How much does a whois call cost?

$0.002 per call, paid in USDC on Base via x402, with no account and no API key.

What does whois return?

A JSON object with 9 top-level fields: domain, registrar, created, updated, expires, status, nameservers, raw and parsed_confidence. The example on this page is illustrative, not a recorded call.

What happens when a whois call fails?

The tool answers with a typed JSON error from the errors table. Payment is settled only after the tool has produced its result; a call that fails inside the tool is never settled. A 503 upstream_unavailable can follow a settled call; the x402 payments guide covers it, 429, 402 and an uncertain 500.

catalogue / tools / Domain, DNS & network / Whois API

Whois API

Registration record for a domain over whois: registrar, creation/update/expiry dates, status codes and nameservers, with the raw response.

Endpoint: POST /v1/whois
Price: $0.002 per call
Family: Domain, DNS & network
Docs: /docs/whois

01When to use it

whois is a port-43 protocol an agent is unlikely to speak, behind a per-TLD server map and an IANA referral step; the parsed fields plus a confidence score are what make the raw record usable.

When not to use it

The destination needs more than 12 s to answer: the call ends with upstream_timeout (424).
The destination is on a private or local network: the network guard refuses it with blocked_target (403).

02Parameters

Field	Type	Required	Description
domain	string	yes	Public fully qualified domain name to look up, up to 253 characters; it is lowercased and stripped of trailing dots, and its TLD picks the registry whois server (built-in map, else the IANA referral).

03Limits

Limit	Value
Size cap	2 MB (2,097,152 bytes)
Timeout	12 s

04Example

The published example of whois, verbatim: the request body and the response it returns.

Request

POST /v1/whois
content-type: application/json
payment-signature: <base64 x402 payload>

{
  "domain": "example.com"
}

Response

200 OK
payment-response: <base64 settlement receipt>

{
  "domain": "example.com",
  "registrar": "Example Registrar, LLC",
  "created": "1995-08-14T04:00:00.000Z",
  "updated": "2025-08-14T07:01:44.000Z",
  "expires": "2026-08-13T04:00:00.000Z",
  "status": [
    "clientTransferProhibited"
  ],
  "nameservers": [
    "a.iana-servers.net",
    "b.iana-servers.net"
  ],
  "raw": "Domain Name: EXAMPLE.COM\nRegistrar: Example Registrar, LLC\nRegistrar WHOIS Server: whois.exampleregistrar.com\nUpdated Date: 2025-08-14T07:01:44Z\nCreation Date: 1995-08-14T04:00:00Z\nRegistry Expiry Date: 2026-08-13T04:00:00Z\nDomain Status: clientTransferProhibited https://icann.org/epp#clientTransferProhibited\nName Server: A.IANA-SERVERS.NET\nName Server: B.IANA-SERVERS.NET",
  "parsed_confidence": 1
}

This example is illustrative: it shows the exact shape the handler returns, but it was not produced by a reproducible call, because the real answer depends on live network data that changes over time.

Response field	Type	In the example
domain	string	"example.com"
registrar	string	"Example Registrar, LLC"
created	string	"1995-08-14T04:00:00.000Z"
updated	string	"2025-08-14T07:01:44.000Z"
expires	string	"2026-08-13T04:00:00.000Z"
status	array	1 item
nameservers	array	2 items
raw	string	a string of 374 characters
parsed_confidence	number	1

05Call it from code

JavaScript

// whois: $0.002 per call, paid in USD Coin on eip155:8453 via x402
// Install: npm install @x402/fetch@2 @x402/evm@2 viem@2
// Save as client.mjs (ES module, Node 18+), export EVM_PRIVATE_KEY with the paying wallet's key in your shell, then run: node client.mjs
// The wrapper reads the 402 (payment-required), signs and retries with payment-signature.
import { wrapFetchWithPayment, x402Client, decodePaymentResponseHeader } from '@x402/fetch'
import { ExactEvmScheme } from '@x402/evm/exact/client'
import { privateKeyToAccount } from 'viem/accounts'

const account = privateKeyToAccount(process.env.EVM_PRIVATE_KEY)
const client = new x402Client().register('eip155:8453', new ExactEvmScheme(account))
const fetchWithPayment = wrapFetchWithPayment(fetch, client)

const body = {
  "domain": "example.com"
}

const res = await fetchWithPayment('https://grist.tools/v1/whois', {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: { 'content-type': 'application/json' },
  body: JSON.stringify(body),
})
console.log(res.status, await res.json())
const settle = res.headers.get('payment-response')
if (settle) console.log(decodePaymentResponseHeader(settle).transaction)

Python

# whois: $0.002 per call, paid in USD Coin on eip155:8453 via x402
# Install: pip install "x402[requests,evm]>=2.24,<3"
# The session reads the 402 (payment-required), signs and retries with payment-signature.
import os
from eth_account import Account
from x402 import x402ClientSync
from x402.http import decode_payment_response_header
from x402.http.clients.requests import x402_requests
from x402.mechanisms.evm.exact import register_exact_evm_client
from x402.mechanisms.evm.signers import EthAccountSigner

account = Account.from_key(os.environ["EVM_PRIVATE_KEY"])
client = x402ClientSync()
register_exact_evm_client(client, EthAccountSigner(account), networks="eip155:8453")
session = x402_requests(client)

payload = {
    "domain": "example.com"
}

res = session.post("https://grist.tools/v1/whois", json=payload)
print(res.status_code, res.json())
settle = res.headers.get("payment-response")
if settle:
    print(decode_payment_response_header(settle).transaction)

curl

# whois: $0.002 per call, paid in USD Coin on eip155:8453 via x402
# 1. Unpaid call: HTTP 402, the requirements in the payment-required header (base64 JSON) and in the body.
curl -i -X POST 'https://grist.tools/v1/whois' -H 'content-type: application/json' -d '{"domain":"example.com"}'

# 2. Same call with the signed payment (an EIP-3009 authorization, EIP-712 signed: it cannot be
#    typed by hand). x-payment is accepted as the v1 alternative. HTTP 200 carries payment-response.
curl -i -X POST 'https://grist.tools/v1/whois' -H 'content-type: application/json' -H 'payment-signature: <base64 x402 payload>' -d '{"domain":"example.com"}'

06Errors

Code	HTTP	For this service
invalid_input	400	The body does not match the schema; its fields are domain.
blocked_target	403
unreachable_target	424
upstream_timeout	424
unprocessable	422
internal	500

Input that is rejected before the tool runs (malformed JSON, schema mismatch, body over the size limit) is never charged.

When each code is raised, and what it means for payment: /docs/whois.

07Questions

How much does a whois call cost?: $0.002 per call, paid in USDC on Base via x402, with no account and no API key.
What does whois return?: A JSON object with 9 top-level fields: domain, registrar, created, updated, expires, status, nameservers, raw and parsed_confidence. The example on this page is illustrative, not a recorded call.
What happens when a whois call fails?: The tool answers with a typed JSON error from the errors table. Payment is settled only after the tool has produced its result; a call that fails inside the tool is never settled. A 503 upstream_unavailable can follow a settled call; the x402 payments guide covers it, 429, 402 and an uncertain 500.