Every site comes with a free address with .wordpress.com in the URL. You can hide the .wordpress.com part by registering a new domain if you have purchased a WordPress.com plan.

Quick Steps

1. Go to the Domains page.
2. If prompted, choose the blog you wish to add a domain to.
3. Enter the domain you wish to register in the search box.
4. If the domain is available it will show up below the search in a green box. Click Add.
5. Choose if you’d like to add email to your domain.
6. Fill in the Domain Registration Information.
7. Choose if you’d like your contact information to be public or private.
8. Make a payment to complete the registration and purchase a WordPress.com plan if you don’t have one already.
9. Update your domain to be the primary domain used for your site on the Domains page.

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Introduction

On WordPress.com, you can register a custom domain (for example, yourgroovydomain.com) and use it instead of your site’s current address (such as yourgroovysite.wordpress.com). Your old address will still work, but we will automatically redirect traffic from your old address to your new one.

Domain Registrations are offered as part of our WordPress.com plans. You will need to have an active plan on your site in order to register a domain. Each plan comes with a free domain name credit for one year in registration. However, you can register as many additional domains as you want on the same site, but you have to pay for additional registrations separately.

You can find a full list of supported domains here.

If you already have a domain registered somewhere else, you can map your existing domain to your site. You can also map your site to a subdomain, if you already have a website up and you want your blog as a subdomain of that site. Mapping either an existing domain or subdomain requires a WordPress.com plan as well.

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Before Upgrading

WordPress.com supports registering domains with the extensions (TLDs) listed here. You can still map domains with other extensions to your site – you just have to register them with a different registrar and then map them to your site.

You can also map the domain to your site if you already have a domain registered. Registering a domain through WordPress.com is much easier, but it’s not required.

Please note that WordPress.com automatically removes the “www” from all URLs.

Same Rules Apply – The Domain Mapping Upgrade does not give you permission to use advertising, any kind of prohibited code, or upload additional themes or plugins. With the upgrade, your site will still be hosted here at WordPress.com, which means that you will not have FTP access to your files and you will still be required to abide by our Terms of Service.

Your domain name is an Internationalized Domain Name (IDN) if it contains language-specific characters such as ä, û, ע, ж, 字, मा. Domain registration, transfers-in, and mapping for IDNs, also known as Internationalized Domain Names, is not currently supported at WordPress.com.

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Public Versus Private Registration and GDPR

When you register a domain name, you have two options: public or private registration. Previously, registrant contact information for domains without private registration meant that this information was published publicly in WHOIS.

However, GDPR has resulted in changes to WHOIS that, in many cases, will prevent your contact information from being publicly published regardless of whether or not you add private registration to your domain. Adding private registration even with GDPR protection does have some additional benefits. Please see the Domain Registrations and Privacy page for more details.

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Instructions For Registering a New Domain

1. Go to the Domains page.
2. If prompted, choose the blog you wish to add a domain to.
3. Click the blue Add Domain button in the upper right of the domains listing
   
4. Enter the domain you wish to register in the search box. If you don’t have a particular domain in mind, you can also search for key words, and we will suggest different options that match your key words. You can also click on the More Extensions filter if you want to search for domains matching your key words using a specific extension we offer.
5. If the domain is available it will show up below the search box. Click Upgrade to select the available domain.
   
6. Choose if you’d like to add email to your domain by clicking Add email or No thanks. For more information about how email is setup for a new domain, see our Add Email page.
7. Fill in the Domain Registration Information for the domain. This information must be correct, and you’ll need to verify that you own the email address.
8. Choose if you’d like your contact information to be public (Publish My Information) or private (Add Privacy Protection). If you want the private registration upgrade, click the button that says Add Privacy Protection. If you want to stick with the standard public domain registration, click the Publish My Information button.
9. Make a payment to complete the registration and purchase the WordPress.com plan if you don’t have one already. If you have credits on your account, you will see a message about how your domain is being purchased with credits.
10. Update your domain to be the primary domain used for your site on the Domains page. Select the domain you wish to activate and from the next screen click  Make Primary. Your blog will be accessible from all of these domains; the Primary Domain is what actually appears as your domain within the address bar of web browsers. If you do not see your blog at the new domain immediately, please allow some time for the DNS changes to propagate.

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Email Validation and Verification

When you are registering a domain name, make sure you are using a valid email address in the Domain Registration Information. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) requires your contact information to be valid. An email notification will be sent asking you to verify your email address.

Please make sure to keep an eye on your email after you have registered the domain name. You will receive this email notification for all domain purchases, both publicly and privately registered. The email will be sent from the address, help@wordpress.sawbuck.com.

An example of the email notification is posted below:

If you do not receive this email notification, please do not hesitate to contact support.

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Data Processing, Privacy, and Consent

We are required by ICANN to collect valid contact information for each domain registered at WordPress.com. Generally, this data is considered required in order for you to contract with us for domain registration services. We will send an email to the registrant contact email address when consent for optional data elements is needed. You will not have to consent share optional data in order to have your domain registered here. You can read more about domain registrations and privacy and managing consent here.