Connect a domain name to WordPress.com

If you already own a domain name with another provider, you can use that domain with your WordPress.com site while keeping it registered with your current provider. In this guide, you will learn how to connect your existing domain name to WordPress.com.

This feature is available on sites with the WordPress.com Personal, Premium, Business, and Commerce plans. For free sites, upgrade your plan to access this feature.

Connecting (or “mapping”) a domain to your WordPress.com site means the following:

• Your domain will show the site you created on WordPress.com, without the ‘WordPress’ name in the address. Instead of a site address like⁣ yourgroovysite.wordpress.com, visitors can reach your site with an address like yourgroovydomain.com. The old .wordpress.com address will redirect to the new domain you add.
• You will continue to renew the domain name through the company you purchased it from (also known as your domain registrar).
• Your DNS records will be managed in your WordPress.com account.
• Connecting a domain is free with any paid WordPress.com plan. If you downgrade to a free site, your domain connection will be removed.

You can connect your domain at any time – before, during, or after building your site. Your content and design won’t be affected by connecting a domain.

To connect your domain to your WordPress.com website, start with the following steps:

1. Visit your site’s dashboard.
2. Navigate to Upgrades → Domains.
3. Click the down arrow next to the “Add new domain” button in the top-right corner and select “Use a domain I own” from the drop-down menu.

4. Type the domain name you own and click the Continue button.
5. On the next screen, you will have two options: transfer or connect. Click the “Connect your site address” option. It may take a few moments to be redirected to the next screen.

If you see the message “[yourgroovysite.com] is already connected to your site [yourgroovysiteaddress]” you have already mapped or connected your domain to a different WordPress.com site. Make note of the site in the message, and use these steps to move the domain to the site you want.

To connect your domain, you’ll update your domain’s name servers to point to WordPress.com. If you’d prefer not to change your name servers, you can connect your domain using A and CNAME records instead.

If your domain registrar supports automatic setup, you’ll see that option first. To complete the setup, follow these steps:

1. After you have added your domain and selected the option to connect it, click the “Start setup” button.

2. You will be taken to your account at your domain registrar. Log in there and confirm the connection of your domain to WordPress.com.
3. You will be returned to your WordPress.com dashboard with a message that “We are verifying your connection now.”

If your domain provider doesn’t support automatic setup, you can manually update your domain’s name servers to point to WordPress.com. To update your name servers yourself, follow these steps:

1. After you have added your domain and selected the option to connect it, click the “Start setup” button.

2. On the next screen, you’ll be encouraged to log in to your domain registrar account. Once you have logged in, locate the domain settings page there.
3. In WordPress.com, click the “I found the domain settings page” button.
4. Copy the name servers from the next screen and update them in your domain registrar’s settings.
5. Back in your WordPress.com account, click the “Verify Connection” button.

The name servers for WordPress.com are:

ns1.wordpress.com
ns2.wordpress.com
ns3.wordpress.com

Remove your old name servers when you add the WordPress.com name servers. Your name servers should be set to only the three values listed above.

Use all three name server values above—one per line. Some registrars may appear to only accept two values but usually display a third box once you have entered the first two name servers.

If you are not sure how to update your domain’s name servers, click to expand the list below and find the instructions for popular domain registrars:

If you can’t update your name servers yourself, contact your registrar’s support team and ask them to make the change for you. Here is a sample message:

I would like to use my domain for a WordPress.com site. To accomplish this, I need to point my domain’s name servers to the following:

ns1.wordpress.com
ns2.wordpress.com
ns3.wordpress.com

If you navigated away from the DNS records screen and need to return to the setup:

1. In your site’s dashboard, navigate to Upgrades → Domains.
2. Click the connected domain name, then click the Complete setup button.
3. Click the “Start setup” button and then “I found the domain settings page” to see the name servers for your site.

Once they have updated your domain’s name servers, you can move to the next step.

If you have already connected multiple domain names to your WordPress.com site, you may be prompted to verify your domain ownership before starting the setup process. To do so, follow these steps:

1. Request an authorization code from your domain registrar.
2. Provide the authorization code during the domain connection process on WordPress.com.

The authorization code is sometimes referred to as a transfer code, auth code, or EPP code, and is commonly used to transfer a domain name from one registrar to another. However, the domain will not be transferred in this scenario — the code is only used to confirm you are the domain owner.

Once you have changed your domain’s name servers, it can take up to 72 hours before your domain is fully functional on your new site. During that time, you may still see your old site when visiting the domain name. Your default site address (example.wordpress.com) will continue to work with your WordPress.com site.

You can check the status of your domain by following these steps:

1. Visit your WordPress.com site’s dashboard.
2. Navigate to Upgrades → Domains.
3. Check the Status column.

4. If your domain’s status still says Verifying, try waiting a few hours before taking the next step. Once you see the status change to Active, then your domain is connected.
   • If the domain is still not loading the correct site, you may need to clear your browser’s cache to see the changes.
   • To check whether your name server changes have propagated globally, use a tool like whatsmydns.net and select NS (for Name Servers) from the dropdown menu.

The final step is to go to Upgrades → Domains and select your newly connected domain as the primary domain. Learn how to set your connected domain as your site’s primary address.

Once your domain is active, WordPress.com automatically issues a free SSL certificate for your domain. This usually takes a few minutes after the domain becomes active but can take up to 24 hours. During this time, visitors may see a security warning—this resolves on its own once the certificate is issued.

If it has been more than 24 hours since you attached your domain name and updated the DNS, and your site is still not showing a secure connection, you can manually provision the SSL certificate.