.com domain prices expected to rise for first time in eight years

According to foreign media reports, ICANN, the organization responsible for overseeing top-level Internet domain names, is about to approve the final decision on a series of price increases, and the price of ".com" domain names is expected to rise for the first time in eight years.

The registration price for a .com site has been fixed at $7.85 since 2012. Consumers don't necessarily see that price, and they may be charged more or less by the registrar, but it's the price that domain name registrars ultimately pay for each registration.

[[314818]]

The proposed agreement shows that the price of each domain name could rise to nearly $13.50 over the next decade. The agreement allows Verisign (which has the contract to oversee .com domains) to increase the price of domain names by 7% each year for most of the next decade. Verisign would be required to pause price increases for two years (2024 and 2025), but if it does not do so, it will have the right to steadily increase prices until 2029.

It's important to point out that the price increase does not come from ICANN, but rather from an agreement between Verisign and the U.S. Department of Commerce that imposes certain regulations on .com domains.