This page describes how to search for an available domain name and register the domain using Cloud Domains. Cloud Domains enables you to choose your DNS provider and customize your DNS settings. Once you register your domain, Cloud Domains automatically renews your domain registration as long as your Cloud Billing account stays active.
Before you begin
Before you start using Cloud Domains to register your domains, follow these steps:
-
In the Cloud Console, go to the project selector page.
-
Make sure that billing is enabled for your Cloud project. Learn how to confirm that billing is enabled for your project.
Enable the API.
Registering a domain
To register a domain, you must complete the following tasks:
- Search for a domain name.
- Configure DNS for the domain.
- Choose privacy settings for your domain.
- Specify contact details.
- Verify your contact information.
To register a domain, follow these instructions:
Console
- Go to the Cloud Console.
- Click Register domain.
- Search for an available domain. Identify the domain name that you'd like to purchase. Pricing is listed for each available domain.
Click Add add_shopping_cart. You can add as many domains as you like, subject to your available quota. For details, see the Quotas page. The total pricing based on your selection is calculated to the right. To remove a domain from your cart, click the check mark done next to the domain name.
Click Continue.
On the DNS configuration page, choose one of the following DNS providers for your name servers. If you are registering multiple domains, you can choose individual settings for each domain.
DNS provider Description Cost Cloud DNS Google recommends that you use Cloud DNS as your provider for all your name servers. Using Cloud DNS requires that you create a public DNS zone for one or more domains that you want to register. To create a public DNS zone, see Creating a public zone. Additional Cloud DNS charges apply. For details, see the Cloud DNS pricing page. Google Domains If you choose this option, you can configure your name servers through Cloud Domains, and then use Google Domains to configure the DNS resource records. Note that using Google Domains does not allow API access. No additional cost. Custom name servers Choosing the custom name server option enables you to set up your name servers using Cloud Domains, then configure your DNS resource records with a third-party DNS provider. Check with your DNS provider. If you choose Cloud DNS, select the public zone that you have created for the domain from the drop-down menu.
If you choose Google Domains, select whether you want to enable or disable DNSSEC. For more information on DNSSEC, see DNS Security.
If you choose Custom name servers, enter at least two name servers. To add additional name servers, click Add another name server.
Click Continue.
By default, privacy protection is turned on. However, you can change the settings to one of the following privacy options:
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. If you choose to make all contact information publicly available, you must click I agree on the pop-up dialog.
Click Continue.
Enter your contact information for the domain, which is necessary for ICANN to reach you in case of any problems. By default, your contact information applies to the registrant, technical and administrative contacts. To enter different information for each type of contact, you can edit your contact settings later.
Click Register.
gcloud
Search and check availability for a domain:
To search for an available domain, use the gcloud beta domains registrations search-domains command:
gcloud beta domains registrations search-domains SEARCH_TERMS
Replace
SEARCH_TERMS
with any non-empty string to search for a domain name—for example,example
. It returns suggestions for possible domain names that you can register.To check up-to-date availability for a domain name, and get the parameters needed to register a new domain, including price, availability, supported privacy modes and notices, use the
gcloud beta domains registrations get-register-parameters
command:gcloud beta domains registrations get-register-parameters DOMAIN_NAME
Replace the following:
DOMAIN_NAME
: the domain name that you want to check availability for— example,example.app
.
Your output looks similar to the following:
availability: AVAILABLE domainName: example.app domainNotices: - HSTS_PRELOADED supportedPrivacy: - PRIVATE_CONTACT_DATA - PUBLIC_CONTACT_DATA yearlyPrice: currencyCode: USD units: '12'
Create a managed public zone for your domain (optional):
You can choose a DNS provider for your name servers based on the DNS provider options explained in the Overview. If you use Cloud DNS, you must first create a managed public zone for your domain.
