If you already own a domain name with another provider, you can use that domain with your WordPress.com site. In this guide, you will learn how to connect your existing domain name to WordPress.com.
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 likeyourgroovydomain.com. The old.wordpress.comaddress 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.
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:
- Visit your site’s dashboard.
- Navigate to Upgrades → Domains (or Hosting → Domains if using WP Admin).
- Click the “Add new domain” button in the top-right corner and select “Use a domain I own” from the drop-down menu.
- Type the domain name you own and click the Continue button.
- On the next screen, you will have two options: transfer or connect. Click the “Select” button next to “Connect your domain”. 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.
You have two options to connect your domain to your WordPress site: automatically setting up the domain connection or manually configuring your domain’s name servers.
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If you use email with your domain, your email may stop working when you connect your domain. To avoid this, configure your email in WordPress.com after adding your domain but before changing the name servers with your registrar. See this guide for step-by-step instructions.
If your domain registrar supports the automatic setup of domain connections, we will present that option to you first.
To automatically set your domain connection up, follow these steps:
- After you have added your domain and selected the option to connect your domain, click the “Start setup” button.
- You will be taken to your account at your domain registrar. Log in there and confirm the connection of your domain to WordPress.com.
- 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 the automatic setup process, you can manually update your domain’s name servers to point to WordPress.com. You can update the name servers yourself following our instructions below, or contact your domain registrar and ask them to update the name servers for you.
To update your domain’s name servers to point to WordPress.com follow these steps:
- After you have added your domain and selected the option to connect it, click the “Start setup” button.
- On the next screen, you’ll be encouraged to log into your domain registrar account. Once you have logged in, locate the domain settings page.
- In WordPress.com, click the “I found the domain settings page” button.
- Copy the name servers from the next screen and update your domain settings with your domain registrar.
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.
- Click the “Verify Connection” button back in your WordPress.com account.
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:
Instructions for common domain providers (click to reveal)
Wix (Note: In addition to this linked guide, Wix also requires you to add a CNAME record for www pointing to @.)
After you have added your domain and selected the option to connect it, you can contact the support team at your domain registrar to help you update your name servers if you cannot update them yourself. Here is a sample message you can send to them:
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
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.
If you are prompted to verify your domain ownership, follow these steps:
- Request an authorization code from your domain registrar.
- 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.
You can check the status of your domain by following these steps:
- Visit your WordPress.com site’s dashboard.
- Navigate to Upgrades → Domains (or Hosting → Domains if using WP Admin).
- Check the Status column.
- 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.
The final step is to go to Upgrades → Domains (or Hosting → Domains if using WP Admin) and select your newly connected domain as the primary domain. Learn how to set your connected domain as your site’s primary address.
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Transfer your domain to WordPress.com
Want to manage your domain and website all in one place, instead of with two separate companies? Transfer your domain’s registration to your WordPress.com account, which you can do before or after connecting the domain. You would no longer pay any domain registration fees to your current domain provider, and would instead renew both your domain and website plan here at WordPress.com.