The questions people actually ask.

An Australian commercial entity: a company with an ACN, a sole trader, partnership or trust with an active ABN, an incorporated association, or someone who holds or has applied for an Australian trade mark. The name must match or be an acronym of your company, business or personal name, match your trade mark (exactly, if the mark is your only connection to Australia), or match or be a synonym of goods, services, events, activities or premises you provide. auDA has proposed removing that goods-and-services option; as at October 2026 it isn’t in force and no date is set. .net.au has the same rules, and you enter your eligibility details at checkout.

A .com.au is for Australian commercial entities, and the name has to relate to you or your business. Direct .au (yourname.au, available since 24 March 2022) is open to anyone with an Australian presence, including Australian citizens, permanent residents and ABN holders. It has no name-match rule, unless you qualify through a trade mark, which must match exactly. Both follow auDA’s rules, and both are $20 a year inc GST to register or renew with us. Read our guides to .com.au vs .au vs .com and whether you need the .au as well.

One to five years at a time. That’s auDA’s licence period for every .au domain, including .com.au, .net.au, .org.au, .id.au and direct .au. New registrations here are for one year; when you renew from your dashboard you can choose a longer term, up to five years. auDA lets you renew up to 90 days before the expiry date.

Yes, with an active ABN. The name must match or be an acronym of your business or personal name, or match or be a synonym of goods or services you provide. (auDA has proposed removing the goods-or-services option; it isn’t in force yet.) These are auDA’s rules, so they’re the same at every registrar.

Partly. auDA’s public WHOIS shows the registrant’s legal name, ABN or ACN and eligibility details, and the contact names; contact email addresses appear on auDA’s web WHOIS only. Street addresses, phone numbers and the creation and expiry dates are never shown. WHOIS privacy services aren’t allowed for .au, at any registrar.

Yes. auDA requires you to stay eligible for the whole licence period, and your registrar validates your details at registration and again at renewal. If the ABN or ACN tied to the domain has been cancelled, you’re no longer eligible and the licence can be cancelled. If your business has changed structure, start a change of registrant from your dashboard (or email us) well before the domain expires. Check the number now with our free ABN lookup, and read our guides to the ABN check at renewal and changing the registrant of a .com.au.

Yes, if you’re an Australian citizen or permanent resident. Direct .au and .id.au are open to individuals, so no ABN is needed for those; .com.au and .net.au still need an Australian commercial entity. Our checkout form is built around ABNs, so email us with the name you want and a person will set it up. Read our guide to registering a domain without an ABN.

Get the transfer code from your current registrar. It’s also called the auth code, EPP code or authInfo, and for .au the domain password. Every transfer needs one, including .au. For .au names, read our guide to getting your .com.au domain password. Enter the domain and code on our transfer page and we check the registry will accept it before anything is charged. There’s no transfer fee. If your .au is within 90 days of expiry, the transfer includes its renewal ($20 for a year); otherwise it’s free and your expiry date stays the same. For .com, .net, .org and other gTLDs, a transfer includes one year’s renewal at the normal price, added to your existing expiry.

.au transfers usually complete within a few hours once the transfer code is accepted, though auDA allows up to three days. .com, .net, .org and other gTLDs usually take 5–7 days, because the current registrar gets a window to respond. Filling in our transfer form takes a few minutes.

Your transfer code is self-serve: sign in and reveal it any time from the domain’s transfer-out page in your dashboard. If the domain is locked against transfer, unlock it there first. There’s no transfer-out fee and no retention call. For .au names the code is the domain password: read our guide to getting your .com.au domain password.

Yes. DNS hosting is included with every domain you register or transfer in, with a DNS editor in your dashboard for A, AAAA, CNAME, MX, TXT, NS, SRV and CAA records. No tier, no add-on, no upgrade.

Sign in at chilldomains.com.au/account (we email you a one-time link), open the domain and click Edit DNS records. Under Add a record choose the Type your provider shows (usually TXT, MX or CNAME), put @ as the Host unless they give you a name, paste the Value exactly as shown with no quotes, set a priority only for MX records, and click Add record. Google, Microsoft and the rest usually see a new record within minutes, occasionally up to an hour, so if their check fails at first, wait and try again rather than adding the record twice. Rather we did it? Reply to any of our emails with what your provider asks for (a screenshot is fine) and we’ll put the records in for you. That help is included with your domain.

Yes. Set custom nameservers in your dashboard and run your DNS wherever you like, such as Cloudflare, Route 53 or your web host. You can switch back to our DNS hosting at any time.

