Every domain extension, explained
A working reference for investors: what each of 308 extensions is actually for, which ones are launching right now, what the 2026 ICANN round changes — and where to register each one.
The ICANN 2026 round — a once-in-a-decade window
New top-level domains do not appear randomly. They come from application rounds, and the last one was in 2012.
Two dates are contractually fixed; everything after them is ICANN’s published projection.
Anyone with the money and the operational plan — companies, cities, brands, communities — can apply to run their own top-level domain.
The last date to submit. The previous round closed in 2012; ICANN has signalled roughly four years between rounds, so the next opportunity is late this decade.
ICANN checks the string itself (confusing similarity, reserved names, geographic terms) and the applicant (technical capability, financial capacity, background screening).
Third parties can formally object. Where several applicants want the same string, they form a contention set resolved by community priority or, most often, auction.
Winning applicants sign the Registry Agreement, pass pre-delegation testing, and are added to the root zone.
Each new string runs a mandatory 30-day Sunrise for trademark holders, an optional Landrush, then opens to everyone at standard price.
This is the part that filters out almost everyone. None of these are one-off — a TLD is a business, not a purchase.
Launching right now — the live calendar
Sunrise = trademark holders only · Limited/Qualified = restricted applicants · General Availability = first-come, first-served.
Best for: General purpose — the biggest generic since .com
Best for: Food, restaurants, delivery brands
Best for: Local, events, "you are here" plays
Best for: Travel, aviation, drones
Best for: Generic, brandable, tech
Best for: Fintech, wallets, checkout
Best for: Community, media, culture
.web — the $135 million extension that took ten years to arrive
No new string in this decade carries more weight. It is finally in the root zone, and nobody outside Verisign knows what it will cost yet.
Every other extension on this page is a niche play. .web is the only one positioned as a general-purpose alternative to .com — and it is owned by the company that runs .com.
AI & tech
The fastest-appreciating group in the market right now.
Gaming & community
Where audience beats SEO.
Business & work
Names an end-user buyer understands instantly.
The full extension directory — 308 TLDs explained
Every extension a domain investor is likely to meet: what it is for, who runs it, and the catch. Search by extension, industry or keyword.
🏛️ Legacy & core 14
The originals. Still where most real money changes hands.
🤖 AI, tech & developer 25
The fastest-appreciating group in the market right now.
💼 Business & work 22
Names an end-user buyer understands instantly.
💰 Finance & crypto 15
High registry pricing, high end-user budgets.
🛒 Shopping & commerce 11
Built for stores, checkouts and marketplaces.
📺 Media & publishing 16
Audience-first extensions.
🩺 Health & wellness 11
Regulated buyers with real budgets.
✈️ Travel & hospitality 12
Seasonal demand, strong local intent.
🏠 Real estate & property 12
Agent and developer money.
🎓 Education & learning 10
Institutions plus the creator-course boom.
⚖️ Legal & professional 5
Small pool, high per-name value.
🎮 Gaming & entertainment 12
Where audience beats SEO.
🎨 Creative & design 10
Portfolio and studio naming.
🍽️ Food & drink 11
Local businesses and food brands.
🌍 Country & geographic 49
ccTLDs, city TLDs and the ones repurposed as brandables.
✂️ Domain hacks 29
Extensions that finish the word: bit.ly, ope.ai, del.icio.us.
🧩 Everything else 44
Niche, novelty and specialist strings worth knowing.
Blockchain & alt-root domains — read this first
.eth, .crypto, .nft and friends are not ICANN top-level domains. They are names in a private or blockchain-based naming system, and that difference is the whole story.
Four things buyers get wrong
Type a .eth name into Chrome or Safari with no extension installed and you get a search result, not a website. Brave and Opera have partial native support; everyone else needs a plugin or a gateway like name.eth.limo.
You cannot receive mail at one, Google does not index them, and no certificate authority will issue a cert for a string that is not in the ICANN root.
Two different alt-roots can both sell “.coin”, and if ICANN ever delegates the same string in a future round, the ICANN version wins on the public internet. Unstoppable’s own terms do not promise otherwise.
As a human-readable wallet address, and as an identity inside a crypto app. That is a real use case with a real market — it is simply a different market from domain names, and it should be priced as a crypto asset, not as a domain.
Where to register — and what each one is good at
No two registrars carry the same catalogue, and renewal prices differ far more than first-year prices. These are the ones domainers actually use.
Broad new-gTLD coverage, transparent renewals, free WhoisGuard.
Porkbun ↗Cheapest on many new gTLDs; excellent for .gg, .tech, .work, .studio.
Dynadot ↗Deep new-TLD catalogue, strong bulk tools, built-in marketplace.
Spaceship ↗Clean UI, aggressive pricing, same group as Namecheap.
Cloudflare ↗At-cost renewals (no markup ever) — best long-term hold, fewer TLDs.
Gandi ↗Very wide ccTLD + niche gTLD coverage, EU-based.
How investors should think about new extensions
Four rules that decide whether a new-extension bet pays for its own renewals.
Hero.Poker and Russia.Health work because the TLD completes the phrase. The same names on a random extension are worth a fraction of that.
.ai and .io resell because real companies use them. A brand-new extension has no resale market until businesses actually build on it — that can take years, or never.
A $70/yr extension needs to sell for far more, far sooner, than a $10 .com to be worth holding. Multiply by your expected years to sale before you buy.
New extensions are opportunities, not replacements. Our free appraisal prices every extension against real comparable sales so you can see the gap before you buy.
Found an extension that fits your idea?
Generate available names in it, price it against real sales, or list what you already own — all free.