.cz

Register a .cz domain

The Czech extension, run by the CZ.NIC association. Open to any holder anywhere with no eligibility test, and unusual in that an expired name keeps working for its first 30 days.

Extension type: Country-code (ccTLD)
Who can register: Open to anyone
Registry: CZ.NIC
Renews at: On request

Check a .cz name

.cz pricing

Live pricing is temporarily unavailable for .cz.

Live pricing is temporarily unavailable. Search the name you want, or ask us and we will quote it.

Before you register .cz

What the price includes: Every .cz amount on this page is resolved by the same pricing engine that charges your cart, at the moment the page is built. There is no separate ICANN fee, agency fee or surcharge added later — the figure you see is the figure you pay, in the currency shown.
Premium and reserved names: Some names are classed as premium by the registry and priced individually, usually at the premium rate every year rather than only the first. Search the exact name to see its own quote. If a name's premium status or price changes between your quote and your purchase, the quote is invalidated rather than quietly repriced.
Renewal is not automatic unless you switch it on: Auto-renew is off unless you enable it, and enabling it sets a flag at the registry rather than scheduling a charge here. We email the registrant address before a name expires, so keep a monitored address on the record. If a .cz name does lapse, restoring it costs considerably more than renewing it would have — the restore price is in the table above.
Transfers: Transferring .cz to us needs the AuthInfo (EPP) code from your current registrar, which they are obliged to give you on request. Where the registry operates a waiting period before a name may move — ICANN imposes one on generic extensions — it is set out in the facts above. That is registry policy, not ours, and we cannot waive it.

Eligibility

No eligibility test at all

Registry: CZ.NIC, z.s.p.o. (association of legal entities).

The CZ.NIC Rules of Registration set no residency, nationality or company requirement. A holder outside Czechia registers on the same terms as a Prague company, and there is no approval step.
One conditional obligation applies to holders whose seat, residence or contact address is outside the EU or EEA: on request from CZ.NIC, a court, an authority or an ADR expert, they must supply a valid EU/EEA contact address or name a representative with an EU/EEA mailing address.
CZ.NIC may ask for information needed to identify a holder unambiguously, including date of birth or an identification number, where proceedings or an alternative dispute resolution case require it.
Names are limited to a-z, 0-9 and the hyphen, up to 63 characters. .cz has no internationalised names, so Czech diacritics have to be transliterated.

An open registry with one Czech-shaped catch

CZ.NIC is an association of legal entities, not a state body and not a commercial registry group, and it has run .cz since 1998 alongside work such as the FRED registry software and the Turris routers. The registration rules reflect that engineering-led culture: they are short, published in full, and they set no eligibility test whatsoever. Any person or company anywhere can be a holder, and registration is immediate.

The catch is not about who may register but about how the name is written. .cz supports no internationalised domain names at all: a name may contain only the letters a to z, the digits 0 to 9 and hyphens, up to 63 characters. Czech has a diacritic-heavy orthography, so a brand written with hacky or carky has to be transliterated to register, and the transliterated form is the one your customers will type. Decide which spelling is the canonical one before you print it, not after.

The 60-day protection period, and where names go afterwards

The .cz expiry sequence is more forgiving than a gTLD's at the start and sharper at the end. On the day after expiry the name enters a protection period of 60 days, and for the first 30 of those it remains delegated: mail and the website keep working while the renewal is sorted out. If it is still unrenewed after 30 days, CZ.NIC is entitled to end the delegation, and the rules are explicit that a delegation ended this way cannot be restored by changing or reassigning the nameserver set. Renewal remains possible for the whole 60 days and applies retroactively from the expiry date, so you do not lose the paid period. On day 61 the registration expires and the rights to the name expire with it.

What happens next changed in May 2024. Released .cz names used to be caught within seconds by automated dropcatching services; CZ.NIC now routes them into its own auction system, where bidders verified through MojeID or an EU eID compete for a priority right to register the name. For a buyer this cuts both ways: a name you let go may cost real money to get back, and a name you have been waiting for is at least obtainable without operating a dropcatcher. Either way, the practical advice is the same one the protection period implies — renew inside the first 30 days, while the site is still up.

Terms and lifecycle

What holding a .cz actually commits you to

Term: Registration runs in whole years from the day of registration, for a maximum of ten. Renewal is also in whole years and repeatable, but can never take the total beyond ten years ahead.
If you miss the renewal: The day after expiry the name enters a 60-day protection period. For the first 30 days it stays delegated and the site keeps working; after that CZ.NIC may end the delegation, and once ended it cannot be brought back by editing the nameserver set. Renewal is possible throughout the 60 days and takes effect retroactively from the expiry date; on day 61 the registration is gone.
Transfer: A registrar change uses an AuthInfo password, which you can get from your current registrar, from the incoming registrar, or directly from CZ.NIC. The password is valid for 14 days, so start the transfer once you have it. Being a ccTLD, .cz has no ICANN 60-day lock after registration.
Registrant change: Changing the holder is a registry operation requiring a written request from both the current and the future holder, and the future holder must accept the current Rules of Registration. It does not move the expiry date, and no refund arises from it.
Deleted names go to auction: Since May 2024 a name released after the protection period is not simply re-opened for registration: CZ.NIC lists it in its own auction system, where the winner buys a priority right to register it. Disputes between a holder and third parties run through the Arbitration Court attached to the Economic Chamber and the Agricultural Chamber of the Czech Republic, not UDRP.

Fit

Who .cz is for

Business in Czechia
Czech customers treat .cz as the default. It is the address a local supplier, a job applicant or a price-comparison listing expects to find you at.
Anyone wanting a short, unrestricted ccTLD
Because there is no eligibility test at all, .cz is one of the easier European ccTLDs to hold from abroad, and two-letter word endings still register cleanly.
Not for names that need diacritics
The registry accepts only a-z, 0-9 and hyphens. If your brand depends on hacek or carka spellings, .cz will force a transliteration and a neighbouring extension may render the name as intended.

The other half of the former federation

Czech and Slovak markets are usually worked together, but the two registries could hardly be less alike: .sk applies an EU, EEA, EFTA or UK address test and gives a lapsed name a 40-day redemption period with no working site.

View .sk domains

Frequently asked questions

Are there any restrictions on registering a .cz domain?

No. CZ.NIC sets no residency, nationality or company requirement and there is no approval step. The only conditional obligation is that a holder based outside the EU or EEA must, on request, provide an EU/EEA contact address or name a representative there.

What happens if I do not renew my .cz domain?

It enters a 60-day protection period the day after expiry. For the first 30 days it stays in the zone and keeps working; after that CZ.NIC may end the delegation, and that cannot be undone by editing nameservers. Renewal works throughout the 60 days and applies retroactively from the expiry date.

Can I get a deleted .cz domain back?

Only through the registry's auction system. Since May 2024, names released after the protection period are listed by CZ.NIC for auction rather than returned directly to open registration, and the winner acquires a priority right to register the name.

How do I transfer a .cz domain to another registrar?

You need the AuthInfo password, which is available from your current registrar, from the new one, or directly from CZ.NIC. It is valid for 14 days. There is no ICANN-style 60-day lock on .cz, so a recently registered name can move.

Can a .cz domain contain Czech accented characters?

No. The rules allow only a-z, 0-9 and the hyphen, to a maximum of 63 characters, and the name may not start or end with a hyphen or contain two consecutive hyphens. Accented spellings must be transliterated.