![GoDaddy's own published domain-transfer graphic from its Indian site, showing a completed domain transfer on a website mockup, used here to illustrate a page about GoDaddy's domain name transfer agreement]()
A domain transfer is the one registrar process where the asset is already yours and somebody else is holding it, so the rules on when it can move are worth reading before you need them. We read GoDaddy's Domain Name Transfer Agreement on its Indian site on 14 October 2026. It is stamped "Last Revised: 21-10-2020".
It does something many registrar contracts do not: it enumerates twelve grounds for rejecting a transfer instead of resting on discretion alone. Four of the twelve are clocks — 60 days since registration, 60 since the last transfer in, 60 since the registrant changed, 10 since a Change of Account — and none of them is visible from the domain itself.
Below: all twelve grounds in GoDaddy's own wording, every time period in the document in one table, the clause under which a renewal year you have already paid for "will be lost" with GoDaddy stating it "will not credit that year" and "will not intervene", and why .ca domains run a different process. Everything quoted verbatim. This is a description of a published document, not legal advice.
Verbatim, from GoDaddy's Domain Name Transfer Agreement
Read 14 October 2026 on godaddy.com/en-in/legal/agreements/domain-name-transfer-agreement
"You understand and agree that GoDaddy is not responsible for this lost year and that GoDaddy will not credit that year to your domain... You understand and agree that GoDaddy will not intervene in the recovery of any such lost registration years that occur during the transfer of your domain name."
📅 Update log:
14 October 2026 — First publication. GoDaddy's Domain Name Transfer Agreement read in full from godaddy.com/en-in/legal/agreements/domain-name-transfer-agreement, logged out, in India, nothing bought, no domain transferred and no account opened. Document stamped "Last Revised: 21-10-2020". Recorded this read: the twelve rejection grounds in Sections 2.B and 3.B and the difference between the two lists; the four waiting periods and the 30-day order expiry; the five-day losing-registrar window; the one-year extension on success and its "when available by the domain name registry" qualification; the lost-renewal-year clause in Sections 2.D and 3.D; the .ca authorisation-code process and the Go Daddy Domains Canada counterparty; the immediate-amendment clause; and the clause making this agreement control over the Universal Terms of Service. No price, transfer fee, renewal rate or coupon code is asserted anywhere on this page. Content verified 14 October 2026.
The twelve published reasons a GoDaddy domain transfer can be rejected
A domain transfer is the one GoDaddy process where the thing you are moving is already yours and someone else is holding it. We read the Domain Name Transfer Agreement published on GoDaddy's Indian site on 14 October 2026. It is stamped "Last Revised: 21-10-2020".
The agreement does something useful: rather than stopping at a discretion clause, it enumerates twelve grounds on which a transfer application can be rejected. Four of those twelve are waiting periods, and the waiting periods are the ones that catch people, because none of them is visible from the domain itself.
It also keeps the discretion clause. The list is introduced by the sentence "GoDaddy may elect to accept or reject your domain name transfer application for any reason at its sole discretion", and the twelve are prefaced with "Rejections may include, but are not limited to".
Verbatim, from GoDaddy's Domain Name Transfer Agreement, read 14 October 2026: "GoDaddy may elect to accept or reject your domain name transfer application for any reason at its sole discretion. Rejections may include, but are not limited to: ... The original registration took place less than sixty (60) days prior to the transfer request; The domain name has been placed in a locked status by either the Registry or by the losing registrar; ... Transfer orders over thirty (30) days old."
