When does the .net domain price go up, and by how much?
Verisign raises the .net registry wholesale fee from $10.91 to $12.00 on 1 March 2027, announced in an SEC filing on 27 August 2026. That is $1.09 a year (+9.99%), the full 10% the .net contract with ICANN allows in one step, and the first .net increase since February 2024. Every registrar pays it. On 9 September 2026 a .net cost $12.52 at Porkbun and renewed for $18.58 at Namecheap, a gap of $6.06 a year, more than five times the increase. A renewal bought before 1 March 2027 keeps today’s fee for every year it adds, up to ten.
Key finding Neither Porkbun nor Namecheap has announced its post-March .net price; the $13.61 figure in the note assumes Porkbun passes the $1.09 through unchanged. The SEC filing gives no time of day, so finish early renewals in February 2027. The ICANN transaction fee used for the at-cost floor ($11.11 today, $12.20 after) is the FY2026 figure of $0.20.
Prices verified 9 September 2026 against each vendor’s own pricing page, linked in full below.
KEY FINDING. Verisign raises the .net registry wholesale fee from $10.91 to $12.00 on 1 March 2027, and every registrar pays it. That is $1.09 a year, a rise of 9.99%, and it is the most the .net contract with ICANN allows in one step: the fee may not exceed the previous calendar year’s fee multiplied by 1.10, and $10.91 times 1.10 is $12.001. It is the first .net increase since 1 February 2024, when the fee went from $9.92 to $10.91, also the maximum. The increase has a deadline you can beat: a renewal bought before 1 March 2027 is priced at today’s fee for every year it adds, up to ten. The larger number is still where you keep the name. A .net renews for $18.58 at Namecheap and $12.52 at Porkbun today, a gap of $6.06 a year, more than five times what the increase costs you.
This is a change note for anyone paying for a .net. Every figure below was read on screen on 9 September 2026 from Verisign’s filing with the SEC, ICANN’s contract and fee pages, and each registrar’s own pages, all linked at the end. We hold domains at more than one registrar and have no affiliate relationship with any of them; there are no affiliate links on this page. The .com fee has its own note, because its date and its size are different: the .com price rise on 1 November 2026.
What changes, in Verisign’s words
Verisign did not put this one in an earnings release. It filed a current report with the SEC on 27 August 2026, and the whole announcement is one sentence under Item 8.01: “On August 27, 2026, VeriSign, Inc. announced an increase to the registry-level wholesale price for new and renewal .net domain names from $10.91 to $12.00, effective March 1, 2027, per its agreement with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).” No time of day is given. Until a registrar publishes one, treat the change as live from the start of 1 March 2027 and finish any early renewal in February.
That fee is what a registrar pays the registry for one year of one .net. On top of it every ICANN-accredited registrar owes ICANN a transaction fee of $0.20 per year, “assessed on each annual increment of an add, renew, or transfer transaction” in the FY2026 fee schedule, the most recent one we have found. So the floor price of a .net, before any registrar adds anything, is $11.11 today and $12.20 from 1 March 2027.
What it costs at three kinds of registrar
| Where the domain sits | One year today | From 1 March 2027 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| At cost (registry fee plus the ICANN fee, no markup). Cloudflare Registrar states it “does not mark up domain prices at all” and that customers “only pay the price charged by registries and ICANN” | $11.11 | $12.20 | +$1.09 (9.8%), our arithmetic on the two official fees |
| Porkbun, list price, the same for registration, renewal and transfer | $12.52 | Not announced. If the $1.09 is passed through unchanged, about $13.61 | +$1.09 if passed through; our arithmetic, not a Porkbun figure |
| Namecheap, renewal price (its first-year price is $12.48 on sale, list $14.98; the renewal is what you pay every year after) | $18.58 | Not announced | Unknown. The registry increase applies to Namecheap too |
Porkbun’s margin over the floor price is $1.41 on a .net today, against $0.62 on a .com from the same price list. Namecheap’s renewal sits $7.47 above the floor. Both are legitimate businesses charging what they choose; the point is that the gap between them, $6.06 a year, is where most of the money in a .net renewal goes, and a registry increase that both pass through leaves that gap exactly where it is.
The cheapest way through it: renew before 1 March 2027, for as many years as you will keep the name
A renewal adds years onto the expiry date you already have, so renewing early throws nothing away. The contract obliges Verisign to “continue to offer domain name registrations for periods of up to ten years”, and the registrars expose that limit: Porkbun’s knowledge base says “the max renewal period allotted per domain is 10 years”, Cloudflare’s manual “Renew for” drop-down goes “up to 10 years”, and Namecheap’s pricing page shows renewal terms up to five years, priced at exactly five times the one-year figure.
| What you do with one .net | Cost | Note |
|---|---|---|
| At cost, renew 10 years before 1 March 2027 | about $111.10 | $11.11 x 10. This is our arithmetic on the registry and ICANN fees, not a figure Cloudflare publishes. Check the amount the Renew for drop-down actually quotes before buying |
| At cost, renew the same 10 years after 1 March 2027 | about $122.00 | $12.20 x 10, which is $10.90 more for the decade |
| Porkbun, renew 10 years before 1 March 2027 | $125.20 | $12.52 x 10, the current price locked for a decade |
| Porkbun, renew the same 10 years after 1 March 2027 | about $136.10 | Assumes Porkbun passes the $1.09 through unchanged. Our projection, not a Porkbun figure |
| Porkbun, renew 5 years before 1 March 2027 | $62.60 | Covers 2027 through 2031 |
| Namecheap, renew 5 years at the published renewal price | $92.90 | Namecheap’s own five-year figure. $30.30 more than the same five years at Porkbun, before the increase is counted at all |
Two caveats on the prepay move, the same two as for .com. It is only a saving if you are certain you want the name for that long, because a renewal is not refundable and a .net you abandon in year three has cost you seven wasted years. And the saving is about a dollar a year per name: $10.90 over a decade at cost, and the same $10.90 at Porkbun if it passes the increase through. For one or two names that is the price of a coffee. For a portfolio of fifty it is $545 over ten years, and at either scale the registrar you renew at matters more than the date you renew on.
