How to register a .ca domain in Canada: CIRA's eligibility rules, choosing a certified registrar, the five-day agreement, and what renewal and expiry cost.
Applies in: across Canada
A .ca domain is Canada's country-code domain, and unlike a .com it is gated: only people and organizations that meet CIRA's Canadian Presence Requirements may register, hold, and keep one. The Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) runs the registry, and since November 8, 2000 only the individuals and entities listed in its policy have been permitted to apply for a .ca, through a CIRA-certified registrar, according to CIRA, Canadian Presence Requirements for Registrants. This guide walks through the gate, the registrar, the registration steps, the privacy and renewal rules, and what to do when the name you want is already taken. It is process information, not legal advice: where a figure or rule was not verified on an opened source, this guide states a check instead of a figure.
The gate is the Canadian Presence Requirements for Registrants, version 1.3. Only the eighteen categories it lists may apply to CIRA, through a CIRA-certified registrar, for the registration of a .ca domain name, and to hold and maintain it, according to CIRA, Canadian Presence Requirements for Registrants. The categories that matter for most readers are the first few: a Canadian citizen of the age of majority under the laws of the province or territory where they reside or last resided; a permanent resident as defined in the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act who is ordinarily resident in Canada and of the age of majority; a legal representative of a person in either of those categories; and a corporation under the laws of Canada or any province or territory, on the same page. The rest of the list covers trusts and partnerships where more than 66.6% of trustees or partners meet one of the earlier conditions, associations where at least 80% of members and at least 80% of directors, officers, employees, managers, administrators, or other representatives are ordinarily resident in Canada, trade unions with a head office in Canada, registered political parties, educational institutions, libraries, archives and museums, hospitals, Indian bands, Inuit, First Nation, Métis and other Indigenous peoples, and governments at every level, on the same page.
Two details catch people out. First, "ordinarily resident in Canada" is a defined term, not a feeling: an individual who resides in Canada for more than 183 days in the twelve-month period immediately preceding the application, and in each twelve-month period thereafter for the duration of the registration, according to CIRA, Canadian Presence Requirements for Registrants. Second, the trademark route is narrow. A person who meets none of the other conditions but owns a trademark registered under the Trade-marks Act may register a .ca, but only a domain consisting of or including the exact word component of that registered trademark, on the same page. The same limit applies to official marks. There is no category for simply having a Canadian address, holding a work permit, or doing business in Canada without incorporation or a registered trademark — and one registrar's own page lists "non-Canadian companies that do business in Canada" as eligible, which conflicts with CIRA's policy. CIRA's policy governs: it is the registry's rule, and the registrar's summary is not. If you are not sure which category fits you, read the eighteen categories in CIRA's policy before paying, and note that CIRA may ask for proof of compliance with your chosen category after registration, through a process called Registrant Information Validation, according to CIRA, Canadian Presence Requirements.
CIRA manages the .ca registry but does not sell .ca domain names. A registrar is a company that sells domain names and related services like web hosting, and CIRA's registrar list page contains the registrars who have certified with CIRA to sell .ca domain names, with their contact information, according to CIRA, Current registrar list. When you search for a .ca on CIRA's site, you will have the choice of which registrar to register through, and you should select a registrar that meets your needs and price point — that is CIRA's own framing of the choice, according to CIRA, .CA Domains. Two warnings from CIRA's pages. First, some sellers are resellers, not registrars: a business that is not accredited directly with CIRA but works through a registrar and adheres to the same standards. If you cannot find the company you bought from on the certified list, you probably bought through a reseller, and you can find your actual registrar by searching WHOIS and reading the registrar information section, according to CIRA, .CA Domains. Second, register the domain yourself, in your own name, with your own contact information. CIRA's own registration tips say the same thing: always register the domain name yourself, and do not let a third party complete a registration on your behalf, because if you part ways, that can become a problem, according to CIRA, How to register your .ca name. A domain registered by an agency, a developer, or a former employee in their name is a dispute waiting for a bad day.
The steps are short, and the agreement step is the one people skip. Search for an available .ca domain name, using CIRA's domain search tool or a registrar's website, then choose the registrar you will register through, then complete the registration on that registrar's platform. When you register, you enter into a Registrant Agreement and select the Canadian Presence Requirements category that shows your connection to Canada, according to CIRA, Canadian Presence Requirements. You then have five days to accept the Registrant Agreement. If you accepted it as part of the purchase, as is usually the case, the domain is fully registered; otherwise it will not be functional until the agreement is accepted, and if the five days lapse without acceptance, the domain becomes available again, according to CIRA, The domain name life cycle. During that five-day window, registrars can cancel the domain for a full refund if an error was made, on the same page — so if you mistyped the name, tell your registrar immediately rather than waiting.
