Simplifying domains for people and agents

You just thought of your next great idea, and buying the right domain feels like the easiest way to make that first bit of progress. Naturally, you open a new tab in your browser, only to find yourself face-to-face with an experience that feels like a budget airline peppering you with add-ons at checkout: Want security? How about a website? Do you want email? You’re just a few minutes into building your next idea, and it doesn’t feel fun anymore.

Launched a decade ago, Cloudflare Registrar has always taken a simpler approach. Domains at cost, transparent pricing, and no unnecessary upsells. But simplicity shouldn’t begin at checkout. It should begin the moment you start looking for the right domain.

Today, we’re bringing that same simplicity to the entire experience of finding and buying a domain. Our new domain search shows every extension we support, responds as quickly as you type, and makes hundreds of possibilities easier to explore through sorting, filtering, and transparent pricing.

And you know what is particularly good at ignoring distractions and staying focused on the destination? An AI agent. We designed Cloudflare Registrar to work naturally with agents through the Registrar API, MCP, and our newly launched cf CLI. You can ask your favorite agent to find the right domain, buy it, or transfer one you already own.

The agentic registrar, expanded

In April, we launched the Registrar API beta, allowing developers and agents to search for, check, and register domains programmatically. We have expanded the API since then. The new sandbox lets you test registrar workflows without purchasing a domain or triggering a real transaction. Our extensions endpoint returns relevant information for each of the 420+ extensions we support, helping you account for the different requirements across registries. We also added transfers, so you can bring domains from another registrar into Cloudflare programmatically.

The Registrar API is available through Cloudflare MCP, giving agents access without requiring a separate integration. Earlier this week, we also announced the launch of cf CLI, bringing the same capabilities directly into your terminal. You can prompt your favorite agent to search for, register, or transfer a domain. These tasks already lend themselves naturally to a conversation:

• “Is example.com available?”

cf registrar registrations check example.com

• “Buy example.com.”

cf registrar registrations create example.com

• “Transfer example.com from my current registrar.”

cf registrar registrations transfer-in example.com \
  --auth-code "$(echo -n 'YOUR_EPP_CODE' | base64)" \
  --auto-renew

The way people interact with the Internet is changing. Cloudflare Registrar should feel natural whether you use it through an agent or in your browser. For many people, the browser is still where the search begins, and that experience was long overdue for an overhaul.

Search simplified

Previously, our search page showed around 20 available results from a subset of extensions, sometimes modifying your search term to suggest related options. You couldn’t see that exact name across every extension we support.

We decided to take a simpler approach: show you the exact term you searched across every supported extension. Results appear as you type and continue to load as you scroll, letting you explore hundreds of options without starting another search. We also include domains that have already been registered, giving you a more complete picture. If you only want domains available to buy, you can filter everything else out.

More results might not sound simpler, but these are the results you asked for. Sorting and filtering help you narrow them down. Whether you are logged in or logged out, on your phone or at your desk, the experience feels the same.

Making a complex question feel simple

Cloudflare Registrar supports 420+ extensions. A single search can thus create more than 420 separate availability questions. Each extension is operated by a registry that maintains its official registration records and provides the authoritative answer about a domain’s availability and price.

Asking every registry every question at once would be slow and wasteful. Registries respond at different speeds and impose request limits, and much of the work would be for results the person might never view. To solve this, our search gathers evidence from multiple sources: (1) prepared availability datasets (e.g. zone files) and cached answers; (2) DNS answers; (3) live registry lookups.

A hit against an availability dataset or DNS can tell us that a domain is already in use, but a miss cannot necessarily prove availability as a domain may be registered without being configured in DNS, or it may be on a blocked list. A recent registry-derived answer is stronger but becomes stale over time, while a live registry check provides the freshest authoritative answer but takes longer and draws on limited upstream capacity. Our new search progressively probes these sources while balancing speed, freshness, and certainty for each result. As better or more accurate information arrives, we update only the affected result dynamically.

How we built search for speed and scale

We built the new search on the same Cloudflare developer platform available to our customers. Workers run the public search entry point and the services that gather availability evidence. Durable Objects give each active search one coordinator, while Workers KV stores prepared data that can be reused across searches. Together, these primitives let the service scale across users and 420+ extensions while keeping operating costs low.

We prepare useful evidence before a search begins: a purpose-built pipeline converts registry zone files and other bulk sources into compact availability datasets in Workers KV. Large datasets are split into smaller pieces, so a lookup retrieves only the data required for that domain. These fast checks can answer many questions without making a new live registry request.

A search session is composed of a Durable Object that coordinates that specific search interaction. It establishes the result order from the query, sort, and filters without waiting for network lookups, remembers the best evidence received for each domain, and tracks which results are visible so lookup work follows the person's attention.

WebSockets provide the bidirectional connection, and we designed an application protocol on top of them to connect the browser to the resolution process. An initial snapshot establishes the ordered list. Subsequent delta messages contain only the fields that changed, letting the browser update one domain instead of downloading the full result set again. Before sending a delta, the Durable Object compares the new evidence with the current answer: stronger evidence can replace it but weaker evidence cannot.

A separate Worker gathers additional evidence. It can query DNS through Cloudflare's 1.1.1.1 resolver, make a live Registrar check, or reuse a recently cached answer. Reusing fresh answers avoids repeating upstream requests. Because an available domain can be registered at any moment, an available answer has a shorter useful cache life than evidence that a domain is already taken.

Together, these pieces turn hundreds of independent availability checks and all that coordination into one coherent search experience. Cloudflare’s Developer Platform gives us all the building blocks to hide that complexity and craft a domain search experience that feels simple and is among the fastest in the world.

Transparent pricing and price drops

Making search feel simple is not only about speed. It is also about knowing exactly what a domain will cost. Cloudflare Registrar has offered domains at cost since day one. Great prices are part of making domains simple, but so is knowing what you will pay. Our new search and our new pricing page show both the initial registration price and the renewal price for every domain. When a domain is discounted, we show the original at-cost registration price crossed out alongside the promotional price.

Beginning with Birthday Week (this week!), we’re offering first-year registration discounts on select extensions including .io, .dev, .app, and .tech. You can explore every discounted extension directly from the search page as well as our newly launched pricing page.

Whether you search in your browser or ask an agent, our goal is the same. Remove the friction between having an idea and making it real. Buying a domain for your next idea should be fun and feel like progress.

Find your next domain

Choose how you want to get started:

• Search in your browser: Explore every available extension and find your next domain.
• Ask your favorite agent: Install cf CLI, then prompt your agent to search for, register, or transfer a domain.
• Build with the API: Use the Registrar API to bring domain search and registration into your own application or workflow.

However you choose to do it, finding your next domain should be the fun part.

Acknowledgements: This simplicity was a result of cross-team collaboration. Special thanks to Pedro Menezes, Shobhit Kuruvilla, Lucy Dryaeva, Fred Pinto, and the Registrar Team, the Design Engineering Team, and the Forge team.