How Much Does a Domain Name Cost in Australia?

A .com.au or .au domain name in Australia usually costs somewhere between $10 and $16 for the first year, then $25 to $32 a year to keep. A .com costs a little more. Those figures come from two Australian providers' own price lists in November 2026, and the pattern holds across the market: a cheap first year, then a renewal price that is roughly double.

The number worth knowing is the one underneath. auDA, the body that administers every .au domain name, sets a single wholesale price that all providers pay: $9.50 a year, before GST, for a domain name licence in any .au namespace, as of 1 October 2026. Add GST and that is about $10.45. Everything you pay above that is the provider's margin, its support, and whatever extras are bundled in.

What you actually pay: first year versus renewal

Providers set their own retail prices. auDA says so plainly: pricing "varies between providers and can vary depending on other supporting services" you buy alongside the domain, such as web hosting and email hosting.

Here is what two long-standing Australian providers were publishing when we checked in November 2026.

Both providers charge the same for a .au direct name as for a .com.au in the first year. Neither page we read said whether the figures include GST, so check the cart total before you pay.

The first-year price is a discount, and both providers say so in the fine print. VentraIP's reads: "Discount applies to the first year on new standard registrations only." Webcentral's is almost word for word the same.

That makes the first-year price the wrong number to compare. A domain name is something you keep for as long as the business exists, so the cost that matters is the renewal. At VentraIP's listed prices, a .com.au held for five years comes to $110.75: one year at $10.95 and four at $24.95. The first year is less than a tenth of that.

Why prices differ when the wholesale price is the same

Every provider starts from the same $9.50. What differs is what sits on top.

• Registrar or reseller. A registrar is accredited by auDA and has direct access to the .au registry. A reseller sells and manages domain names through a registrar's system. Both are legitimate, and auDA lists both, but a reseller adds another business between you and the registry.
• What's bundled. DNS management, email forwarding and domain privacy are free with some providers and paid add-ons with others. Webcentral, for example, includes basic DNS edits, email forwarding and redirects with every domain, and sells an "Advanced Domain Manager" on top.
• Support. Phone support from an Australian team costs more to run than a help centre and a ticket form.
• The upsell. A low domain price often exists to sell hosting, email or a website builder at checkout.

One note on privacy. Hiding your contact details from the public WHOIS record is a common paid extra on .com names. It does not apply to .au names: Webcentral's own FAQ says .au domains "are not eligible for privacy protection due to auDA's WHOIS policy". If a checkout offers you privacy on a .com.au, read what you would be paying for.

The fees that don't appear on the price list

Letting a domain name expire

This is the expensive one. auDA gives you a 30 calendar day grace period after a .au licence expires, and it is blunt about what happens in that month: "your website and email services will stop working during this time". If you still have not renewed at the end of the 30 days, the name is removed from the registry and anyone can register it.

Getting a name back late can cost far more than the renewal you missed. auDA notes that "certain domain name providers will charge a fee to restore a domain name during this grace period". Webcentral publishes its redemption fees: $220 for .com, .net, .org, .info and .biz names, and $385 for all other domains.

The fix costs nothing. Turn on auto-renewal, keep the card on file current, and make sure renewal notices go to an address someone reads.

Transferring to another provider

Moving a .au name between registrars is cheap or free. auDA charges nothing for it: "There is no fee for any transfer of a .au domain name licence between registrars." Individual providers set their own policy, and VentraIP lists .com.au transfers as free.

You will need the transfer authorisation code from your current provider (auDA calls it the EPP authInfo, and it is not your account password). Once the transfer is approved, auDA says it can take up to three days to take effect.

Paying for more years upfront

A .au name can be licensed for one, two, three, four or five years at a time. Paying for several years protects you from forgetting to renew, but the first-year discount generally applies to the first year only, so a longer term does not multiply the saving.

Which one to buy: .com.au, .au or .com

For an Australian business, .com.au is still the default. auDA describes it as the domain "for businesses with a connection to Australia", and it comes with rules.

• .com.au. You must be an Australian commercial entity, and you will be asked for an ABN, ACN or Australian trade mark details. The name also has to have a connection to your business, such as your business name, an acronym of it, or a match with your trade mark.
• .au direct. The shorter version, with nothing between your name and the .au. It is open to "anyone with a validated connection to Australia", including citizens, permanent residents and organisations registered here, and you do not need an ABN or ACN. Any available name can be registered if you meet that test.
• .com. No Australian eligibility rules. Worth holding if you sell overseas, or simply to stop someone else taking it.

A common setup is to build the website on the .com.au and register the matching .au so nobody else can. At the prices above, that second name adds about $25 to $32 a year once the first-year discounts end.

How to buy a domain name in Australia

1. Have your ABN or ACN ready if you want a .com.au. You can't complete the registration without it.
2. Search the name on any provider's site. The .au registry is shared, so availability is the same everywhere.
3. Compare the renewal price, not the headline. Look for the "was" price or the renewal column.
4. Register it in the business's own name, with an email address the business controls. The registrant details in the registry decide who holds the licence. If a designer, an IT contractor or a former staff member registers it under their own details, getting it back later can be slow and awkward.
5. Skip most of the checkout extras. You can add hosting, email and security later, from whichever provider suits.
6. Turn on auto-renewal before you close the tab.

If you are still choosing a provider, our guide to the best domain name registrars in Australia compares twelve of them, and the website hosting guide covers the hosting side.

When someone else looks after it

Many small businesses never deal with a registrar directly, because the domain name comes as part of their website arrangement. That is how we handle it for our own clients: ComKey's Advanced SEO care plan ($149 a month) and Premium care plan ($599 a month) include a domain name along with hosting, updates and ongoing changes. The packages page lists what each plan covers.

Bundled or not, the rule in step 4 still applies. Ask whose name the licence is in, and make sure the answer is yours.

The short version

• The wholesale price of any .au domain name is $9.50 a year before GST. Retail prices start just above that for the first year and settle at roughly $25 to $32 a year.
• Compare renewal prices. The first year is a discount.
• A lapsed name can cost hundreds of dollars to recover, or be lost altogether after 30 days.
• Transfers between .au registrars carry no auDA fee, so you are never locked in by price.
• Whoever is listed as the registrant holds the licence. Make sure that is your business.