Sell Domain on GoDaddy: Commission, Steps and How to Sell a Domain Name for Less
What GoDaddy takes, what you keep, and the one setting that decides whether the commission is 15% or 25%. Start with what the name is worth.
Every estimate shows its work: the comparable sales and the signal breakdown it was built from, then the names like it you can buy right now.
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Type a domain like sunsetcapital.com or a keyword like capital to see its estimated value, the sales that prove it, and matching names for sale.
Automated estimate for informational purposes only. Not financial or investment advice, and not a guarantee of sale price.
The short answer
Selling a domain on GoDaddy is free to list and costs 15% commission if the domain points to Afternic, Dan or Uniregistry nameservers at the moment it sells, or 25% if it does not, with a $15 minimum and another 5% while Afternic Boost is running. You list through your GoDaddy domain portfolio using List for Sale, set a Buy Now price plus a reserve, verify your identity, link an Afternic account, and the listing distributes across a network GoDaddy puts at more than 100 partner sites. What you are buying with that commission is distribution, and it is genuinely the widest in the industry. What you are paying for it is the largest percentage in the industry, and the nameserver setting alone is a 10 point swing that many sellers never notice.
Last updated August 2026 · Commission and listing steps re-verified against GoDaddy's own help centre this month
How much does GoDaddy charge to sell a domain?
These are GoDaddy's published rates, taken from its own help centre and its announcement of the commission model, not from a summary of a summary. The rates have been in force since February 1, 2023.
| Charge | Amount | When it applies | Who controls it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Listing fee | $0 | Always. GoDaddy describes listing as free | Nothing to do |
| Commission, qualifying nameservers | 15% | Domain points to Afternic, Dan or Uniregistry nameservers when it sells | You, and only before the sale |
| Commission, other nameservers | 25% | Every other case, including a correctly listed name left on its old nameservers | You, by inaction |
| Minimum commission | $15 | Whenever the percentage works out below it, so it bites on cheap sales | Your asking price |
| Afternic Boost | +5% | On top of the base rate while Boost is active on the listing | Optional, you opt in |
The rate is determined at the moment of sale rather than at the moment of listing. That single detail is worth more than everything else on this page, because it means a seller who lists correctly and then forgets the nameservers pays ten percentage points more for a listing that looked identical in the dashboard. If you only change one thing after reading this, change the nameservers on anything you currently have listed.
What you actually take home at each sale price
Commission percentages are abstract until you see them in dollars. These are arithmetic on the published rates, with no Boost and no other add-ons.
| Sale price | You net at 15% | You net at 25% | Cost of the wrong nameservers |
|---|---|---|---|
| $500 | $425 | $375 | $50 |
| $2,500 | $2,125 | $1,875 | $250 |
| $10,000 | $8,500 | $7,500 | $1,000 |
| $50,000 | $42,500 | $37,500 | $5,000 |
| $250,000 | $212,500 | $187,500 | $25,000 |
Two things this table does not show. Escrow is normally handled inside the marketplace on these sales, so you are not paying a separate escrow fee on top, which is worth knowing if you are comparing against a private sale where you would be. And renewal fees keep running the whole time the name is listed, so a domain that sells in year four has quietly spent three renewals of its own proceeds getting there. If you want the mechanics of the money moving, we have written up how much domain escrow costs for private deals.
How to sell a domain name on GoDaddy, step by step
The interface changes wording from time to time, so these are the steps in the order GoDaddy's own instructions present them, with the two decisions that matter placed before you reach the form.
Price the name before you open the listing form
The listing screen offers a Use Est. Value shortcut that drops GoDaddy's automated appraisal straight into the price field, and accepting it unexamined is the single most common way a good name ends up parked at an unsellable number for years. Work out your range first from comparable sales, then use our domain worth calculator as a second opinion. If the two disagree wildly, the name is hard to price and that is useful information in itself.
Point the domain at aftermarket nameservers
Do this before anything else, because it is the difference between 15% and 25% and it is decided at the moment of sale rather than the moment of listing. A domain sitting on hosting nameservers, or on a registrar default, pays the higher rate no matter how correctly the rest of the listing is set up.
Select the domains and choose List for Sale
Sign in to your GoDaddy domain portfolio, tick the checkboxes next to the names you are listing, and pick List for Sale from the actions menu. You can do several at once. Domains bundled inside a package cannot be listed this way, which catches people who bought a name as part of a website plan.
Set the Buy Now price, the minimum and the reserve
Three numbers, and they do different jobs. The Buy Now price is what buyers see across the Afternic partner network. The reserve is the floor, the lowest offer anyone is allowed to submit. The minimum sits between them and tells an Afternic sales representative how far they may negotiate without coming back to you. Setting the reserve too close to Buy Now kills the negotiation the network exists to run.
Clear verification and link an Afternic account
If Domain Protection is switched on you will be asked to confirm with two-factor authentication or a one-time password before the listing can publish. You then sign in to an Afternic account or create one, since the listing lives on that network rather than on GoDaddy alone. Expect to downgrade Domain Protection when the name eventually sells.