A .ca can be registered for one to ten years at a time, and can be renewed with your registrar at any time before its expiry date, according to CIRA, The domain name life cycle. Registering for more than one year is the simplest protection against forgetting a renewal: at Web Hosting Canada the per-year renewal figure is the same across terms, so a multi-year term buys you time without changing the yearly rate. Before you pay, confirm three things on the registrar's own checkout page: the renewal price (not just the first-year price), the currency you are billed in, and whether tax is included or added. The next section gives the verified prices: one renewal price and one first-year price; the tracker tool linked under Related guides rechecks them daily.
Domain pricing is built to mislead by the first year. A low first-year price that jumps at renewal costs more over three years than a flat price, so compare registrars on the renewal price and treat the first-year price as a discount, not the price. Only two registrars' prices were verified on their own pages for this guide, and they are stated here exactly as those pages show them, as checked November 4-5, 2026.
Web Hosting Canada lists a one-year .ca at C$10.99 to register, C$14.99 to renew, and C$10.99 to transfer, according to Web Hosting Canada, .CA Domain Name. The same page lists two years at C$25.98 to register and C$29.98 to renew, three years at C$40.97 to register and C$44.97 to renew, and five years at C$70.95 to register and C$74.95 to renew, on the same page. Those are Canadian-dollar figures, and the page does not say whether tax is included, so confirm the checkout total.
Porkbun lists a first-year .ca price of US$8.84, with prices in US dollars per year, according to Porkbun, .CA TLD Domain Names. That is the first-year price only: Porkbun's renewal and transfer prices could not be attributed to the .ca row on its own pricing page, so they are cut from this guide rather than carried from a comparison site. The page does not say whether tax is included, so confirm the checkout total.
No ranking is given, because only one verified renewal price exists in this guide. A ranking built on one renewal price and two first-year prices would be a first-year ranking dressed up as a renewal ranking, and that is exactly the comparison the first-year discount is designed to win. Check the tracker tool linked under Related guides for the current verified renewal prices before you buy, and recheck the registrar's own pricing page at checkout: prices change, and the figure on the checkout page is the one you pay.
For individuals, the contact information provided when you register is not displayed on the .CA WHOIS, which means you do not need to worry about people using your WHOIS contact information to spam you, or about buying additional privacy protection from a registrar, according to CIRA, Canadian Presence Requirements. CIRA's page on taken domains states the same protection from the other side: CIRA protects the personal privacy of individual registrants unless they specifically approve having their contact information displayed in the WHOIS system, according to CIRA, What to do if the domain name you want is taken. The practical consequence is simple: if you register as an individual, do not pay a registrar for a WHOIS privacy add-on you already have by default. If a registrar's checkout tries to sell you one for a .ca, that is a charge to decline.
This guide states nothing about what is shown for organizations, because no CIRA page says so. If you register as a corporation, a partnership, or another organization, check what your registrar will publish in WHOIS before you register, and check the WHOIS record after registration to confirm it shows what you expected. If someone needs to reach you about your domain and no contact information is displayed, CIRA provides a Message Delivery Form that sends an email to the registrant without revealing the registrant's email address, according to CIRA, What to do if the domain name you want is taken.
Renewal is the registrar's job to offer and yours to remember. The domain can be renewed with your registrar at any time before its expiry date, and some registrars offer an auto-renew service, according to CIRA, The domain name life cycle. Note the expiry date when you register, set a calendar reminder ahead of it, and confirm that the registrar has a current payment method on file if you use auto-renew. Expiry dates can be found by searching WHOIS, on the same page.
If the expiry date passes without renewal, the sequence is fixed. Upon the expiry date, CIRA will automatically renew your .ca for one year, charging your registrar, and you will need to renew the domain with your registrar if you want to keep it; your registrar can cancel this renewal if you have not renewed with them, according to CIRA, The domain name life cycle. If you do not renew before the expiry date, the domain enters the auto-renew grace period, which can be up to 45 days in length, with the length controlled by the registrar managing the domain, and during this period the domain may cease to function, on the same page. If you still have not renewed by the end of that grace period, the domain is deleted and enters a 30-day redemption grace period, during which the domain is no longer active, any websites or email addresses associated with it cease to function, and you may request that your registrar restore and renew the deleted .ca for one year — your final opportunity to renew, on the same page. Once the redemption period ends without renewal, the domain's status changes to pending delete and it is put onto the To Be Released (TBR) list, on the same page.
