Register a domain with Cloud Domains

Register a domain with Cloud Domains

This quickstart shows you how to register a domain by using Cloud Domains, including how to search for an available domain, register it, and then verify the registration. After you register a domain, Cloud Domains automatically renews it as long as your Cloud Billing account stays active.

To register a domain by using the Google Cloud CLI or the API, see Register a domain.

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To follow step-by-step guidance for this task directly in the Google Cloud console, click Guide me:

Guide me

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Before you begin

1. In the Google Cloud console, on the project selector page, select or create a Google Cloud project.

   Note: If you don't plan to keep the resources that you create in this procedure, create a project instead of selecting an existing project. After you finish these steps, you can delete the project, removing all resources associated with the project.

   Go to project selector

2. Make sure that billing is enabled for your Cloud project. Learn how to check if billing is enabled on a project.

3. Enable the Cloud Domains API.

   Enable the API

Note: After you register a domain and enable billing, Google bills you for the domain and auto-renews your registration. You can delete the project that you create, but the domain remains registered.

Get IAM permissions

This section provides information about Identity and Access Management (IAM) permissions and how to get them.

Permissions required for this task

To perform this task, you must have been granted the following permissions or the following IAM roles.

Permissions

• domains.registrations.create

Roles

• roles/domains.admin

1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the IAM page.

   Go to IAM

2. In the permissions table, find your account, and then click Edit principal in the same row.

3. In the Role list, select Cloud Domains, and then select Cloud Domains Admin.

4. Click Save.

If you can't add the role, ask your administrator to add the role to your account before proceeding.

Register a domain

In the following sections, you register a domain.

Search for a domain name

1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the Cloud Domains page.

   Go to Cloud Domains

2. Click Register domain.
3. Search for an available domain. Identify the domain name that you'd like to purchase. Pricing is listed for each available domain.

4. Click Select. You can add as many domains as you like, subject to your available quota. For details, see Quotas and limits. The total pricing based on your selection is calculated and displayed in the Search domain section. To remove a domain from your cart, click Deselect next to the domain name.

   Note: After you set up billing and complete your domain registration, Cloud Domains automatically sets the registration to Auto-renew.

5. Click Continue.

Configure DNS for the domain

In the DNS configuration section, Use Cloud DNS is selected by default. However, you can choose one of the DNS providers that's listed in the following table:

DNS provider	Description	Cost
Cloud DNS	Google recommends that you use Cloud DNS as your DNS provider for all your name servers.	Additional Cloud DNS charges apply. For details, see the Cloud DNS pricing page.
Google Domains	If you choose this option, you can use Cloud Domains to configure your name servers, and then use Google Domains to configure your DNS resource records. Note: Using Google Domains does not allow API access.	No additional cost.
Custom name servers	If you choose this option, you can use Cloud Domains to configure your name servers, and then use a third-party DNS provider to configure your DNS resource records.	Check with your DNS provider.

If you are registering multiple domains, you can choose individual settings for each domain.

1. In the DNS provider section, select your DNS provider:

   • If you select the default value Cloud DNS (Recommended), Google Cloud creates a zone for you automatically. To edit the zone name and other details, do the following:

     1. In the Cloud DNS zone list, select Setup new zone.
     2. Make the required edits, and then click Save and continue.

   • If you have created a zone in Cloud DNS, Cloud Domains selects that zone by default.

   • If you select Use Google Domains, select whether you want to enable or disable DNS Security Extensions (DNSSEC). For more information on DNSSEC, see DNS Security.

   • If you select Use custom name servers, enter at least two name servers. To add name servers, click Add another name server.

2. Click Continue.

Choose privacy settings for your domain

By default, privacy protection is turned on. However, you can change the settings to one of the privacy options in the following table:

Privacy option	Description
Privacy protection on	Choosing this option ensures that your contact information is not available to the public. To help protect your contact information and prevent spam, a third party provides alternate (proxy) contact information for your domain in the public directory. The third-party provider forwards all messages that are sent to your proxy contact information to the actual private contact information. Cloud Domains does not offer privacy protection for all domain endings or top-level domains (TLDs). Registries, the organizations that manage domain endings, have policies prohibiting the use of privacy protection for certain TLDs. To see privacy information for a specific TLD, click the TLD on the Supported TLD reference page. Privacy information for the TLD is available in the DNS reference section.
Limit your info available to the public	Choosing this option makes limited personal contact information available to the public. The actual information available publicly depends on the domain that you have chosen. To see privacy information for a specific TLD, click the TLD on the Supported TLD reference page. Privacy information for the TLD is available in the DNS reference section.
Make all contact info public	Choosing this option makes all your contact information available to the public through the WHOIS database.

1. To make all contact information publicly available, select Make all contact info public.
2. If you agree with the statement in the dialog, then click I agree.
3. Click Continue.

Specify contact details

Your contact information is necessary for ICANN to reach you if there are any problems. The information you enter becomes the public contact information for your domain in the WHOIS database. For more details, see Contact information.

1. Enter contact details for the domain. By default, the same contact details that you enter are applied to the registrant, admin, and technical contacts. To enter different information for each type of contact, you can edit your contact settings later.

   If you are registering more than one domain, you can choose to apply the same contact details to all domains or choose to enter different contact details for each domain.

   Note: Cloud Domains sends a verification email to the email address that you enter.

2. Click Register.

Processing your registration can take a few minutes.

Verify your contact information

After you register your domain, Cloud Domains sends a verification email to the address that you provided in your contact information for the domain. This email includes a subject line that states "Action required: Please verify your email address."

You must verify your contact information within 15 days, or your domain becomes inactive.

To verify your email address, do the following:

1. Open the verification email from [e-mail].

2. Click Verify email now.

   After Cloud Domains verifies your contact information, a Google Domains page is displayed, indicating that your email address is verified.

   If there is an error in verifying your contact information, see the Troubleshooting section.

What's next

• To get an overview of Cloud Domains, see Cloud Domains overview.
• To access API information, see Cloud Domains API.
• To find solutions for common issues that you might encounter when using Cloud Domains, see Troubleshooting.