Why it is exactly 10 percent, and why it took three years
The number is the contract’s ceiling rather than a round figure Verisign picked. Section 7.3 of the .net registry agreement with ICANN, in force since 1 July 2023, sets the Service Fee at $9.92 and then says the fee charged in a calendar year “shall not exceed the highest Service Fee charged during the preceding calendar year multiplied by 1.10.” Verisign used the full room in 2024 ($9.92 times 1.10 is $10.912, charged as $10.91) and uses it again now ($10.91 times 1.10 is $12.001, charged as $12.00). The same section requires “no less than six months prior notice in advance of any price increase”; the filing on 27 August 2026 gives six months and two days.
What the contract does not do is require an increase every year. The February 2024 step was the last one, so 2025 and 2026 passed without a change, and the fee will have risen 21.0% in total since the agreement began. We have not found a statement from Verisign about the pause and do not guess at one. What the ceiling does give you is the worst case for planning: after 1 March 2027 the next possible step is $13.20, and it cannot arrive with less than six months’ notice.
.com and .net, side by side
| Registry fee | Now | Next | Announced | Increase |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| .com wholesale | $10.26 | $10.97 on 1 November 2026 | Verisign results release, 23 April 2026 | +$0.71 (6.9%) |
| .net wholesale | $10.91 | $12.00 on 1 March 2027 | Verisign SEC filing, 27 August 2026 | +$1.09 (9.99%) |
| Floor including ICANN’s $0.20, .com / .net | $10.46 / $11.11 | $11.17 / $12.20 | Our arithmetic | +$0.71 / +$1.09 |
Both fees are Verisign’s, and both contracts cap the step: about 7% a year for .com from 2026 to 2030, in Porkbun’s reading of that contract, and 10% a year for .net. A .net already costs more than a .com at wholesale, by $0.65 today; after both changes the gap is $1.03. If you hold both, one renewal session in October covers the .com before 1 November, and the .net can wait until February 2027, or go in the same session if you would rather not come back to it.
Who is affected
| Your situation | What happens |
|---|---|
| You own a .net anywhere | Your next renewal on or after 1 March 2027 is priced from the new wholesale fee. The registry fee is the same for every registrar, so no registrar escapes it |
| You renew before that date | Every year you buy is at today’s price, including years that fall after the change |
| You are mid-term on a multi-year registration | Nothing happens until that term ends. The fee applies to new registrations and renewals, not to time already paid for |
| You are registering a new .net | Same increase, and the first-year discounts many registrars advertise are unaffected by it. Check the renewal price before you take the discount: Namecheap’s .net is $12.48 in year one and $18.58 in year two |
| You transfer a .net to another registrar | A transfer adds a year at the receiving registrar’s transfer price, and the registry fee is charged on that year too, so a transfer after 1 March 2027 carries the increase. Porkbun’s transfer price is $12.52 and Namecheap’s is $12.98 on sale today |
| You hold .com | A different date and a different size: $10.26 to $10.97 on 1 November 2026 |
Limits of this page
We read six pages and did arithmetic on them. Three registrars were chosen because they represent three shapes of pricing, at cost, thin margin, and list price with a first-year discount, and prices at other registrars will differ. Neither Porkbun nor Namecheap has announced its .net price for 1 March 2027; the figures marked as projections assume the $1.09 is passed through unchanged, and a registrar may absorb some of it or add to it. The ICANN transaction fee is the FY2026 figure. The SEC filing gives no time of day. If any figure here stops matching the vendor’s page, the verified date at the top of this article is the date it was true.
Sources, read on screen 9 September 2026
- Verisign, 27 August 2026: Form 8-K, Item 8.01 (“from $10.91 to $12.00, effective March 1, 2027”)
- Verisign, 27 July 2023: Verisign Reports Second Quarter 2023 Results (“from $9.92 to $10.91, effective Feb. 1, 2024”)
- ICANN: .NET Registry Agreement, 1 July 2023, Section 7.3 (Service Fee $9.92, “multiplied by 1.10”, “no less than six months prior notice”, “periods of up to ten years”)
- ICANN: Registrar fees and the FY2026 registrar-level fees announcement ($0.20 per transaction)
- Porkbun: the domain pricing list ($12.52 registration, renewal and transfer for .net; $11.08 for .com on the same list) and its .com note (“the max renewal period allotted per domain is 10 years”)
- Namecheap: .net domain pricing ($12.48 first year on sale, list $14.98; renewal $18.58 a year and $92.90 for five; transfer $12.98 on sale)
- Cloudflare: Cloudflare Registrar (“does not mark up domain prices at all”) and Renew domains (manual “Renew for” drop-down of up to 10 years)
- Our running record of dated 2026 price changes: the infrastructure price change ledger. The domain line in a full site budget is in what it costs to run one WordPress site for a year