Check whether a domain is available to register, or get natural-language suggestions for alternatives. Both operations are available through the v3 API.

Overview

Search operations let you check whether a specific domain is available for registration, and discover alternative names based on keywords or natural-language queries. Both operations are read-only, require no payment method, and return indicative pricing alongside results.

v3 (recommended)

v3 offers two discovery operations: a single-domain availability check and a suggestions endpoint that returns available alternatives for a natural-language query.

Check availability

GET /v3/domains/check-availability?domain={domain} returns availability and per-term pricing for a single domain.

The following procedure checks whether a domain is available to register.

Run the following command for your preferred language:

curl -s "https://api.godaddy.com/v3/domains/check-availability?domain=your-idea.com" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $GODADDY_PAT"

Parameter	Required	Description	Note
`domain`	Yes	Fully-qualified domain name to check.	IDN values must be in punycode A-label form.
`optimizeFor`	No	`SPEED` (default, cached) or `ACCURACY` (live registry check, higher latency).	Availability is always re-verified at quote time regardless of this setting.
`iscCode`	No	ISC discount code for pricing context.	When provided, prices reflect the applicable rates for this ISC.

Response includes availability and indicative per-term pricing:

{
  "domain": "your-idea.com",
  "available": true,
  "definitive": false,
  "inventory": "REGISTRY",
  "prices": [
    { "term": "YEAR", "period": 1, "price": { "currencyCode": "USD", "value": 1199 }, "renewalPrice": { "currencyCode": "USD", "value": 2299 } },
    { "term": "YEAR", "period": 2, "price": { "currencyCode": "USD", "value": 3098 }, "renewalPrice": { "currencyCode": "USD", "value": 4598 } }
  ]
}

prices[] contains one entry per available registration term. All price values are in cents.

Indicative pricing

Prices from availability checks are indicative. The authoritative price is locked when you call POST /v3/domains/registration-quotes. Go to Register a domain for the full quote-execute flow.

Reference: GET /v3/domains/check-availability

Get suggestions

GET /v3/domains/suggestions returns available domain name suggestions for a natural-language query or keyword set. All results are available without filtering required.

The following procedure gets domain name suggestions for a query.

Run the following command for your preferred language:

curl -s "https://api.godaddy.com/v3/domains/suggestions?query=sunrise+bakery&tlds=com,net,shop&pageSize=10" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $GODADDY_PAT"

Parameter	Required	Description	Note
`query`	No	Natural-language query or keywords.	For example, `sunrise bakery`.
`tlds`	No	Comma-separated TLDs to include.	For example, `com,net,shop`.
`pageSize`	No	Number of suggestions to return.	1–50, default `10`.
`lengthMin`	No	Minimum second-level domain length.
`lengthMax`	No	Maximum second-level domain length.
`sources`	No	Comma-separated suggestion strategies: `EXTENSION` (vary TLD), `KEYWORD_SPIN` (rotate keywords), `CC_TLD` (country-code TLDs), `PREMIUM` (include premium-priced names).

Response is an object with an items array. Each entry includes the domain name and indicative per-term pricing:

{
  "items": [
    {
      "domain": "sunrisebakery.com",
      "inventory": "REGISTRY",
      "prices": [
        { "term": "YEAR", "period": 1, "price": { "currencyCode": "USD", "value": 1199 }, "renewalPrice": { "currencyCode": "USD", "value": 2299 } }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

price.value and renewalPrice.value are in cents — divide by 100 for the display price.

Reference: GET /v3/domains/suggestions

Use the CLI

After you set up the CLI, you can use it to check single-domain availability and get domain suggestions.

The following procedure checks availability and gets suggestions using the CLI.

Run the command for your operation:

gddy domain available your-idea.com
gddy domain available your-idea.com --check-type full
gddy domain suggest "your idea" --tlds com --tlds app --limit 10

Read the response

Price fields return a {currencyCode, value} object. value is an integer in cents — divide by 100 for the display price. For example, {"currencyCode": "USD", "value": 1199} displays as $11.99.

Common errors

Status	Most likely cause
`400`	Malformed request — domain missing, not a valid FQDN, or invalid query parameter.
`401`	Authentication credentials are missing or invalid.
`403`	Caller is not authorized. Check that your token includes the `domains.domain:read` scope.
`429`	Rate limit exceeded. Honor the `Retry-After` header before retrying.
`5xx`	Upstream registry timeout. Safe to retry — availability checks are idempotent.

Additional information

Purchase a domain

Use the v3 quote-execute flow to lock a price and register.

v3 Discovery reference

Full check-availability and suggestions endpoint docs.

Agent & Automation Notes

PermissionsDomain Search

Scopesdomains.domain:read

Rate limit60 req/min per credential

IdempotentYes

DestructiveNo

On failureSafe to retry on any error. Results are cached; use optimizeFor=ACCURACY for live registry checks.

API References

Domains v3 — Discovery

Guides

Concepts

Last updated on

Search domain availability