What WHOIS Privacy Hides, and What a Registry Record Still Shows

Privacy rules hide who owns a domain, but not much else. A bulk WHOIS lookup reads each domain's registry record over RDAP and returns the registrar, created, updated and expiry dates, status codes, nameservers and DNSSEC, in one table you can export. Contacts are not listed, since most are redacted anyway.

What is hidden

Registrant contact details. Names, emails and phone numbers for the owner are mostly redacted by registries and registrars. So the answer to "who owns this domain" is usually not in a public record. For one domain with the registrar's abuse contact and any published contacts, use the single WHOIS lookup.

What is still public

Field	What it tells you
Registrar	Which company holds the registration
Created	When this registration began
Updated	When the record last changed
Expiry	When the registration lapses unless renewed
Status codes	Locks and holds, such as transfer locks (EPP codes)
Nameservers	Who runs the domain's DNS
DNSSEC	Whether the delegation is signed

How to do a WHOIS lookup for a list of domains walks through the table.

Step 1: paste the domains

Paste domains, emails or URLs, one per line, or upload a CSV of up to 5,000 rows and 500 unique domains. Addresses and URLs are trimmed to the registered domain.

Step 2: run the lookup

Only unique domains are sent, 20 at a time, each to its TLD registry's RDAP server. The registry is found from IANA's RDAP bootstrap file, as RFC 9224 describes.

Step 3: filter and download

Filter by result to find rows that need a closer look, then download the CSV. Rows on TLDs with no RDAP say so. Use the registry's own WHOIS server for those, listed on IANA's root zone database.

Why RDAP replaced WHOIS

RDAP is structured JSON over HTTPS with fixed field names, defined in RFC 9082 and RFC 9083, so a bulk lookup does not have to parse each registry's free text. ICANN requires generic-TLD registries and registrars to run RDAP and, since 28 January 2025, no longer requires WHOIS.

What this check cannot do

• It cannot reveal the owner's identity or contact details.
• It cannot read registry records for TLDs without RDAP.
• A status code is a registry flag, not a judgement about the domain.
• It shows the record as of the lookup; changes can be pending.
• One connection is limited to 1,000 domains per ten minutes.

If the domains came from email addresses

The registration record says nothing about the mailbox. Correct DNS and a good domain get mail to the door; the address still has to exist. Upload your list on the verify page: the first 100 email checks are free with a Google sign-in, no card. Each address comes back valid, risky or invalid with a reason, and nothing is sent to anyone on the list. For larger or recurring lists, see bulk email verification, list cleaning and pricing.

Run your list now

Paste it into the bulk WHOIS lookup.