These three post-expiration stages get conflated constantly, but they're distinct, with different costs and different odds of getting the domain back.

Grace period is the first and most forgiving stage. The domain is expired but the original registrant can typically still renew it at or near the normal renewal price, with no special recovery fee. This is the easiest and cheapest point to fix a missed renewal.

Redemption period comes next, once the grace period closes without a renewal. The domain still isn't available to the public, but recovering it now requires paying a redemption fee on top of the renewal cost. It's still recoverable, just meaningfully more expensive.

Pending delete is the final stage before the domain returns to public availability. It's a short, fixed window during which the domain is locked from any action at all.

NameBright's own published numbers, end to end: a domain sits in its normal 0–30 day post-expiration renewal window first, then moves through about 5 days of processing before entering a 30-day redemption grace period priced at $85 per domain for .com/.net, then finishes with about 5 days in Pending Delete before releasing.