Transferring to another registrar is a separate process with its own clock. If you registered or transferred your domain within the last 60 days, you cannot transfer it, according to CIRA, How to transfer domains. Otherwise, unlock the domain in your registrar's control panel, request the authorization code from your current registrar — which must provide it within five days of your request, made from the administrative contact's email address on the domain profile — and give the code to your new registrar, on the same page. The transfer typically takes five to seven days, and in most cases adds another year to your registration, on the same page. Once transferred, you cannot transfer the domain again for another 60 days, on the same page. An expired domain can still be transferred, as long as it is still within the renewal grace period, on the same page. The transfer fee is set by the new registrar: some charge no transfer fee and instead charge for a year of registration, while others charge a small transfer fee, on the same page. One conflict between CIRA's own pages is worth naming: the transfer page's FAQ describes the grace period as "about 30 days" and the redemption period as "30-45 days," while the life-cycle page states the grace period as up to 45 days and the redemption period as 30 days. This guide follows the life-cycle page, because it is CIRA's dedicated statement of the phases; treat the transfer page's looser figures as approximate.
Start by registering early. CIRA's advice to new businesses is to think about what the domain name will be before anything related to the business is announced publicly, even before any paperwork is completed, and to take available domain names into account when making a final decision on the business name, according to CIRA, What to do if the domain name you want is taken. If the name is already registered, CIRA's own options are: choose an alternative domain to launch with and pursue the ideal domain later; check the expiry date shown on the domain's information tab and watch for it to reach the To-Be-Released list; or buy the domain from the current registrant, on the same page. Buying from the current holder takes anywhere from a few weeks to a few months of contact, response, negotiation, and technical transfer, on the same page, and CIRA notes that a parked domain with no content often belongs to an investor managing a large portfolio with the intent to flip it for a higher price, on the same page. A domain broker can track down the holder, assess a fair market value, negotiate, and handle the transfer and payment, on the same page — and a broker also conceals your identity, which matters because a holder who looks up a large buyer will raise the price, on the same page.
Two routes run through CIRA itself. First, the To Be Released list: CIRA releases domains through the TBR session every Wednesday at 19:00 UTC, the TBR list is updated every day, a domain must appear on the list for a minimum of 60 hours up to one week to be included in a session, only registrars can participate, and domains not registered during the session become available to register shortly — less than 20 minutes — after the session ends, according to CIRA, The domain name life cycle. If a name on the TBR list interests you, contact a registrar that offers TBR as a service, on the same page. Second, the dispute route. In very special circumstances, companies that have registered trademarks and believe they have the right to use a certain domain name can follow CIRA's Dispute Resolution Process, according to CIRA, What to do if the domain name you want is taken. The CIRA Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy exists to deal with bad-faith registrations relatively inexpensively and quickly, and a complainant must satisfy the Canadian Presence Requirements unless the complaint relates to a trademark registered in the Canadian Intellectual Property Office that the complainant owns, according to CIRA, CIRA Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy. To succeed, the complainant must prove on a balance of probabilities that the domain is confusingly similar to a mark in which they had rights before the registration and continue to have rights, and that the registrant registered it in bad faith, and must provide some evidence that the registrant has no legitimate interest in it; if the panel finds for the complainant, it decides whether the registration should be deleted or transferred to the complainant, on the same page. The policy is a real remedy, not a shortcut: if the registrant proves a legitimate interest, the registrant succeeds even if the complainant proves the first two parts, on the same page, and if the panel finds the complaint was brought unfairly and without colour of right, it may order the complainant to pay up to $5,000 toward the registrant's costs, on the same page.
This guide states no Dynadot price. Dynadot's own page shows US$8.61 to register, US$9.30 to renew, and US$9.30 to transfer, but the only copy readable on November 4-5, 2026 was crawled October 22, 2026, no fresh read was available, and comparison sites showed higher figures, so all three figures were cut rather than carried stale.
This guide states no Porkbun renewal or transfer price. Porkbun's own .ca page shows a first-year price of US$8.84, but its renewal price (US$9.18 by tracker consensus) and transfer price (US$8.98) could not be attributed to the .ca row on Porkbun's own pricing page, so both were cut.
This guide states no second Web Hosting Canada figure for the register and transfer cells. WHC's pricing table shows a second, unlabelled "$14.99" figure beside the C$10.99 register and transfer prices; because the page does not label its currency, it was cut rather than guessed as a US-dollar equivalent.
This guide states no survey percentage for how Canadians view .ca domains. Porkbun's page cites 85% of Canadians preferring to support local businesses using a .ca, while CIRA's own page cites 87% of Canadians saying .ca is best over .com for proudly Canadian businesses, from 2025 research by the Strategic Counsel. The two figures conflict and measure different things, so neither is carried.
This guide states no CDRP provider fee. The dispute policy states that the fees charged by a provider are set out in the Resolution Rules, which this guide does not cover, so no fee is stated.
This guide states no transfer-lock figure beyond the 60-day rule verified on CIRA's transfer page, and it carries no claim that a .ca ranks better in Canadian search results: WHC's page asserts better ranking in Canadian searches on Google, which is a marketing claim, not a verified fact, so this guide does not repeat it.
