Expiration Date

The expiration date is the day the registration you paid for runs out. It's in every WHOIS and RDAP record, and it's the single most important field on an expiring-domain listing.

It is not the day the domain drops. On a .com, the registrant usually gets a grace period to renew at the normal price, then a redemption period at a much higher one, then five days of pendingDelete before the name is released. Add it up and a .com that expired today typically doesn't become available for about 75 days, and only if the registrar doesn't auction it first.

One more wrinkle. When a registrar auto-renews a domain, the expiration date in WHOIS jumps forward a year even though the registrant hasn't paid yet. If they don't pay, the registrar deletes it and the date snaps back. So a date a year out isn't proof anyone renewed. Check the status codes too.