How much does that $0.01 domain name really cost? The cart it came in could cost $415 a year.

I thought you said it was $0.01?

Imagine a sign at the shop: avocados, 1 cent. At the register, the cent only counts if you buy two, and the second one is $9.99. Total: $10. Hang on, I thought you said it was 1 cent? Can’t I just buy one for 1 cent? If the deal is really two for $10, why not just say “2 for $10”?

What’s in a $0.01 cart?

Four items, and only one of them is the domain. We chose the domain and nothing else; the other three were already in the cart when we got there. This is the cart for jacksdomain.com.au, two years, just before the Checkout button:

The screenshot shows each line before GST. In this table we’ve added the 10% to every price, so the lines add up to the total you’d actually pay. For the later charges we’ve assumed GST is added the same way; the cart doesn’t say.

Checkout says $39.59 inc GST. The rest arrives later, as the two free trials end: $415.03 inc GST in the first twelve months, if nothing is cancelled. See the month-by-month sums.

Chill Domains sells .au domains, so we have an interest here. We haven’t named the other provider: this pattern is common, and the point is how to read the cart, not who it belongs to. Their prices may have changed since 22 October 2026. Ours are near the end.

So what’s the real offer?

The $0.01 domain works the same way. You can’t buy one year for $0.01: the offer only applies “on registration of 2 or more years”, and the second year costs $20.99 before GST. So the domain line is $0.01 + $20.99 = $21.00.

The cart shows that as “SAVE 50%”, against a struck-out $41.98. That’s the provider’s own price for two years at $20.99 each. The “saving” is one year’s price, less a cent.

Then GST. The cart is in Australian dollars, but every line is before GST, and the 10% is added in the order summary. $21.00 becomes $23.10. That’s the least you can pay for the one-cent offer: $23.10 inc GST for two years, or about $11.55 a year. A genuinely low price, just not one cent.

And that’s with the extras taken out. The cart as it came, with the extras already in it, totalled $39.59 inc GST at checkout, and its two free trials are listed with paid renewals, so check how to cancel before they end. If the real offer is two years for $23.10 inc GST, why doesn’t the ad just say that?

What are the other three items?

Two of them cost nothing today. All three cost something later.

Expiry protection add-on: $16.49 a year inc GST

The cart describes it as cover that “renews your domain for a year, if payment fails”. The cart lists it at $14.99 before GST; that’s $16.49 inc GST, about 70% of what the two years of domain cost.

Taking it out of the cart isn’t a quiet click, either. Try to remove it and a pop-up asks you to think again:

The warning is true as far as it goes: a domain you don’t renew can be lost. But this add-on doesn’t make you renew on time. By the cart’s own description, it renews the domain for a year if a payment fails. Reminders you read and a card that works cover most of that risk for nothing.

Here’s how. Keep a current card on file, read your renewal reminders, and know that a .au name doesn’t vanish the day it expires: auDA gives a 30-day grace period in which you can still renew it. Your website and email stop during that time, so don’t plan on using it. Renewal and expiry has the whole timeline.

Business email trial: free, then $93.72 per account a year inc GST

Two mailbox accounts, free for one month. After that, the cart says each account renews at $85.20 for a year, before GST. Two accounts come to $187.44 inc GST, due in November 2026.

Real mailboxes are worth paying for if you need them. But a trial added to a domain purchase is easy to forget, and if all you wanted was hello@yourbusiness.com.au landing in your existing inbox, a free email forward does that. Email and your domain explains the difference between a mailbox and a forward.

Website builder: free for 3 months, then $62.67 every 3 months inc GST

The cart calls it a “special offer” that “will auto-renew at $56.97”. That’s per three months, before GST: $62.67 a quarter inc GST, or $250.67 inc GST over a full year.

Removing it brings up a second pop-up, laid out the same way:

“Opt-out” is the right word, and that’s the point: the builder was in the cart by default. We didn’t put it there, so we had to opt out of something we never opted into. To its credit, the pop-up says you “can cancel anytime before the free period ends”. That’s also the catch: if you don’t, it renews at $62.67 inc GST every three months.

What does it cost if you check out and forget?