To create a new Cloud DNS managed zone for the domain, use the
dns managed-zones create
command:gcloud dns managed-zones create CLOUD_DNS_ZONE_NAME \ --description="DESCRIPTION" \ --dns-name=DOMAIN_NAME \
Replace the following:
CLOUD_DNS_ZONE_NAME
: a name for your zoneDESCRIPTION
: a description for your zoneDOMAIN_NAME
: the DNS domain name for your zone, likeexample.com
Register the domain:
To register the domain, use the
gcloud beta domains registrations register
command:gcloud beta domains registrations register DOMAIN_NAME
Replace
DOMAIN_NAME
with the domain name that you want to register—for example,example.app
.Your output looks similar to the following when you register a domain
example.com
using name servers provided by Cloud DNS:Yearly price: 12.00 USD Do you agree to pay this yearly price for your domain (y/N)? y You can provide your DNS settings by specifying name servers, Cloud DNS Managed Zone name or by choosing free name servers provided by Google Domains [1] Provide name servers list [2] Provide Cloud DNS Managed Zone name [3] Use free name servers provided by Google Domains Please enter your numeric choice (2): NAME_SERVER_CHOICE Cloud DNS Managed Zone name: CLOUD_DNS_ZONE Cloud DNS Zone 'CLOUD_DNS_ZONE' is not signed. DNSSEC won't be enabled. Contact data not provided using the --contact-data-from-file flag. Do you want to enter it interactively (Y/n)? y Full name: NAME Organization (if applicable): ORGANIZATION Email: EMAIL_ADDRESS Enter phone number with country code, e.g. "+1.8005550123". Phone number: PHONE_NUMBER Enter fax number with country code, e.g. "+1.8005550123". Fax number (if applicable): FAX_NUMBER Enter two-letter country code, e.g. "US" or "PL". Country code: COUNTRY_CODE Postal code/zipcode: ZIP_CODE State (if applicable): STATE City: CITY Street address (incl. building, apt): STREET_ADDRESS Specify contact privacy [1] private-contact-data [2] public-contact-data Please enter your numeric choice (1): DATA_PRIVACY_CHOICE Waiting for 'operation-1597880129306-5ad437580410d-2c65d582-0861c5b7' to complete...done. Created registration [example.com] Note: The domain is not yet registered. Wait until the registration resource changes state to ACTIVE.
Replace the following:NAME_SERVER_CHOICE
: choose the name server option based on your DNS provider choice. For DNS provider options, see the DNS providers section.CLOUD_DNS_ZONE
: the Cloud DNS managed zone name.NAME
: your full name—for example,Alice Smith
.ORGANIZATION
: (optional) your organization—for example,Doe Corp
.EMAIL_ADDRESS
: your email address for verification—for examplealice@example.net
.PHONE_NUMBER
: the phone number of the contact in international format—for example,+1-800-555-0123
.FAX_NUMBER
: (optional) the phone number of the contact in international format—for example,+1-800-555-0123
.COUNTRY_CODE
: the country code of the address—for example,US
for United States.ZIP_CODE
: the postal code or zip code of the address—for example,94043
.STATE
: the state or province of the address—for example,CA
.CITY
: the city or town of the address—for example,Mountain View
.STREET_ADDRESS
: the street address of the registrant—for example,1599 Bayview Parkway
.DATA_PRIVACY_CHOICE
: your data privacy choice. For detailed information about privacy options, see the Privacy protection section.
API
To search for an available domain name, use the
registrations.searchDomains
method with an empty request body:GET https://domains.googleapis.com/v1beta1/projects/PROJECT_ID/locations/global/registrations:searchDomains?query=SEARCH_TERM
Replace the following:
PROJECT_ID
: the ID of the project where the domain registration is created.SEARCH_TERMS
: any non-empty string to search for a domain name—for example,example
. It returns suggestions for possible domain names that you can register.
To check up-to-date availability for a domain name, and get the parameters needed to register a new domain, including price, availability, supported privacy modes and notices, use the
registrations.retrieveRegisterParameters
method with an empty body:GET https://domains.googleapis.com/v1beta1/projects/PROJECT_ID/locations/global/registrations:retrieveRegisterParameters?domainName=DOMAIN_NAME
Replace the following:PROJECT_ID
: the ID of the project where the managed zone is createdDOMAIN_NAME
: the domain name that you want to check availability for—for example,example.app
.
The resulting response contains the
yearlyPrice
for the domain, which you need to use in theregistrations.register
API call.You can choose a DNS provider for your name servers based on the DNS provider options explained in the Overview.
If you're using Cloud DNS as your DNS provider, to create a managed public DNS zone, use the
managedZones.create
method:POST https://dns.googleapis.com/dns/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/managedZones { "name": "ZONE_NAME", "description": "DESCRIPTION", "dnsName": "DOMAIN_NAME.", "visibility": "public" }
Replace the following:
PROJECT_ID
: the ID of the project where the managed zone is createdZONE_NAME
: a name for your zoneDESCRIPTION
: a description for your zoneDOMAIN_NAME.