Email forwarding is included, so hello@yourname.com.au can land in the inbox you already use. For a mailbox with a team calendar or shared documents, use a provider such as Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 and add their MX records in your dashboard. If you just need a simple inbox at your domain while you get started, our optional Axigen mailbox is $24, $36 or $60 a year, by size. Email us if you’d like a hand.

Yes, for extensions whose registry supports it. If you sign your zone with an external DNS provider such as Cloudflare, add the DS records it gives you on the DNSSEC page in your dashboard, and remove them any time. Our DNS hosting doesn’t sign zones for you.

Yes, at no extra cost, for extensions whose registry supports it. It’s off until you switch on ID protection in your dashboard. It isn’t available for .au domains, where auDA publishes the registrant name and ABN or ACN.

Yes. Renewal is the same list price as the first year: a .com.au is $20 a year inc GST to register and $20 a year to renew. There’s no intro pricing. If a list price ever changes, it changes for everyone at the same time, and your reminder email shows the current price before you renew.

Not on list prices. New and existing customers pay the same list price, whether you signed up yesterday or years ago, and renewal is the same list price as the first year. There’s no introductory rate that jumps at renewal and no loyalty tax for staying.

Not always. Some registries charge more for certain premium names. If you pick one, checkout shows the first-year price and the renewal price before you pay.

By card, through Stripe Checkout. Each registration, transfer or renewal is a one-off payment, unless you turn on auto-renew for a domain, from your dashboard or by ticking the box when you pay. Then Stripe keeps that card so we can charge it for renewals. Your invoices and receipts are listed under Billing in your dashboard.

Only if you turn it on. Auto-renew is off by default and never pre-ticked. You can turn it on for a domain from your dashboard, or tick “Renew automatically with this card” when you pay for a registration, transfer or renewal. Stripe keeps that card; we never see or store the card number. Before every renewal we email you the exact price and charge date, at least 7 days before we charge and normally about 30 days before expiry. We charge the card about 14 days before expiry, at the current list price, the same price new customers pay (promo codes don’t apply to renewals). Turn it off in one click from your dashboard before the charge date and nothing is charged.

By plain-text email, 30 days, 7 days and 1 day before expiry. Each reminder shows the current renewal price and a link to renew in your dashboard, and they stop if you renew or tell us not to. If auto-renew is on for the domain, the email with the price and charge date takes their place. No red banners, no fake urgency, and never paper letters.

Because at some registrars the renewal isn’t. A heavily discounted first year can be followed by a much higher renewal price, and some checkouts add extras you have to untick. We’d rather charge one list price for the first year and every renewal.

Because a headline like $1, $5 or “free first year” looks better on its own. Some registrars do show both, but at others the renewal price sits in the terms, a help article or the last step of checkout. When you compare, look for the renewal price. Our pricing page shows both.

Usually not. The crossed-out figure is typically the regular first-year price. The renewal price is a separate number, and it can be higher again. Check it before you compare.

Honest answer: take a discounted first-year promo somewhere else, then transfer the domain to us and renew at our list price each year. That works best for .au names; for .com and the other global extensions, compare renewal prices first, because ours aren’t always the lowest. Two catches. .com, .net, .org and other gTLDs usually can’t be transferred for 60 days after registration or a previous transfer (ICANN is moving this to 30 days); that ICANN lock doesn’t apply to .au. And a .com or other gTLD transfer to us includes a year’s renewal at our normal price (a .au transfer is free unless it’s within 90 days of expiry, when it includes the renewal). We’d rather you saved the money than pretend we’re always cheapest on day one.

No. Chill Domains is a domain reseller operated by Digital Greenhouse. Domains are registered through an auDA- and ICANN-accredited wholesale registrar partner, which appears as the registrar on each domain’s public WHOIS/RDAP record.

No. It’s a service operated by Digital Greenhouse (a Sydney technology consultancy). Our postal address is PO Box 532, Gordon NSW 2072. Our about page has more on who runs Chill Domains.

No. We never send paper letters: renewal reminders from us come by email only. Letters styled like renewal invoices usually come from other companies hoping you’ll pay them or move your domain to them. Don’t pay it. Forward it to info@digitalgreenhouse.com.au and we’ll tell you what it is. Read our guide to domain renewal scams in Australia.

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Email info@digitalgreenhouse.com.au or use the contact form and a real person replies within one business day. We work Monday to Friday, 9am–5pm Sydney time.