How to buy an ENS name in 2026 — the complete guide

Buying an ENS name in 2026 is dramatically easier than it was three years ago. The protocol is the same — register on the Ethereum Name Service, pay an annual fee in ETH, receive an NFT — but the infrastructure around it has matured. You now have three distinct ways to end up owning a name, each with different tradeoffs on price, timing, and competition.

This guide walks each path, with concrete numbers and the questions to ask yourself before clicking buy.

First decide what you want

Before opening any tool, get clear on two things:

• Is the exact name negotiable? If you want yourbrand.eth and only that, your options narrow to "is it available or not." If you're open to any good 5-letter food word, you have hundreds of candidates and price control.
• What's your budget ceiling? 5+ letter common-word names cost $5/year. 4-letter names cost $160/year. 3-letter names cost $640/year. Secondary-market prices range from sub-$10 to $1M+. Pick a number before you start.

Path 1: Register a fresh name (cheapest if available)

If your target name has never been registered, this is your path. The cost is just the annual fee plus gas — no premium, no auction, no seller markup.

Use AI Search to check availability. Describe what you want in plain English — "modern fintech brands ending in -ly", "italian first names 4 letters", "names that sound like a dessert" — and the index returns the closest matches across 200K+ curated candidates with availability already checked. You will find names you would never have guessed to type.

Once you find an available name, click through to register. The flow is two transactions (commit + reveal, ~60 second wait between) and the total cost is:

• 5+ letters: $5/year + gas (~$2-5 in 2026 with L1 fees where they are)
• 4 letters: $160/year + gas
• 3 letters: $640/year + gas

Most names you'd want are already registered. That makes path 2 and 3 relevant.

Path 2: Catch a name in the expiry auction (cheap, requires timing)

Every .eth registration is term-limited. When an owner forgets to renew, the name moves through three phases over ~111 days:

• Grace period (90 days) — owner can still renew at normal price; no-one else can register.
• Temporary premium (21 days) — dutch auction. Premium starts at $100,000,000, decays exponentially to $0 over 21 days (half-life roughly 24 hours).
• Released — back to standard registration, first-come first-served at the base annual fee.

The valuable window is the second phase. Premium 3- and 4-letter names get sniped early at $1,000-$10,000. Common 5+ letter names often make it to the second half of the auction window where the premium has decayed to sub-$100 — picking one up there costs roughly $60-$120 all-in, vs. hundreds or thousands on the secondary market.

Use the Expiry Explorer to watch what's in temp premium right now. We've written a detailed playbook on this path — it's the highest-skill, highest-EV way to buy.

Path 3: Buy on the marketplace (instant, premium-priced)

If you need a specific name now and it's owned by someone else, the marketplace is the path. Listings are atomic Seaport orders settled on-chain — you pay, you receive the NFT, all in one transaction.

Browse the ENS.Tools marketplace to see active listings. The 2% platform fee is bundled into the order so what you see is what you pay. Filter by collection (999 Club, 10k Club, 3-letter, dictionary words, emoji), floor price, recent activity.

Marketplace prices reflect what the current owner thinks the name is worth. They're rarely cheap — expect 5-100× the registration cost — but they're available immediately. Two ways to negotiate:

• Make an offer. Most listings accept offers below ask. Sellers who've held a name for months are often happy to clear it at 70-80% of ask.
• Make a collection offer. Instead of bidding on one specific name, bid on any name matching a pattern (e.g. "any 4-letter dictionary word at this price"). Sellers can accept against your bid. See collection offers.

Cost comparison

For a hypothetical 5-letter common-word name:

• Fresh registration: $5/year + gas — total ~$10
• Expiry auction (day 18 of premium): $5 annual + ~$100 premium + gas — total ~$110
• Expiry auction (day 21, premium decayed to $0): $5 + gas — same cost as fresh registration, but no waiting for it to ever become available
• Marketplace: $200-$5,000 typical for a quality 5-letter word, immediate

The choice is timing vs. price. Marketplace = pay more, have it today. Auction = wait for the right moment, pay base. Fresh = cheapest but only if the name has never been claimed.

What to avoid

• Lookalike scams. Cyrillic а looks identical to Latin a in most fonts; vіtalik.eth (Cyrillic і) is a different name than vitalik.eth. We surface NameGuard warnings on suspicious names — always check before buying.
• Wrapped vs unwrapped confusion. Most modern names are "wrapped" — they have additional features like fuse-based permissions. Either is fine to buy; the marketplace handles both. Just don't pay a premium because someone claims wrapped is "rarer."
• Expired-name FOMO. Names hitting temp premium will get cheaper every day. Set a target price, set an alert at /manage/alerts, and don't bid the peak.

The 5-minute version

1. Type what you want into AI Search. If something available catches your eye, register it. Done.
2. If your target is taken but ownership feels casual, check the marketplace and Expiry Explorer. Often a name you'd pay $500 for on marketplace is heading into temp premium in 30 days.
3. Set an alert. Names you want come around on the 21-day premium cycle more than once a year.

Ready? Start with searching for a name →