There are a few different places where the money goes in a domain registration transaction. ICANN gets $0.18 per gTLD registration. The registry (Verisign, Ne

There are a few different places where the money goes in a domain registration transaction. ICANN gets $0.18 per gTLD registration. The registry (Verisign, Neustar, Donuts, Radix, etc.) sets a wholesale price that the registrar pays the registry for each domain year. That can be anything from a few bucks to hundreds or thousands of dollars (see .cars, for example). The registrar adds a markup to what they charge the registrant on top of that wholesale fee. In general, ICANN gets very little, the registry gets the most and the registrar somewhere in between. The registrar supplements this small yearly amount with add-on services like WHOIS privacy, or by selling email or hosting alongside the domain. The registrar also pays a yearly fee to be accredited by each registrar which also adds to the cost to consumers.