.in domain names: registry, rules and eligibility

NIXI is the ccTLD manager on record in the IANA root zone database for .in, a job it took on after a 2009 IANA redelegation report shifted management its way. Registration services, policy documents, WHOIS and RDAP lookups all run through registry.in, which the dossier lists as a NIXI-operated platform. There's no separate corporate parent or distinct technical backend company named anywhere in the available sources, just NIXI.

Cutting through the jargon: NIXI is the registry. It sets policy, decides wholesale pricing for registrars, writes the eligibility rules and term limits, and keeps the authoritative database. Registrars are a different animal entirely, separate companies accredited by NIXI that actually sell .in domains to the public and deal with registrant support day to day. Retail pricing is whatever each registrar wants to charge, not something NIXI dictates. The registrant is simply whoever holds the domain, bound by registry policy and by whatever extra verification a registrar's reseller process demands. .in is a ccTLD rather than a gTLD, so it sits outside ICANN's contracted registrar system altogether, though plenty of ICANN-accredited registrars still sell .in domains as resellers under NIXI's own separate accreditation arrangements.

According to registry policy, .in itself and most of the third-level zones, co.in, net.in, org.in, firm.in, gen.in and ind.in among them, are open to anyone on the planet. No nexus requirement, no residency test written into the rules. The exceptions are ac.in, res.in, edu.in, gov.in and mil.in, which stay locked down for qualified Indian academic, research, government or military bodies.

That's the policy on paper. Registrar practice has gone a step further. From 30 November 2025, e-KYC identity checks and reseller record-keeping rules kick in for co.in, net.in, org.in, firm.in, gen.in and ind.in. Resellers now have to collect and hold onto government-issued ID before a registration goes live, or, for anyone applying from outside India, a signed declaration establishing a business connection to the country. Nothing resolves without it. If handing that kind of documentation to an Indian registry or its resellers isn't something you're prepared to do, .in probably isn't the extension for you, and you're better off looking elsewhere.

.in domains run on a minimum term of one year and a maximum of ten, with autorenewal kicking in at the end of the current term if the registrant doesn't act first. That's per the .IN Registry policy page.

Transfers go through your registrar of choice, but the registry blocks registrar-to-registrar transfers for the first 60 days after creation. When a transfer does go through, it tacks a year onto the registration, billed to the gaining registrar, who may well pass that cost on to you.

The policy page confirms grace periods exist "to allow for the cancellation of transactions by registrars" but doesn't say how many days they actually run, pointing registrants to their registrar for specifics instead. The one figure that is published is the RGP (redemption grace period) restore fee, set at ₹1000 as a wholesale registry charge to registrars, on top of whatever renewal fee applies. Retail restore pricing at your registrar will differ from this wholesale figure and isn't published anywhere in the dossier.

What's missing: the exact length of the standard grace period, the exact length of the redemption period, and any registry-side timeline for how long a restore request takes to process. Check these directly with your registrar before you rely on them.