Learn how to transfer an active Cloudflare domain to another Cloudflare account.

Overview

Moving or transferring domains from one Cloudflare account to another is required if:

• you are managing a multi-user organization and need to segment domain access by user,
• you receive a "Cloudflare is already hosting under a different account" error, or
• you lose access to your email address or Cloudflare account.

However, if you have two-factor authentication (2FA) enabled and access to backup codes, those codes can be used to access your Cloudflare account. 

To successfully transfer a domain from one Cloudflare account to another you will need access to:

• your domain registrar, and
• at least one of the Cloudflare accounts associated with the domain.

Before getting started

You will need to contact Cloudflare support to move your domain: 

• if you are using a European domain registrar. Certain European registrars have a different nameserver registration process. You may experience problems if you try to update your nameservers on your own.
• if Cloudflare is not your authoritative DNS provider, i.e., your nameservers do not point to Cloudflare, as moving domains requires changing your domain nameservers.

Transfer your domain

If you lose access to the email address associated with your Cloudflare account and do not have backup codes, you will need to manually transfer your domain to a new Cloudflare account.

For example, if you register the domain, myzone.com using [email protected] and lose access to that email account, you will need to create a new Cloudflare account using a new email address, [email protected], and add myzone.com to the new account.

The domain transfer process depends on your DNS settings. If Cloudflare is your authoritative DNS provider, i.e., your domain nameservers point to Cloudflare, you must:

1. Create a new Cloudflare account or log in to your existing Cloudflare account. 
2. Log in to your domain registrar updating the Cloudflare nameservers accordingly.

If you have access to your existing/old account, you can transfer the Cloudflare account settings manually along with the domain. If you do not have access to your existing/old Cloudflare account and settings, reissuing SSL/TLS certificates is required as well as recreating and validating DNS records.

In seven (7) days, the domain status in the existing account will change to Status: Moved Away and the domain status in the new account will change to Status: Active. After 30 days, Cloudflare will purge the domain in the original/old account. 

For example, the Cloudflare account associated with [email protected]’s status will change to Moved Away, while the new account associated with [email protected]’s status will change to Active. The [email protected] account will be purged after 30 days.

Related resources

• Securing user access with two-factor authentication
• Changing domain nameservers to Cloudflare
• End-to-end HTTPS with Cloudflare - Part 2: SSL Certificates
• Managing DNS records in Cloudflare