose Register domains.
In the Search for domain section, enter the domain name that you want to register, and choose Search to find out whether the domain name is available.
If the domain name that you want to register contains characters other than a-z, A-Z, 0-9, and - (hyphen), note the following:
You can enter the name using the applicable characters. You don't need to convert the name to Punycode.
A list of languages appears. Choose the language of the specified name. For example, if you enter příklad ("example" in Czech), choose Czech (CES) or Czech (CZE).
Note
For languages that have more than one code, you might need to try both of them. Even though CES and CZE are synonymous, some TLD registries support only one or the other.
For information about how to specify characters other than a-z, 0-9, and - (hyphen) and how to specify internationalized domain names, see DNS domain name format.
If the domain you entered is available, it will be displayed, if not, similar domains will be displayed as suggestions.
You can choose up to five domains to register. The domains you select appear in the Selected domains list.
To register more domains, repeat steps 3a through 3b.
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Choose Proceed to checkout.
On the Pricing page, choose the number of years that you want to register the domain for and whether you want us to automatically renew your domain registration before the expiration date.
Note
Domain name registrations and renewals are not refundable. If you enable automatic domain renewal and you decide that you don't want the domain name after we renew the registration, you can't get a refund for the cost of the renewal.
Choose Next.
On the Contact information page, enter contact information for the domain registrant, admin, tech, and billing contacts. The values that you enter here are applied to all of the domains that you're registering. For more information, see Values that you specify when you register or transfer a domain.
Important
The contact you list as the registrant during domain registration will have certain rights as the Registered Name Holder of the domain name, under the ICANN Transfer Policy
. Most domains will be deleted upon closure of your AWS account (for more information, see My AWS account is closed or permanently closed, and my domain is registered with Route 53), however if a domain remains in a closed account, the contact you listed as the registrant may have the ability to request a transfer of the domain name to an external registrar. Therefore, it is important that the registrant contact you list is either yourself or another person you trust to act responsibly. Note the following considerations:
- First Name and Last Name
For First Name and Last Name, we recommend that you specify the name on your official ID. For some changes to domain settings, some domain registries require that you provide proof of identity. The name on your ID must match the name of the registrant contact for the domain.
- Different contacts
By default, we use the same information for all three contacts. If you want to enter different information for one or more contacts, change the value of Same as registrant contact toggle switch to off position.
Note
For .it domains, the registrant and administrative contacts must be the same.
Note
For .jp domains, the technical and administrative contacts must be the same.
- Multiple domains
-
If you're registering more than one domain, we use the same contact information for all of the domains.
- Additional required information
-
For some top-level domains (TLDs), we're required to collect additional information. For these TLDs, enter the applicable values after the Postal/Zip Code field.
- Privacy protection
Choose whether you want to hide your contact information from WHOIS queries.
Note
You must specify the same privacy setting for the administrative, registrant, technical, and billing contacts.
For more information, see the following topics:
Note
To enable privacy protection for .uk, .co.uk, .me.uk, and .org.uk domains, you must open a support case and request privacy protection.
Choose Next.
On the Review page, review the information that you entered, and optionally correct it, read the terms of service, and select the check box to confirm that you've read the terms of service.
Choose Submit.
In the navigation pane, choose Domains and then Requests.
On this page you can view the status of domain and also if you need to respond to registrant contact verification email. You can also choose to resend the verification email.
If you specified an email address for the registrant contact that has never been used to register a domain with Route 53, some TLD registries require you to verify that the address is valid.
We send a verification email from one of the following email addresses:
noreply@registrar.amazon – for TLDs registered by Amazon Registrar.
noreply@domainnameverification.net – for TLDs registered by our registrar associate, Gandi. To determine who the registrar is for your TLD, see Finding your registrar.
Important
The registrant contact must follow the instructions in the email to verify that the email was received, or we must suspend the domain as required by ICANN. When a domain is suspended, it's not accessible on the internet.
When you receive the verification email, choose the link in the email that verifies that the email address is valid. If you don't receive the email immediately, check your junk email folder.
Return to the Requests page. If the status doesn't automatically update to say email-address is verified, refresh the browser.
When domain registration is complete, your next step depends on whether you want to use Route 53 or another DNS service as the DNS service for the domain:
Route 53 – In the hosted zone that Route 53 created when you registered the domain, create records to tell Route 53 how you want to route traffic for the domain and subdomains.
For example, when someone enters your domain name in a browser and that query is forwarded to Route 53, do you want Route 53 to respond to the query with the IP address of a web server in your data center or with the name of an ELB load balancer?
For more information, see Working with records.
Important
If you create records in a hosted zone other than the one that Route 53 creates automatically, you must update the name servers for the domain to use the name servers for the new hosted zone.
Another DNS service – Configure your new domain to route DNS queries to the other DNS service. Perform the procedure Updating name servers to use another registrar.