Fill in the payment recipient profile now, not later
GoDaddy says plainly that an incomplete payment recipient profile at Afternic delays payout. Sellers routinely discover this after a sale, while the money sits waiting on a form. It takes a few minutes on the day you list and removes an entire category of complaint later.
List for Sale or GoDaddy Auctions: which one fits your name
These are different products aimed at different buyers, and picking the wrong one is why some sellers conclude nothing works.
| Route | Who sees it | How the price is set | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| List for Sale via Afternic | Buyers searching to register a name at 100+ partner registrars | Fixed Buy Now, with a reserve and a negotiation floor | Names an end user stumbles onto while searching for something similar |
| GoDaddy Auctions | Investors and bargain hunters watching expiring and listed inventory | Competitive bidding against a deadline | Names with several plausible buyers, where a deadline creates urgency |
| For Sale lander | Anyone who types the domain directly into a browser | Displays your listed price or invites an offer | Names with existing type-in traffic, which is free demand you already own |
| Broker representation | A shortlist of buyers approached directly | Negotiated, usually on a higher fee or retainer | Names worth enough that a human working the deal changes the outcome |
An auction with one bidder is just a fixed-price sale with extra steps and a worse price, because a lone bidder wins at the opening number. Auctions earn their keep when demand is genuinely contested. If you are weighing the auction route specifically, what GoDaddy Auctions charges covers the bidding side, and how domain auctions work explains the mechanics including proxy bidding and late extensions.
Five things that go wrong, and what they cost
Money you lose quietly
- §Wrong nameservers at the moment of sale. Ten percentage points, every time, on a listing that looked correct.
- §Listing at the automated estimate without checking comps, then paying renewals for years on a name nobody was going to buy at that price.
- §A reserve set so close to Buy Now that the negotiation the network is built to run never starts.
- §Leaving Boost running out of habit on names it is not moving, at an extra 5% when one finally sells.
- §The $15 minimum commission on cheap names, which on a $60 sale is a quarter of the proceeds.
Time you lose noisily
- §The 60-day ICANN transfer lock after a registration, a completed transfer, or a change of registrant. You can list, but you cannot hand the name to a buyer at another registrar.
- §An unfinished payment recipient profile at Afternic, which holds your payout after the buyer has already paid.
- §Domain Protection blocking the publish step until two-factor verification clears.
- §Names bundled in a website package, which cannot be listed until they are unbundled.
- §Stale duplicate listings on other marketplaces at a different price, which you will end up honoring at the lower number.
The transfer lock is worth understanding properly rather than fearing, because it does not stop a sale. It stops an inter-registrar transfer. If the buyer holds an account at the same registrar, a push is instant and free and the lock is irrelevant. We have set out the whole sequence in how long a domain transfer takes, and the handover checklist in transferring a domain to a new owner.
GoDaddy compared with the other places you could sell
We run a competing marketplace, so read this knowing our interest. We have tried to be accurate about where GoDaddy is genuinely the strongest option, because it often is.
| Venue | Seller commission | Distribution | Where it wins |
|---|---|---|---|
| GoDaddy and Afternic | 15% or 25%, $15 min | The widest in the industry, 100+ partner sites | Reach. Nothing else puts your name in front of registrar search results at that scale |
| Sedo | 10% / 15% / 20% | Broad, with real strength in Europe | Lower headline rate on direct fixed-price sales, and European buyer flow |
| Atom | ~7.5% to 15%, higher when curated | Curated marketplace with its own audience | Invented brandable names that comps-driven pricing handles badly |
| Flippa | Listing fee plus ~10% stepping down | Business buyers rather than domain buyers | Names attached to a site with revenue you can prove |
| Domainsdealer | 8% to 12%, from 5% at volume | Smaller. We are not going to pretend otherwise | Keeping more of a sale you were already going to make, with comps shown on every appraisal |
The honest version of this comparison is that commission and distribution trade against each other, and the right answer depends on your name rather than on which company you like. A generic one-word .com that an end user might find while typing something similar into a registrar search box benefits enormously from Afternic distribution, and 15% of a sale that happens beats 8% of a sale that does not. A name you already have a buyer for, or a portfolio you are actively marketing yourself, is a different calculation entirely, and there the commission is most of what you are deciding.
Where we would push back on GoDaddy is the 25% tier. A quarter of the sale price for the same service, triggered by a nameserver setting most sellers never think about again after listing, is a penalty for inattention rather than a price for anything. Check that setting on every name you have listed anywhere, today. It is the highest-value five minutes available to most domain sellers.
Many sellers list in more than one place, and that is reasonable as long as you decide which venue is primary. The nameservers can only point one way, so the primary venue is whichever one they point at, and everything else is secondary exposure that you must keep price-synchronized. Our full breakdown of the trade-offs is in where to sell domain names, and the alternatives lane covers Afternic alternatives, Sedo alternatives and GoDaddy Auctions alternatives one venue at a time.
