FAQ / Terms and Conditions

How do I check who owns a domain or if it is available?
Go to http://whois.nic.ai and enter the name there. Note that you want to talk to the "registrant" and not the "registrar". You can also lookup domains with the whois service use the with a command like whois -h whois.nic.ai foo.ai We made this change with IANA but not all whois clients seem to have picked up the update yet.
EPP/CoCCA Access
We have migrated most of the big users to EPP access. This is most of the domains. If you would like EPP access please see EPP FAQ.
Where can I learn about the auctioning of expired .ai domains?
You can read the auction FAQ or go to the auction site auction.whois.ai.
What about new end users?
The ".ai" registry had moved to using retail sites to sell the domains and only legacy end users can login to this site. Here is a list of current retail registrars. New end users should sign up with one of these.
How soon after I make changes do they show up?
Registration changes show up nearly instantly in whois and within about 4 hours in the DNS servers.
Where did the legacy users from whois.ai go?
The legacy users were moved to zenaida.cate.ai and there is a faq for zenaida too.
What characters are permitted in domain names?
Letters from "a" to "z", digits from "0" to "9", and "-". Domains can not start or end with "-" and can not have more than one "-" in a row.
What are the rules for using AI domains?
The usage must not violate the laws of Anguilla. In particular, fraud is against the law. For example, any domain that is trying to trick users into thinking they are at another website so they will enter their user name and password is committing fraud. The domain will be either removed or given to the people who own the domain that was being impersonated so they can put up a warning or any info they want.
What happens if we don't pay for a domain?
First note that any domain past due may be deleted. You should not count on any grace period. Usually there is 30 days where it is "suspended" and DNS does not work but it can be renewed for the regular price. Then there is 60 days where it is "pending delete" can be restored at an additional cost. On epp.whois.ai you need $140 to restore and also $140 to renew and the renew must be done on the same day. After the 60 day pending delete period it goes into the auction pool. For more information see auctionfaq.html. Our system's count of the days is the official count, you should not push the edge and complain if you thought you had another day.
UDRP
In cases where someone wants to take a domain from someone else, Anguilla uses the UDRP. To file a UDRP challenge you must use one of the ICANN Approved Dispute Resolution Service Providers. If the domain is with an ICANN accredited registrar, they should work with the arbitrator. Usually this means either doing nothing or transferring a domain. We will stand by the decision of the arbitrator picked by that provider.
Note that if a domain goes unpaid and was about to be auctioned we can transfer a domain to a trademark holder without contesting it. Search AuctionFAQ for UDRP for more details on this. As of Jan 1, 2023 we do not accept UDRP challenges for domains where there is only 1, 2, or 3 characters before the ".ai" unless the Complainant already has domains with those same few characters in at least 3 of the following 5 TLDs, ".com", ".uk", ".de", ".jp", ".fr".
Anonymous contacts, WhoisGuard, or Bad Contact Info
Hidden contact information is allowed but if a site seems to be scamish and has hidden the identity of the registrant we are much faster to take it down.
Grounds for suspending or revoking a domain
While we want lots of .ai domain sales as it raises significant money for The Government of Anguilla, we do not want any scammer domains tarnishing the reputation of Anguilla or ".ai". If people know of scam sites in ".ai" domains please report them. The Government of Anguilla reserves the right to remove or suspend any domain. This is usually due to one of the following or similar scamish actions:
1. Anything that would be illegal in Anguilla
2. porn that would be illegal in Anguilla, like child porn, revenge porn, etc.
3. violating copyrights
4. Hate speech site. Any site just hating on some group.
5. Phishing - for example pretending to be another site to get users to enter username and password
6. Has logos or trademarks from a company when they are not affiliated with that company
7. Dishonestly making false representations for financial gain
8. any site promising to help people get rich quick for a fee
9. anything looking like a pyramid scheme, ponzi, or multi-level-marketing site (mlm)
10. Doing any of the following without an Anguilla license to be a bank, broker, public company, ICO, exchange, or gambling site
  1. Holding client deposits
  2. managing investments for clients
  3. offering guaranteed returns of any rate
  4. asking for investors
  5. offering trading or exchange services for stock, bond, crypto or other similar markets
  6. any kind of gambling
  7. any site for attacking other sites, like DDOS or other
11. Any sites on a list of scam sites will be suspended.
12. Sites reported by reputable domain monitoring agencies
13. if owner of the site has done any of the above with previous domains (even non .ai domains) we can disable a current domain
14. If a site says something like "trusted by" or "in partnership with" and has trademarked logos for other companies and one of those companies says this is not true, the whole site comes down.
If we decide that a site has violated any of the above the domain will be suspended. Even if the registrant promises to modify the content we will not enable the domain.
There is a domain name that is not being used and I want it?
Some people think that if someone else has registered a domain but is not really using it that they are "squatting" and there should be a way to take the domain from them but there is no such thing for ".ai" domains. If a domain is registered then as long as the registrant keeps paying, and are not doing anything in the previous section, they can keep the domain, even if they don't really use it.
What is the total number of domains?
As of July 20, 2022 the total was 143,737 domains.
As of June 14, 2023 the total was 248,609 domains.
As of Sept 26, 2023 the total was 306,861 domains.
How high are the renewal probabilities for domains?
We looked at the data in Nov 2022 and concluded the following. In the first 2 year renewal there is about a 12% chance people don't renew. In the 4 year renewal it was about 6% chance. In 6 year renewal it was about a 3% chance. In the odd age years you can sort of think we have 100% renewal, since we do 2 year renewals. So overall it is over 90% chance a domain stays active. If we were in a steady state in terms of number of domains I expect we would have over 95% renewals but we are growing fast so there are more young domains with lower renewal rates than old domains with very high renewal rates. I am not releasing the data at this time.
If I have a problem how can I contact someone?
We are setup to support registrars who in turn support end users. If you have a problem you should deal with your registrar. Registrars can email "vincecate@gmail.com". If you start your email subject with "AI3DOM" it will be sorted to the top and not lost in spam. It will also show me you read the FAQ, which I want to encourage. If you send email several times I will probably filter email from you so that you don't need to do that in the future. Also registrars can call Monday through Friday from 8:30 am to 3:00 pm Anguilla time at 264-497-3255.
Can be modified at any time These terms and conditions can be modified at any time. They apply to all customers. We want happy customers and more customers so we intend to always have reasonable terms and conditions.
Bank Merchant Website Disclosure
1. Merchant URL: auction.whois.ai
2. Merchant Contact: vincecate@gmail.com 1(264)497-3255
3. Terms and Conditions - See rest of FAQ above
4. Return/refund policy - $20 processing fee to refund unused balance.
5. Delivery Policy - The domain will be activated within 3 hours of when you pay for it.
6. Privacy Policy - We comply with the EU privacy policy about what information is given out by whois about the registrant for a domain.
7. Card Mark Brand Usage: We only accept Visa and Mastercard.
8. Complete description of good and services offered. We auction off ".ai" domains and register them. See FAQ above for more details.
9. Transaction Currency - All prices and transactions are in US dollars.
10. Security capabilities and policy for Transmission of payment card details. To make a payment a user is sent to a window where the information goes directly to the payment processor on a secure SSL connection. The card details are never on our website or in our servers.