Every rejection ground, in the agreement's own words
| The ground | The agreement's wording | What it means in practice |
|---|
| The losing registrar refuses | "The current Registrar rejected the transfer" | Nothing in GoDaddy's process overrides this |
| Registered less than 60 days ago | "The original registration took place less than sixty (60) days prior to the transfer request" | A newly bought domain cannot move yet |
| Transferred in less than 60 days ago | "The domain was transferred to GoDaddy less than sixty (60) days prior to the transfer request" | A domain just moved in cannot move again yet |
| Registrant changed less than 60 days ago | "The Domain Name Registrant was changed less than sixty (60) days prior to the transfer request" | Changing the registered owner restarts this clock |
| Account changed less than 10 days ago | "There was a Change of Account less than ten (10) days prior to the transfer request" | A shorter clock, on a different kind of change |
| The domain is locked | "The domain name has been placed in a locked status by either the Registry or by the losing registrar" | Either party can apply the lock |
| Expired and not renewed | "The domain name expired but was not renewed" | An expired name has to be dealt with first |
| Inside the 45-day grace period | "The domain name expired and was renewed during the forty-five (45) day grace period and the forty-five (45) day grace period has not yet passed" | The same window that can cost you a paid year |
| Pending bankruptcy | "Any pending bankruptcy of the current domain name holder" | A status of the holder, not of the domain |
| A dispute over who owns it | "Any dispute over the identity of the domain name holder" | No threshold or process is stated |
| Anything in the Dispute Policy | "Any situation described in the Dispute Policy" | A separate document, incorporated by reference |
| The order has gone stale | "Transfer orders over thirty (30) days old" | A transfer you started and did not finish expires |
Read the four sixty-day clauses together. A domain cannot be transferred out if it was registered in the last 60 days, if it was transferred into GoDaddy in the last 60 days, or if its registrant was changed in the last 60 days. A Change of Account carries a shorter 10-day clock.
None of those states is printed on a domain. The practical consequence is that the time to check a transfer window is before you buy, rename or move a name, not on the day you want it elsewhere — and the agreement does not promise any warning that a clock is running.
Credit where it is due. Many registrar contracts would have stopped at "at our sole discretion" and left the customer to discover the rules by failing. GoDaddy writes out twelve grounds and attaches a number to five of them, in the contract, where they can be read before you start.
Every clock in the agreement, in one table
| The period | What it counts | What happens |
|---|
| 60 days | Since the domain was first registered | Blocks a transfer |
| 60 days | Since the domain last transferred into GoDaddy | Blocks a transfer |
| 60 days | Since the registrant (owner) was changed | Blocks a transfer |
| 45 days | The post-expiry grace period, if renewed inside it | Blocks a transfer, and can cost a paid year |
| 30 days | Age of an unfinished transfer order | The order is rejected |
| 10 days | Since a Change of Account | Blocks a transfer |
| 5 days | The losing registrar's window to accept or deny | "a transfer will be accepted or denied by the losing registrar within five (5) days" |
| 1 year | Added on a successful transfer | "Your registration will be automatically extended by one (1) year" |
The clause that can cost you a year you already paid for
This is the part of the document worth reading twice, because it describes money leaving and not coming back. If a domain expired, you renewed it inside the grace period, and you then transfer it, the year you just bought can disappear.
The agreement states the test precisely: "The renewal year will be lost if: (i) the domain name was renewed during the forty-five (45) day grace period after the expiration date had passed; and (ii) forty-five (45) days have not yet passed since that expiration date."
It then sets out GoDaddy's position in three consecutive sentences: "You understand and agree that GoDaddy is not responsible for this lost year and that GoDaddy will not credit that year to your domain"; "You will need to review the registration agreement you have with your previous registrar to determine if you are due a refund or credit for the lost year"; and "You understand and agree that GoDaddy will not intervene in the recovery of any such lost registration years that occur during the transfer of your domain name."
Note that the same 45-day grace period also appears in the rejection list, where being inside it is a ground to refuse the transfer outright. The window is both a reason a transfer can fail and the condition under which a successful one can cost you a paid year. Nothing here says GoDaddy is doing anything improper — which registrar holds a renewal paid to someone else is a question this page does not answer and could not.
Verbatim, from the same agreement: "You understand and agree that GoDaddy is not responsible for this lost year and that GoDaddy will not credit that year to your domain. You will need to review the registration agreement you have with your previous registrar to determine if you are due a refund or credit for the lost year."
The .ca process starts on an authorisation code, not an email
The agreement runs two processes. Section 2 covers "all domain names, except .ca domain names" and Section 3 covers .ca names, and the twelve rejection grounds are repeated in both — except that the .ca list omits "The current Registrar rejected the transfer".
The substantive difference is how a transfer begins. On the general process: "We will be contacting the Administrative Contact's email address for transfer approval. The transfer will only be initiated upon approval from your Administrative Contact. Once initiated, a transfer will be accepted or denied by the losing registrar within five (5) days."
On the .ca process: "We will send an email to the email address in your account for transfer approval. The transfer will be initiated immediately once the correct authorization code is provided."
