Register a .io domain: who can, rules, price and transfer

A .io domain is the country code of the British Indian Ocean Territory, a group of islands in the Indian Ocean also known as the Chagos Islands. You do not need to live there: anyone, anywhere can register a .io domain. At LJPc hosting a .io domain costs €56.99 a year excluding VAT, with DNS management included, and you order or transfer it in the customer portal.

Below you can read what .io stands for, what the Chagos agreement means for .io, which rules a .io name has to meet, what it costs and how to register or transfer a .io domain.

What is a .io domain and what does .io stand for?

.io has existed since 1997 and is officially the country code top-level domain of the British Indian Ocean Territory, a British overseas territory in the middle of the Indian Ocean. The registry is Internet Computer Bureau (ICB), based in the United Kingdom, which also runs the country codes .ac and .sh.

In computing, io stands for input/output. That is why .io is popular with tech companies, software makers and startups. A well-known example is GitHub, which uses github.io for the websites developers publish with GitHub Pages.

Google treats .io as a generic extension, like .com: it lists .io among the country codes it does not tie to a country, noting that the list may change. Whether people in a particular country find you therefore depends on your website itself, such as the language of your content, a local address and links from other local websites. This is explained in Google's guidelines for multi-regional sites.

Who can register a .io domain?

Anyone. Under the registry's rules, an applicant may be based in any country: individuals, clubs, foundations and businesses alike. You need no company registration and no address in the territory, and names go to whoever registers them first.

When you register, you do agree to the registry's rules:

• Accurate details. The registry holds the full name of the person or organisation that holds the domain, a postal address and a working email address, and you keep those details up to date. If they turn out to be false, the registry can cancel the registration.
• Fair use. A .io domain may not be used for sexual or pornographic purposes or for anything that breaks the law of any country; the registry can deactivate such a domain straight away. If a .io domain is used for spam, the holder first gets a notice, after which the domain can be suspended or deleted.
• Other people's rights. The registry does not check in advance whether you are entitled to a name. It is up to you to make sure your name does not infringe someone else's trademark or name.
• English law. The .io registration terms are governed by English law.

.io also has third-level names, such as yourname.com.io. Those are reserved for residents of the territory. What you register at LJPc is a name directly under .io, such as yourname.io.

What happens to .io now that the Chagos Islands are going to Mauritius?

On 22 May 2025 the United Kingdom and Mauritius signed a treaty that places the Chagos Islands, the territory .io stands for, under Mauritius. A treaty like this only takes effect once both countries ratify it. As of 11 November 2026 the treaty is not in force: the UK bill that was to implement it was not passed before the 2024 to 2026 session of Parliament ended, and so it fell.

For your .io domain, that means:

• .io works as it always has. IANA, the organisation that keeps track of the internet's top-level domains, lists .io as an active country code. Registrations, renewals and transfers carry on.
• A change of sovereignty does not automatically change .io. ICANN wrote in November 2024 that it is not a foregone conclusion that .io will change if the territory comes under another country. Country codes follow the international list of countries, ISO 3166-1.
• Only if the code IO is removed from that list does a transition period start. Under IANA's policy a country code is then removed after five years by default, with a possible extension to ten years at most. IANA announces such a retirement publicly, with the planned removal date, and the registry is expected to inform holders in good time.

If you use .io for your main website and your email, also register your name under another extension, such as .com or .nl. That way you have a second domain ready if anything ever changes.

When is .io the right choice?

A .io domain is short and recognised worldwide as an extension for technology. That makes .io a good fit for software, an app, an online service or a developer tool.

A .io domain redirects to another website the same way as any other domain; see redirect a domain to another website.

Which rules does a .io name have to meet?

• Length. 1 to 63 characters, not counting .io. The registry releases one- and two-character names and other special names in a controlled way.
• Characters. The letters a to z, the digits 0 to 9 and the hyphen. A hyphen cannot be the first or last character.
• Accented letters. The registry also accepts names with accented letters, such as é, ë and ü, and names in other scripts, such as Cyrillic, Arabic, Chinese and Korean. You choose one language per name, and every character in the name comes from it. Not every email client or web form handles such characters well, so for your main address a name without accents is the safer choice.
• Premium names. The registry offers some names as premium names, at a higher price.

In the portal's order wizard you type a .io name using the letters a to z, digits and hyphens. If you want a .io domain with accented letters, open a support ticket and we will help you further. If the wizard shows Premium domain, contact us next to a name, you order that name through a support ticket; the button opens the ticket for you. See ordering a domain and hosting in the customer portal for how that works.

How much does a .io domain cost at LJPc?

A .io domain costs €56.99 a year at LJPc hosting, excluding VAT. You pay the same amount when you transfer an existing .io domain to us, and a transfer adds one year to the domain's term. The prices of all our extensions are on the domain names page, and the order wizard shows you the price before you order.

