.com price increase tracker
Verisign, the registry operator for .com, sets the wholesale price every registrar pays. It was frozen at $7.85 from 2012, then rose 7% a year for four years — to $8.39 (2021), $8.97 (2022), $9.59 (2023), and $10.26 (2024) — under its ICANN/NTIA contract, which caps increases at 7% in permitted years. It held at $10.26 through 2025, and a further 7% increase to $10.97 takes effect Nov 1, 2026 (announced April 2026). Your retail .com price is this wholesale figure plus the ~$0.20 ICANN fee plus your registrar's markup, which is why an at-cost registrar's .com is close to the wholesale number and others are higher.
| Effective | Wholesale price | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2012 – Aug 2021 | $7.85 | Frozen (2012 Registry Agreement + pandemic freeze) |
| Sep 1, 2021 | $8.39 | +7% |
| Sep 1, 2022 | $8.97 | +7% |
| Sep 1, 2023 | $9.59 | +7% |
| Sep 1, 2024 | $10.26 | +7% |
| 2025 – Oct 2026 | $10.26 | No increase (freeze years) |
| Nov 1, 2026 | $10.97 | +7% (announced Apr 2026) |
Verisign .com wholesale registry price (the per-year fee registrars pay). Retail prices add the ICANN fee and registrar markup. Sourced from the .com Registry Agreement and Domain Name Wire's reporting of each Verisign price notice.
Why .com prices keep rising
Verisign runs .com under a registry agreement with ICANN (and a cooperative agreement with the US NTIA). The 2018/2020 amendments permitted price increases of up to 7% per year in specified years after a long freeze, and Verisign has taken each permitted increase. The contract was renewed in late 2024, allowing further increases in the years ahead.
Because .com is the default TLD for most of the world, these wholesale increases flow through to hundreds of millions of domains — which is why the number is watched closely.
Wholesale vs what you pay
The wholesale price is the floor, not your bill. Your retail price adds the mandatory ICANN fee (~$0.20) and your registrar's markup. An at-cost registrar (e.g. Cloudflare Registrar) prices a .com near the wholesale figure; a marked-up registrar charges more. Compare current verified retail .com prices on our cheapest-domain-renewals and TLD price-list pages.
Verisign .com wholesale registry price history: $7.85 (frozen 2012–2021), $8.39 (Sep 2021), $8.97 (Sep 2022), $9.59 (Sep 2023), $10.26 (Sep 2024), held at $10.26 through 2025, with a 7% increase to $10.97 effective Nov 1, 2026 (announced April 2026). Increases are capped at 7%/year in permitted years under the ICANN/NTIA contract. Retail price = wholesale + ~$0.20 ICANN fee + registrar markup; at-cost registrars price .com near wholesale.