The counterparty changes too. The agreement is entered into with GoDaddy.com, LLC, "or in the event of a .ca domain name, by and between Go Daddy Domains Canada, Inc., a British Columbia corporation".
What the document says about itself
Three clauses are worth knowing before you accept it. First, amendments are immediate: GoDaddy "in its sole and absolute discretion, may change or modify this Agreement, and any policies or agreements which are incorporated herein, at any time, and such changes or modifications shall be effective immediately upon posting", with your continued use constituting acceptance.
Second, this agreement wins over the general one. "In the event there is a conflict between the provisions of this Agreement and the provisions of the Universal Terms of Service Agreement, the provisions of this Agreement shall control." It also incorporates the Domain Name Registration Agreement and the "ICANN Rules for Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy" by reference — separate documents not reproduced here.
Third, the revision stamp is six years old. This document reads "Last Revised: 21-10-2020". GoDaddy's Hosting & Security Services Agreement, read on the same morning, is stamped 30-09-2026. A stable contract is not a defect — transfer mechanics are set largely by ICANN and registry rules rather than by a registrar — but it is worth knowing which document you are agreeing to and when it was last touched.
Before you start a transfer
Four things in this agreement are worth doing in order, and all four come from its own wording rather than from us. Check the 60-day clocks first — registration date, last transfer date, last registrant change — because those are the grounds most likely to stop you and the least visible.
Update the administrative contact email at your current registrar before you pay, since the agreement makes the approval email the thing that starts the process and says "You are responsible for updating the Administrative Contact's email as identified in the previous Registrar's WHO-IS database".
If the domain recently expired and you renewed it, wait out the 45 days before transferring, or accept that the paid year may not survive. And finish the order: a transfer order over thirty (30) days old is a listed rejection ground.
This page describes a published contract. It is not legal advice, and it does not tell you what your rights are in any particular case. Read the version on GoDaddy's site that applies to your own account, and take your own advice, before acting.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why was my GoDaddy domain transfer rejected?
The agreement publishes twelve reasons, and four of them are waiting periods. A transfer is rejected if the domain was first registered, transferred into GoDaddy, or had its registrant changed within the last sixty (60) days, or if there was a "Change of Account less than ten (10) days prior". It is also rejected if the name is locked by the registry or the losing registrar, if it expired and was not renewed, if it is inside the forty-five (45) day grace period, on "Any pending bankruptcy" or "Any dispute over the identity of the domain name holder", on anything in the Dispute Policy, if "The current Registrar rejected the transfer", or if the order is over thirty (30) days old. Above all of them the agreement states: "GoDaddy may elect to accept or reject your domain name transfer application for any reason at its sole discretion." Quoted verbatim from the version read 14 October 2026.
Can I lose a year I already paid for when transferring a domain?
The agreement says so in terms, and names the exact window. "You understand that if you are transferring a domain name that has been recently renewed, there is the potential the renewal year will be lost. The renewal year will be lost if: (i) the domain name was renewed during the forty-five (45) day grace period after the expiration date had passed; and (ii) forty-five (45) days have not yet passed since that expiration date." It then states GoDaddy's position three times over: "GoDaddy is not responsible for this lost year", "GoDaddy will not credit that year to your domain", and "GoDaddy will not intervene in the recovery of any such lost registration years". It directs you to your previous registrar: "You will need to review the registration agreement you have with your previous registrar to determine if you are due a refund or credit for the lost year." This is a description of a contract clause and not advice about your own situation.
How long does a GoDaddy domain transfer take?
The agreement gives one number for the part it controls. Once the transfer is initiated, "a transfer will be accepted or denied by the losing registrar within five (5) days". Before that, the general process requires the administrative contact to approve by email: "We will be contacting the Administrative Contact's email address for transfer approval. The transfer will only be initiated upon approval from your Administrative Contact." That is why the agreement tells you to "Update your Administrative Contact's email address at your current registrar" first. No overall completion time is promised anywhere in the document.
Does transferring a domain to GoDaddy add a year?
The agreement says it does, with one qualification. "Upon successful transfer, you shall remain the registrant of the domain name and GoDaddy's sponsoring registrar shall become the registrar of record. Your registration will be automatically extended by one (1) year when available by the domain name registry" — and it points to "the product disclaimers located on this Site for any applicable exceptions", which are a separate document not reproduced here. Note the added year and the lost year are different clauses and can both apply to the same transfer.