Questions sellers ask about selling domains on GoDaddy
How much does GoDaddy charge to sell a domain?
GoDaddy charges 15% commission if the domain points to Afternic, Dan or Uniregistry nameservers at the time of the sale, and 25% if it does not. There is a $15 minimum commission, and an extra 5% applies while Afternic Boost is active. Listing itself is free, so the whole cost comes out of the sale proceeds.
How do I sell a domain on GoDaddy?
Sign in to your GoDaddy domain portfolio, tick the domains you want to sell, choose List for Sale from the actions menu, and set your Buy Now price along with the minimum and reserve. You then verify your identity if Domain Protection is on, link or create an Afternic account, and publish. The listing distributes across the Afternic partner network.
Does it cost anything to list a domain for sale on GoDaddy?
No. GoDaddy describes listing as free, and commission is only taken when the domain actually sells. The real cost is the commission plus the renewal fees you keep paying while the name sits unsold, which on a listing that runs several years can quietly exceed the commission itself.
Why is GoDaddy commission 25 percent instead of 15 percent?
Because the domain was not pointing at Afternic, Dan or Uniregistry nameservers when it sold. The rate is decided at the moment of sale, not when you list, so a name listed correctly but left on its old nameservers pays the higher rate. On a $10,000 sale that setting is worth $1,000.
How long does it take to sell a domain on GoDaddy?
There is no useful average, because the distribution is extremely skewed. Most listed domains never sell at all, a small share sell within weeks, and strong names can sit for years before the right buyer appears. Distribution shortens the wait for names people are already searching for. It does not create demand for names nobody wants.
Do I have to keep my domain at GoDaddy to sell it there?
No. Afternic listings accept domains registered elsewhere, which is why the qualifying test for the lower commission is the nameserver setting rather than the registrar. The practical difference is speed at the end: names held at GoDaddy can move to the buyer automatically, while names held elsewhere may go through a slower manual handoff.
Can I sell a domain I just registered?
You can list it, but you cannot transfer it to another registrar for 60 days. ICANN policy applies that lock after a new registration, after a completed transfer, and after a change of registrant. The sale can still complete inside the window if the buyer accepts a push to an account at the same registrar, which is instant and free.
When does GoDaddy pay you after a domain sells?
Payment is released after delivery to the buyer completes, minus commission, and GoDaddy reserves the right to hold funds longer on transactions it deems suspicious or on accounts running high volume. The most common self-inflicted delay is an incomplete payment recipient profile at Afternic, which GoDaddy warns about explicitly in its own instructions.
Is it better to sell a domain on GoDaddy Auctions or List for Sale?
They suit different names. List for Sale distributes a fixed price across registrar search results, which fits a name an end user might find while searching to register something similar. Auctions concentrate bidders against a deadline, which fits names with several interested investors. A name with one plausible buyer does better at a fixed price.
Should I use the GoDaddy estimated value as my asking price?
Treat it as an order of magnitude, not a price tag. Automated appraisals estimate retail value against a broad model, while most unsolicited offers arrive from the wholesale end of the market where investors buy to resell. Check the estimate against comparable sales of the same extension, length and structure first. We cover the gap in how accurate GoDaddy's domain appraisal is.
What percentage do other domain marketplaces take?
Sedo takes 10% on direct fixed-price sales, 15% on marketplace offers and auctions, and 20% through SedoMLS. Flippa charges a non-refundable listing fee plus a success fee starting around 10% and stepping down at higher values. Our own seller plans run 8% to 12%, and as low as 5% at enterprise volume.
Can I list the same domain on more than one marketplace?
Usually yes, and most experienced sellers do, but the prices have to stay synchronized and you need to know which listing the nameservers are serving. Two live listings at different prices is how sellers end up honoring the lower one. Pick a primary venue, point the nameservers there, and treat the rest as secondary exposure.
Is it worth selling a domain that is only worth a few hundred dollars?
Often yes, but watch the $15 minimum commission and the renewal clock. A name worth $300 nets around $255 at the lower rate, which is real money, but if it takes four years to sell you have spent a meaningful share of that on renewals. For low-value names the decision is usually list it now at a realistic price or drop it, not hold it at an aspirational one.
What happens to my listing if the domain expires?
The listing stops being sellable and the name enters the expiration sequence, which at GoDaddy moves faster than most sellers expect. The domain is parked within days, and the registrar can put it into its own expired-domain auction inside the first month. We set out the full timeline in the domain redemption period.
Before you list anything
Get a number you can defend with the domain worth calculator, check it against the domain sales history, and read how to sell a domain name for the process independent of any one venue. If you have a portfolio rather than a single name, a bulk domain appraisal tells you which names justify their renewals, and domain portfolio management covers running the whole list. When you are ready to compare venues on what they take rather than what they claim, where to sell domain names is the short version and selling your domain with us is the eight to twelve percent option.
Know what the name is worth before GoDaddy tells you.
Comparable sales, the signals behind the number, and no account required.