GET/v1/domains/check

One call tells you what a domain really is.

Resolve any domain live — developed, parked, for sale, or not resolving — in a single authenticated GET. No WHOIS blobs to parse, no week-old snapshots.

Domain Research API is a real-time domain status API that returns the current state of any domain in a single request — developed, parked, for sale, not resolving, or unreachable — checked live, and never more than 15 minutes old. It's built for fraud, risk and KYB teams, payments and merchant monitoring, data enrichment, domain investors, and developers.

one GET · no SDK one status field pay only for real answers
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GET/v1/domains/check ● live
$ domainresearch
try:
$ domainresearch stripe.com
● EXAMPLE RESPONSE · hit Run to check it live
{
  "domain": "stripe.com",
  "status": "developed",
  "checked_at": "2026-07-16T09:14:22Z"
}
developedA real, operating website.
Returns one of
developed parked for_sale available unreachable

What is a domain status API?

A domain status API returns the current state of any domain — whether it is developed, parked, listed for sale, not resolving, or unreachable — from a single API request. Unlike a WHOIS lookup, which returns registration records, or a cached domain database, which can be days stale, a real-time domain status API checks the domain itself and never serves a verdict more than 15 minutes old, so it catches a domain within the hour its status flips.

What it returns: one status field per domain — developed, parked, for_sale, available, or unreachable.  Who uses it: fraud, risk and KYB teams, payments and merchant monitoring, data enrichment, domain investors, and developers.  How you call it: one authenticated GET /v1/domains/check?domain=example.com.

More: how the domain check API works, live vs. cached domain data, domain checks for fraud & KYB, or what domain research means.

5 states
one status field
Every TLD
gTLDs & ccTLDs
Real-time
never over 15 minutes old
1 call
one status, no parsing
The gap

Cached data sees the past. Fraud lives in the present.

WHOIS and reputation APIs serve snapshots — often days old. A merchant that showed a clean store at onboarding can flip to a parking page, a scam, or nothing at all. By the time a cached feed catches up, the transactions have already cleared.

CACHED PROVIDER · 9 DAYS OLD
developed

Reads registry data. The flip is invisible until the next crawl clears — hours to weeks later.

LIVE · CHECKED NOW
parkedchecked now

Checks the domain itself, not a stored record — so a flip shows up within 15 minutes, not next week.

The payoff

One field your rules can read.

Same hour

Catch the flip while it matters

A store that turned parked or scammy after onboarding shows up within 15 minutes — not after the next crawl clears, days later.

1 field

Delete a manual review step

Instead of an analyst eyeballing a URL, route automatically on one status your rules and models can read.

Not billed

Stop paying for dead data

Billed only on a delivered status. Errors and unreachable domains never hit your bill.

One call, one status

Five states. Billed only when we deliver a real answer.

developedA real, operating website.billed
parkedPlaceholder or ad page.billed
for_saleListed on the aftermarket.billed
availableThe name doesn't resolve at all. Usually unregistered — but an expired or suspended domain looks the same.billed
unreachableThe name resolves, but nothing answers. We couldn't reach it — so we don't bill it.not billed
Where it fits

8 jobs one status signal quietly solves.

If a decision depends on whether a domain is a real, operating business, this is the input.

Payments & merchant monitoring

Shell and transaction-laundering merchants hide behind a site that looks active.

Flag merchants whose domain is parked, for sale, or no longer resolving — the web-presence signal fraud tools miss.

KYB & onboarding

A business claims a website that was stood up an hour ago.

Confirm the site it claims is a real, operating store before you approve it.

Fraud & risk models

New, no-history domains are where phishing and mule infra activate first.

Confirm the site is real and operating, and feed that alongside the age and history signals your model already has.

Brand protection & lookalikes

Typosquats and lookalike registrations pile up faster than anyone can open them — and most are dormant.

Sweep the watchlist and see which lookalikes have actually stood up a site, so you chase the live ones first.

Threat intel & takedowns

A feed hands you thousands of suspicious domains a day. Most are already dead or were never stood up.

Triage by what is actually resolving and serving a site, before an analyst opens a single one.

Data & lead enrichment

You’re emailing, pitching, and scoring dead ends.

Clean your list against what’s actually live — drop parked and abandoned domains.

Domain investing

Tracking status across a large portfolio by hand doesn’t scale.

Check whether each domain is developed, parked, or listed for sale in one loop.

Traffic & inventory quality

Budget gets routed to parked and placeholder pages.

Screen domains for parked pages before you spend on traffic or partners.

How it works

Live in three steps. One request, one field to read.

1

Create a key

Sign up, pick a plan, and generate an API key in your dashboard.