Only people and organizations that meet CIRA's Canadian Presence Requirements. The common categories are a Canadian citizen of the age of majority, a permanent resident who is ordinarily resident in Canada, and a corporation under the laws of Canada or a province or territory, according to [CIRA, Canadian Presence Requirements for Registrants](https://www.cira.ca/en/resources/documents/domains/canadian-presence-requirements-registrants/). The policy lists eighteen categories in total, including trusts, partnerships, associations, trade unions, political parties, educational institutions, hospitals, governments, and Indigenous peoples, on the same page. A person who meets none of those categories but owns a trademark registered in Canada may still register a .ca, but only a domain consisting of or including the exact word component of that registered trademark, on the same page. CIRA may ask for proof of compliance with your chosen category through Registrant Information Validation, according to [CIRA, Canadian Presence Requirements](https://www.cira.ca/en/legal-policy-and-compliance/canadian-presence-requirements/).
If you register as an individual, no. For individuals, the contact information provided when you register is not displayed on the .CA WHOIS, so you do not need to buy privacy protection from a registrar, according to [CIRA, Canadian Presence Requirements](https://www.cira.ca/en/legal-policy-and-compliance/canadian-presence-requirements/). CIRA's own page on taken domains adds that it protects the personal privacy of individual registrants unless they specifically approve having their contact information displayed in the WHOIS system, according to [CIRA, What to do if the domain name you want is taken](https://www.cira.ca/en/resources/news/domains/what-do-if-domain-name-you-want-taken/). This guide states nothing about what is shown for organizations, because no CIRA page says so: if you register as a corporation or other organization, check what your registrar will publish before you register.
You have five days to accept the Registrant Agreement to seal the deal. If you accepted the agreement as part of the purchase, as is usually the case, your domain is fully registered; otherwise the domain will not be functional until the agreement has been accepted, and if the five days lapse without acceptance, your domain will become available again, according to [CIRA, The domain name life cycle](https://www.cira.ca/en/ca-domains/register-your-ca/domain-name-life-cycle/). During this period registrars can cancel the domain for a full refund if an error was made, on the same page. Accepting the agreement is not a formality: when you register a .CA you enter into the Registrant Agreement and select a Canadian Presence Requirements category, according to [CIRA, Canadian Presence Requirements](https://www.cira.ca/en/legal-policy-and-compliance/canadian-presence-requirements/).
The price depends on the registrar, and the figure that matters is the renewal price, not the first-year price. Two registrars' prices are stated on their own pages. Web Hosting Canada lists one year at C$10.99 to register, C$14.99 to renew, and C$10.99 to transfer, according to [Web Hosting Canada, .CA Domain Name](https://blog.whc.ca/domain-names/register-ca-domain). Porkbun lists a first-year price of US$8.84, billed in US dollars, according to [Porkbun, .CA TLD Domain Names](https://porkbun.com/tld/ca). Neither page says whether tax is included, so confirm the checkout total before paying. No ranking is given here, because only one verified renewal price exists: Porkbun's renewal price could not be attributed to the .ca row on its own page and was cut, and Dynadot's prices were cut because no fresh read of its own page was available. The site's dated tracker tool, linked under Related guides, rechecks these prices daily.
First confirm the domain is eligible: if you registered or transferred it within the last 60 days, you cannot transfer it, according to [CIRA, How to transfer domains](https://www.cira.ca/en/how-to-transfer-domains/). Then unlock the domain in your registrar's control panel, request the authorization code from your current registrar, which must provide it within five days, and give the code to your new registrar, on the same page. The transfer typically takes five to seven days, and in most cases adds another year to your registration, on the same page. Once transferred, you cannot transfer the domain again for another 60 days, on the same page. Many requests are resolved through your registrar, not CIRA: for transferring a domain or updating contact information, contact your registrar, according to [CIRA, Support](https://www.cira.ca/en/?p=79019).
CIRA cannot give it to you: if the name is registered, your options are to choose an alternative domain and launch on it, check the expiry date and watch for it to reach the To-Be-Released list, or buy it from the current registrant, according to [CIRA, What to do if the domain name you want is taken](https://www.cira.ca/en/resources/news/domains/what-do-if-domain-name-you-want-taken/). If you hold a registered trademark and believe you have the right to the name, the same page points to CIRA's Dispute Resolution Process (CDRP), on the same page. Under the CDRP, a complainant must prove the domain is confusingly similar to a mark in which they had rights before the registration, that the registrant has no legitimate interest in it, and that it was registered in bad faith; if the panel finds for the complainant it decides whether the registration should be deleted or transferred, according to [CIRA, CIRA Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy](https://www.cira.ca/uploads/2023/05/cdrppolicy_-_en.pdf). Expired domains reach the public through the TBR session every Wednesday at 19:00 UTC, according to [CIRA, The domain name life cycle](https://www.cira.ca/en/ca-domains/register-your-ca/domain-name-life-cycle/).