Add Grace Period

The AGP or Add Grace Period refers to the specific number of days after a domain is registered "in which the operation may be reversed;" frequently, this is the first 5 days after registration. During this brief period, the registrar can receive credit from the registry operator for any deleted domains while the registrant can receive a refund.

Purpose

The original purpose of the AGP was to correct registration errors without penalizing registrants and registrars, and it is included in some but not all registry agreements. Abuses of the AGP include such behaviors as Domain Kiting, where someone registers and monetizes names in order to make money during the first few days and then returns the name for a refund, and Domain Tasting, where domains are registered in bulk and then the vast majority are returned while the registrant keeps only the names with the most traffic.

AGP Limits Policy

In order to mitigate these abusive uses of the AGP, in 2008 ICANN enacted the AGP Limits Policy. This policy dramatically reduced the instances of both domain kiting and domain tasting. In just under a year, the AGP Limits Policy lead to a 99.7% decline in AGP deletions.

Additional Resources

• Read the ICANN's End of Domain Tasting Report
• See ICANN's AGP Limits Policy Page, which includes additional information about the AGP

Related Articles

• AGP Limits Policy
• Domain Tasting
• Domain Kiting