2

Call one endpoint

Send an authenticated GET with the domain. No SDK, no batch job required.

3

Read the status

Get one JSON field you can drop straight into a rule, a model, or a table.

# request curl -H "Authorization: Api-Key YOUR_KEY" \ "https://domainresearchapi.com/v1/domains/check?domain=example.com" # response { "domain": "example.com", "status": "parked", "checked_at": "2026-07-16T09:14:22Z" }
Versus cached WHOIS APIs

Same question. A fresher answer.

Cached WHOIS / reputation APIs Domain Research API
Data freshnessSnapshot, hours to weeks oldNever more than 15 minutes old
What it reflectsRegistry records, often staleThe domain's current state
Catches a site that flippedNoYes
OutputRaw WHOIS / score to interpretOne status field
Billed on errors / non-answersOften yesNever
Pricing

Straightforward monthly plans. No surprise bills.

1 check = 1 unit. You're charged only when a real status is returned — never for errors or unreachable domains.

Starter $29 /mo 2,000 checks / month Choose Starter
Recommended Growth $99 /mo 15,000 checks / month Choose Growth
Scale $299 /mo 75,000 checks / month Choose Scale

Higher volume? Talk to us about enterprise & SLAs.

Your dashboard

Mint a key, watch usage, manage billing.

API keys

Get an API key →
Growth · active
9,240 / 15,000 this month
Name Key Last used
productionr9Xk2Q7m••••••2 min ago
staginga4Lp0Vd8••••••1 day ago

Illustrative preview — your live keys and usage live in the dashboard.

FAQ

Questions, answered.

What API tells me if a domain is parked?+
A real-time domain status API does. Domain Research API returns parked when a domain is sitting on a holding or monetization page instead of a real website. You send one authenticated GET request with the domain name and get back a single status field — no scraping or page-parsing on your side.
How do I check if a domain is developed, parked, or for sale programmatically?+
Send the domain to Domain Research API in one authenticated GET request and it returns a single status: developed, parked, for_sale, available, or unreachable. You get one status per call, for any root domain on any TLD, so you can classify domains directly from your own code.
Is there an API that returns live domain status in one call?+
Yes. Domain Research API returns a domain's live status from a single request: GET /v1/domains/check?domain=example.com returns {"domain":"example.com","status":"parked","checked_at":"2026-07-16T09:14:22Z"}. One authenticated GET returns one status field, plus the timestamp of the check itself.
How can I tell if a domain is for sale programmatically?+
Call Domain Research API with the domain and check for the for_sale status. When a domain is listed for sale, the API returns for_sale in the same single-field response it uses for developed, parked, available, and unreachable.
Is the domain status checked live or from a cache?+
Live. Domain Research API checks the domain against the real internet when you call it. If the same domain was already checked within the last 15 minutes, that result is reused rather than re-run — so a status is never more than 15 minutes old, and never comes from a days-old snapshot. Every response carries a checked_at timestamp, so you can see exactly when the verdict was measured instead of taking our word for it.
What's the difference between a domain status API and WHOIS?+
WHOIS returns a domain's registration records — registrar, dates, ownership. A domain status API returns its current operational state: developed, parked, for_sale, available, or unreachable. Domain Research API checks the domain itself rather than reading a registry record, so it reflects what the domain is doing now, not just how it's registered.
How do I detect if a merchant website is live and developed for fraud checks?+
Send the merchant's domain to Domain Research API and check the status. A developed result means the domain is a live, real website; parked, for_sale, or unreachable flags a domain that isn't an active business site. Because the check runs against the domain itself and is never more than 15 minutes old, it catches a merchant domain that has flipped state since onboarding.
How do I verify a business website is a real developed site for KYB?+
Call Domain Research API with the business domain during onboarding. A developed status confirms the website is genuinely active at the moment you check; parked, for_sale, available, or unreachable tells you it isn't. It's one authenticated request per domain, for any TLD.
How do I check if a domain is available or for sale in bulk?+
There is no batch endpoint — call Domain Research API once per domain, and each request returns one status (developed, parked, for_sale, available, or unreachable) for any root domain on any TLD. Keep your concurrency at or below the per-account in-flight cap and stay under the per-minute rate limit; both are published in the API reference. Going over either returns 429 with a Retry-After, which is not a verdict and is not billed.
How is a delivered check billed?+
Domain Research API bills one unit per delivered status. Requests that come back unreachable, and errors, are not billed — you only pay for a resolved status. See the pricing page for current plans; above the largest plan, contact us for volume pricing.
Start today

Stop scoring domains on stale data.

2,000 live checks for $29/mo. One call, one status — and you only pay for real answers.

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