.au wholesale price rises 86 cents today, and a new rebate goes to registrars
The wholesale price of a .au domain rose from A$8.64 to A$9.50 a year (ex GST) at 00:00 UTC today, 1 October, according to Domainer.com.au. In New Zealand that was 1pm. auDA's pricing page says the new price applies to every .au namespace. The increase is 86 cents, or about 10%, according to Domainer.com.au.
Including GST, the price goes from A$9.504 to A$10.45, according to domainer.com.au, which reproduced auDA's notice to registrars. Based on that notice, the site says the new price covers new registrations, renewals, Change of Registrant and .au direct application fees. The registry lock fee stays at A$10 a domain a month including GST. The site welcomed the round number as "GST friendly" after years of complaining about prices running to three decimal places. The same post promotes Above.com's cost-price renewals.
This is the third rise in three years, and the biggest. Domainer.com.au lists the earlier two:
- October 2024: A$7.78 to A$8.45, up 67 cents
- October 2025: A$8.45 to A$8.64, up 19 cents
Over the three rises, the wholesale price has gone up by about 22%.
Today's change has nothing to do with auDA's in-principle plan to drop the "close and substantial connection" rule for .com.au, which this publication has covered in its eligibility reporting.
The rebate
The new part is the Quality Performance Index, or QPI. auDA says accredited registrars that show they meet "prescribed levels of quality, compliance and security" can claim a rebate of up to A$0.45 per .au domain per year. That's just over half of today's increase. According to domaincompare.au, a price-comparison site, auDA says the 10% rise covers an inflation (CPI) adjustment plus the new QPI rebate. So part of what customers will pay funds a rebate that goes to registrars.
auDA says it will report QPI results only in aggregate. That means a customer can't use auDA's figures to check whether their own registrar qualified.
auDA doesn't set retail prices. Registrars buy names at the wholesale price offered by Identity Digital Australia, and registrars and resellers set their own retail prices, which vary. Domaincompare.au says registrars have usually passed most or all of each rise straight on to customers within weeks, and sometimes before the wholesale change. The site thinks some of the more efficient or larger registrars may earn enough rebate to soften the rise. It says it will track how individual registrars respond.
Why NZ firms should care
Any New Zealand business holding .au names pays this price too. The wholesale price is set in Australian dollars, so what a New Zealand business pays also depends on the exchange rate.
New Zealand’s longest running registrar, The Domain Name Company Limited, has confirmed it will not be passing on the cost, and its prices will remain unchanged.
Another increase is coming. Verisign's .com wholesale price rises to US$10.97 on 1 November. A business with names in both .com.au and .com will see two wholesale increases within five weeks. For a single domain the extra cost is small. For an agency managing hundreds of names for clients, it means updating every client's pricing.
What to do
The wholesale price has already gone up, but some registrars haven't changed their retail prices yet. If yours hasn't, you can still renew at the current price. Domainer.com.au says .au names can only be renewed within 90 days of expiry, so this only helps with names inside that window. auDA says .au licences can run for one to five years, so a longer renewal keeps that price for longer.
Transfers of .au names are free, according to domainer.com.au. If your registrar raises its price by much more than 86 cents, move your names.
Before your next .au renewal invoice, ask your registrar three things. Will it pass on the full 86 cents, or 94.6 cents including GST? Is it applying for the QPI rebate? And if it gets the rebate, will customers see any of it?