Add hosting for your website and email, so you can also send mail from an address like info@yourname.io. You can also take DNS management only, or redirect the domain to another website. Our packages are on the web hosting page. With hosting at LJPc we set up SPF, DKIM and DMARC for you by default, on a .io domain too, so recipients can see your mail really comes from your domain.

How to register a .io domain at LJPc

1. Log in at portal.ljpc.nl and click Add a website on the dashboard, or go straight to the order wizard. No account yet? Create one first.
2. Choose I am looking for one or want to register one and type the name followed by .io, for example yourname.io. You see straight away whether it is available and what it costs per year, with other extensions next to it.
3. Select the .io domain and then what it should do: a hosting package, DNS management only, a redirect package, or a server or hosting space you already have with us.
4. In the cart, check the Registration contact: the details the domain is registered under. For .io your regular contact details are enough: the cart asks for no extra information.
5. Accept the terms and conditions and complete your order. We then handle the registration with the registry.

Every option in the order wizard is explained in register a domain and link it to your hosting. You will then find your .io domain in the portal under Services > Domain names.

What LJPc takes care of for your .io domain

• Automatic renewal every year. Automatic renewal is on by default, so your .io domain keeps running as long as your subscription does. To stop, see cancel a domain or hosting.
• DNS and DNSSEC. Your domain gets our name servers ns1.ljpc.network, ns2.ljpc.network and ns3.ljpc.network, and we switch on DNSSEC automatically. See what is DNSSEC for how that protection works.
• Your transfer code always at hand. On your domain's page in the portal, the transfer code is in the Authorization code block.
• The transfer lock under your control. With the Transfer lock switch you turn the transfer lock of your .io domain on or off yourself.
• Your details under your control. You update your domain's contact details yourself in the portal, as described in manage your domain's WHOIS data. If the domain needs to go to someone else, see change the owner of a domain: for .io you first approve the change through an email in your portal inbox.

Transferring your .io domain to LJPc

You transfer a .io domain with a transfer code, also called an authorization code or EPP code. You get that code from your current provider.

1. Are your website and email moving too? Set them up with us first, because a domain transfer does not move your website and email by itself. See migrate your website to LJPc for how to go about it.
2. Ask your current provider for the transfer code and have the domain's transfer lock switched off.
3. Open the order wizard, choose I already have one at another registrar, enter your .io domain and choose Transfer to LJPc. Enter the transfer code. The portal checks straight away whether the transfer can go ahead with that code.
4. Choose your hosting or DNS management only and complete your order. We start the transfer and you follow its status in the portal.

After a change of holder, a .io domain has a 60-day transfer lock by default. How to follow the transfer, what to do with an approval email and what to do if it gets stuck is covered in transfer your domain to LJPc.

Transferring your .io domain away from LJPc

If your .io domain is moving to another provider, you handle the transfer code and the transfer lock yourself in the portal:

1. Open your .io domain's page in the portal.
2. In the Authorization code block, click Show to see the transfer code, or Copy to copy it.
3. In the Domain overview block, find Transfer lock and click the switch so it shows Off.
4. Give the code to your new provider, who uses it to request the transfer.

What else is involved, such as ending your subscription with us, is explained in get your EPP code and transfer your domain.

Keeping your .io domain at another registrar

If you want to keep your .io domain at its current registrar and only bring your website or email to us, the domain does not need to move. You connect it with our name servers, as described in change your name servers, or with individual DNS records, as described in point a domain at another provider to LJPc hosting. Not sure where your domain is registered? Look it up with who manages my domain.

Expiry, redemption and fake invoices

After its expiry date a .io domain goes through the same stages as a .com domain: first a renewal period at the registrar, then a 30-day redemption period in which only the holder can get the domain back through their registrar, and finally 5 days in which the name is deleted. After that it is available to anyone. What the statuses in the portal mean is explained in expired domains and quarantine. If your .io domain shows Expired, Redemption period or Pending delete in the portal and you want to keep it, open a support ticket right away.

Received an invoice or renewal email for your .io domain from a company you do not know? Do not pay it straight away. How to spot a fake domain invoice explains what to look out for.

WHOIS and disputes

The public .io WHOIS shows which registrar a domain is with, its status, when it was registered and when it expires, and which name servers it uses. For the holder, the WHOIS shows only the organisation, if one is filled in, and the state or province and country. The holder's name, address, phone number and email address stay hidden.

If someone claims rights to a .io name, for example because it matches their trademark, that goes through the .io dispute resolution policy at WIPO, the United Nations agency for intellectual property, or through the courts. The complainant has to show that the name is identical or confusingly similar to their trademark, that the holder has no rights or legitimate interests in it, and that the name was registered or is being used in bad faith. A panel can order the domain to be cancelled or transferred to the complainant; while the proceeding runs, and for 15 business days after it ends, the domain cannot move to another holder or registrar. The full rules are in the .io dispute resolution policy.

Not sure whether .io fits your plans, or is a transfer stuck? Open a support ticket and we will help you further.