Is the .ca domain transfer process different at GoDaddy?
Yes, and the agreement sets it out as a separate section with its own steps. The clearest difference is how a transfer starts. On the general process, "The transfer will only be initiated upon approval from your Administrative Contact" by email. On the .ca process, "The transfer will be initiated immediately once the correct authorization code is provided." The twelve rejection reasons are repeated almost identically in both sections, except that the .ca list omits "The current Registrar rejected the transfer". For .ca names the counterparty is also different: the agreement is "by and between Go Daddy Domains Canada, Inc., a British Columbia corporation" rather than GoDaddy.com, LLC.
Prices & codes last verified: October 14, 2026
Zoutons may earn a commission when you buy through links on this page. Every quotation on this page is GoDaddy's own published text, read on 14 October 2026 from godaddy.com/en-in/legal/agreements/domain-name-transfer-agreement, logged out, in India, with nothing bought, no domain transferred, no transfer application submitted or rejected, no account opened and GoDaddy not contacted. Quotations are reproduced verbatim, including the source's own capitalisation, numerals, parenthesised figures and punctuation, and any emphasis is ours. This page describes what one published document says. It is a summary for general information, it is not legal, technical, tax or financial advice, and it must not be relied on as a statement of your contractual or statutory rights. Nothing on this page assesses whether any clause described is valid, binding, fair or enforceable, and nothing here tells any reader what their own legal status is. In particular, reporting that a contract lists grounds on which a transfer may be rejected, that it reserves discretion to reject for any reason, that it states a renewal year may be lost, or that it disclaims responsibility for and declines to intervene in the recovery of such a year, is a description of the document's own wording and is expressly not a statement that any clause is unfair, one-sided, an unfair contract term, a dark pattern, non-compliant or of no effect, nor that any transfer was or would be wrongly refused. Whether a contractual term has legal effect is a matter for a court or a regulator. Statutory consumer rights apply to a transaction regardless of what any contract document says, and nothing on this page limits them or purports to. Nothing on this page alleges or implies any wrongdoing, unfair contract term, service deficiency, non-compliance or breach of law by GoDaddy.com, LLC, Go Daddy Domains Canada, Inc., GoDaddy India Domains and Hosting Services India Pvt Ltd, any GoDaddy affiliate, by ICANN, by any registry operator, or by any other registrar referred to in the agreement as the current or losing registrar. A business is generally free to set the terms on which it provides a service, and much of what this agreement describes — the sixty-day transfer locks, the grace period and the registrar approval window — reflects rules set by ICANN and by domain registries rather than by GoDaddy, so the periods described here are not necessarily GoDaddy's own choices and this page does not assert that they are. Publishing specific enumerated grounds and time periods in the contract, as GoDaddy does here, is an ordinary and proper commercial act and is more informative than an undefined discretion clause alone. The document was read as text, which flattens its lists, headings and footnotes and may omit structure; it incorporates other agreements and policies by reference that are not reproduced here, including the Domain Name Registration Agreement, the Universal Terms of Service Agreement, the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy, the ICANN Rules and GoDaddy's product disclaimers, and any of those may qualify or override what is described here for a particular domain. Rules, periods and processes may differ between top level domains, country code top level domains, registries and regions, and the agreement itself runs a separate process for .ca names; the figures quoted are those the agreement attaches to the processes it names. We have not purchased, registered, renewed, locked, unlocked or transferred any domain name, have not had any transfer accepted or rejected, have not lost a renewal year and have not contacted any registrar, and we make no representation about how GoDaddy or any other registrar would act in any particular case or about how long any transfer takes in practice. No price, transfer fee, registration cost, renewal rate or coupon code is asserted anywhere on this page. Legal agreements, their revision stamps and their contents change without notice and may already differ from what is described here; the agreement expressly provides that changes are "effective immediately upon posting", so the version published on godaddy.com at the time you read it prevails over anything on this page, and you should read the version that applies to your own account, and take your own advice, before acting.
Booking com 
Hostinger 
Dell 
Udemy 
Agoda 
Nykaa 
Myntra 
Ajio