: the DNS suffix for your zone likeexample.com
. Note that the trailing dot in themanagedZones.create
method is required.
The resulting response contains a
nameServers
list that you must use in theregistrations.register
API call.To register the domain, use the
registrations.register
method:POST https://domains.googleapis.com/v1beta1/projects/PROJECT_ID/locations/global/registrations:register { "registration": { "domainName": "DOMAIN_NAME", "dnsSettings": { "customDns": { "nameServers": [ "NAME_SERVERS" ] } }, "contactSettings": { "privacy": "CONTACT_PRIVACY", "registrantContact": { "postalAddress": { "regionCode": "REGION_CODE", "postalCode": "POSTAL_CODE", "administrativeArea": "SUBDIVISION", "locality": "CITY", "addressLines": [ "ADDRESS" ], "recipients": [ "CONTACT_NAME" ], "organization": "ORGANIZATION" }, "email": "EMAIL_ADDRESS", "phoneNumber": "PHONE_NUMBER", "faxNumber": "FAX_NUMBER" }, "adminContact": { "postalAddress": { "regionCode": "REGION_CODE", "postalCode": "POSTAL_CODE", "administrativeArea": "SUBDIVISION", "locality": "CITY", "addressLines": [ "ADDRESS" ], "recipients": [ "CONTACT_NAME" ], "organization": "ORGANIZATION" }, "email": "EMAIL_ADDRESS", "phoneNumber": "PHONE_NUMBER", "faxNumber": "FAX_NUMBER" }, "technicalContact": { "postalAddress": { "regionCode": "REGION_CODE", "postalCode": "POSTAL_CODE", "administrativeArea": "SUBDIVISION", "locality": "CITY", "addressLines": [ "ADDRESS" ], "recipients": [ "CONTACT_NAME" ], "organization": "ORGANIZATION" }, "email": "EMAIL_ADDRESS", "phoneNumber": "PHONE_NUMBER", "faxNumber": "FAX_NUMBER" } } }, "yearlyPrice": { "currencyCode": "CURRENCY_CODE", "units": NUMBER_OF_UNITS } }
Replace the following:
PROJECT_ID
: the ID of the project where you created the registration resource.DOMAIN_NAME
: the domain name that you want to register—for example,example.com
.NAME_SERVERS
: the name servers you want to use. If you are using Cloud DNS, use thenameServers
field output that you got from themanagedZones.create.post
API call.CONTACT_PRIVACY
: the preferred privacy setting for the contact data.For detailed information on the available privacy options, see Contact privacy.
Replace the following values for the
registrantContact
,adminContact
andtechnicalContact
:For detailed information on each type of contact, see the Contact information section.
REGION_CODE
: the region code of the address—for example,US
for United StatesPOSTAL_CODE
: the postal code of the address. For example,94043
SUBDIVISION
: the highest administrative subdivision of an address, like a state, a province, an oblast, or a prefecture—for example,CA
for the state of CaliforniaCITY
: the name of the city or town of the address—for example,Mountain View
ADDRESS
: the lower levels of an address—for example,1599 Amphitheater Parkway
CONTACT_NAME
: the name of the contactORGANIZATION
: (optional) the name of the organization that is registering the domain—for example,Doe Corporation
EMAIL_ADDRESS
: the email address of the contact—for example,john@example.com
PHONE_NUMBER
: the phone number of the contact in international format—for example,+1-800-555-0123
FAX_NUMBER
: (optional) the fax number of the contact in international format—for example,+1-800-555-0123
Values for the yearly price of the domain:
This is the amount obtained from the
yearlyPrice
field in theregistrations.retrieveRegisterParameters
API call:CURRENCY_CODE
: the three-letter currency code as defined in ISO 4217—for example,USD
.NUMBER_OF_UNITS
: the whole units of the amount—for example, ifcurrencyCode
isUSD
, then one unit is one US dollar.
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, follow these steps:
- Open the verification email from domains-noreply@google.com.
Click Verify email now.
Once Cloud Domains verifies your contact information, a Google Domains page with the message that your email address has been verified is displayed.
If there is an error in verifying your contact information, see the Troubleshooting section.
What's next
- To edit registration settings using Cloud Domains, see Editing registration settings.
- 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.
- To learn about Cloud DNS, see Cloud DNS overview.