$415.03 inc GST in the first twelve months. That’s if you press Checkout on the cart as it stood, cancel nothing, and every renewal goes through at the price printed in the cart, plus GST at 10%. The cart doesn’t say whether its renewal prices include GST; we’ve assumed they don’t, like the prices it charges today:

The next website builder payment falls in October 2027, right at the twelve-month mark, and the expiry protection add-on was sold for one year; we haven’t counted either renewal. The second year costs more, not less: another year of email ($187.44) and four website builder payments ($250.67) come to $438.11 inc GST, before any renewal of the add-on. The GST total is worked from the cart-price total, so the rows add up to a cent more.

That’s the honest worst case, not a forecast. You can cancel trials, and many people will. But in this cart, doing nothing after checkout costs money, and the one-cent price is the part everyone remembers.

And if you remove everything but the domain?

Then it’s a good deal, for a while. You’re playing a game… Can you avoid all the traps when renewal time comes along? Play Jack’s Renewal Run. If you don’t want to play any games and just want to keep it chill, choose Chill Domains.

Which dark patterns does this cart show?

Six of the patterns on our list turn up in this one cart. None of them is unique to this provider, and each one alone can be harmless. Together, they make the headline price the least useful number on the page.

• Intro pricing. One cent for year one, $23.09 inc GST for year two.
• Prices before GST. Every line is 10% short until the order summary.
• A discount against the seller’s own price. “SAVE 50%” is measured against the provider’s own two-year price.
• Extras in the cart. Four items, one domain. We only chose the domain.
• Free trials with paid renewals. Free today, then $187.44 inc GST in November and $62.67 inc GST a quarter from January, if nothing is cancelled.
• A pop-up when you remove an extra. Take out the expiry protection and a “Remove with Caution!” pop-up asks if you’re sure; take out the website builder and you’re asked to “Confirm Builder Opt-Out”, with a pitch for the builder. Both times, “KEEP IN CART” is the filled button.

How do you read any cheap-domain cart?

Six checks, before you press the button. They take about two minutes and work on any provider’s cart, including ours.

1. Find the minimum term

   Look for “on registration of 2 or more years” or a term picker that won’t go below two. Divide the domain line by the years to get a real yearly price.

2. Check for GST

   If the summary adds GST at the end, every price you’ve been reading is 10% short. Compare totals, not line prices.

3. Find the renewal price

   It’s usually in small grey type under the domain. That’s the number you’ll pay for as long as you keep the name.

4. Count the items

   You asked for one domain. If the cart holds more, read each one and remove what you didn’t ask for.

5. Find the date on every “free”

   “Free until” means paid after. Note the date and the price it renews at, or remove it now.

6. Check auto-renew

   Find out whether anything renews automatically, and how to switch it off. If you can’t find out before paying, that tells you something too.

What does the same domain cost at Chill Domains?

$20 a year inc GST, to register and to renew.

We’d rather be the price you can still predict in year ten: one number, the same to register and to renew.

Questions people ask

Terms on this page

Renewal

Paying for another term so you keep the name. For .au that’s usually done before the licence expires, but auDA also allows renewal in a 30-day grace period after expiry.

Grace period

The time after expiry when the holder can still renew a name. For .au names it’s 30 days, and the website and email stop working during it.

Registrar

A company accredited to add and change names in a registry.

Every term, in full, is in the glossary.

Sources

• The cart itself: our screenshot of another provider’s cart for jacksdomain.com.au, taken on 22 October 2026, shown above. Every price and quotation about that cart comes from it.
• How to renew your .au domain name (auDA): the 30-day grace period after expiry, and that website and email stop during it.
• Goods and services tax (GST) (Australian Taxation Office): GST is 10%.
• Chill Domains pricing and our promises: our own prices and terms, as at 22 October 2026.

General information, not financial or legal advice. Prices are as at the dates shown; check the cart in front of you.

Keep reading

• Dark patterns in the domain business: the rest of the patterns, and what we do instead.
• The October 2026 .au price rise: what auDA’s wholesale change adds to any renewal.
• Renewal and expiry: the grace period, and how to avoid losing a name.
• Email and your domain: mailboxes, forwards, and what you actually need.
• Get your .com.au domain password: the first step if you decide to move provider.
• Domain renewal scams in Australia: when the “renewal” isn’t from your provider at all.
• Jack’s Renewal Run: the same hoops, as a game.