The renewal trap: first-year vs renewal domain prices
Cheap first years can hide expensive renewals and multi-year minimums. Real numbers for .com, .io, .ai and friends, and how to compare them.
Registrars compete on the first-year price, because that's the number you see in search results. The renewal price, which you'll pay every year after, often gets much less attention.
Real numbers
Here are Namecheap's prices for popular TLDs, as returned by tld pricing in October 2026. Prices change, so run the command for current ones.
| TLD | First year | Renewal | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
.com | $11.28 | $18.48 | The default; modest renewal increase |
.dev | $10.98 | $20.98 | HTTPS-only (HSTS preloaded) |
.app | $10.98 | $22.98 | HTTPS-only (HSTS preloaded) |
.co | $19.98 | $45.48 | Renews at about 2.3× the first year |
.io | $34.98 | $75.98 | Renews at about 2.2× the first year |
.ai | $89.98/yr | $114.98 | Two-year minimum: about $180 upfront |
The extreme cases are the bargain TLDs. A first year for about a dollar can renew at $30 or more a year, so the "cheap" option costs the most over the life of a project.
Look at the three-year cost
A better comparison than the first-year price is the cost over the first three years:
- .com: $11.28 + 2 × $18.48 ≈ $48
- .io: $34.98 + 2 × $75.98 ≈ $187
- .ai: 2 × $89.98 + $114.98 ≈ $295
None of these is wrong. A great .ai name can be worth it for an AI product. Just know the number before you fall in love with the name.
Premium domains are a different game
Some short or desirable names are "premium": the registry sets its own price, often hundreds or thousands of dollars, and sometimes a higher renewal too. They show up as available, which is technically true. tld flags them clearly and shows the premium price, and the CLI's --max-price hides them.
How tld shows it
Every available result lists the first-year price, the renewal price and the minimum term. Notes like "renews 2.2x first year" or "min 2y term" call out the traps, and the score docks points for expensive renewals. In the terminal:
$ tld pricing --max-price 5 --sort renewal $ tld check myname -t com,io,ai --max-price 50
Or search here and read the renewal price before you click Register.