.abacus
Is .abacus a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
Nobody is chasing .abacus, as of 7 October 2026. One applicant claimed it and is out. We keep the entry on the record either way.
- Journey To The West
A heritage-novelty word; a few math schools and Abacus-named firms might register, but few serious projects would live at this address.
mental-arithmetic and math-tutoring schools, accounting and fintech brands that happen to be named Abacus, and heritage or novelty registrants picking up a themed keepsake domain
In Journey To The West's published portfolio of 323 strings submitted in the ICANN 2026 round. Their catalog line: “The ancient calculator, still faster than you'd think.”
The 2012 applications making the most similar bet. Chosen by AI from every string in that round, without being told what happened to any of them.
Same bet: an everyday dictionary noun with a money/counting connotation carried as one company's corporate identity rather than as a category anyone would self-describe with, so the value rides entirely on the brand behind it, not on a registrant pool.
Same bet: a math-flavored common noun that functions as a technology company's name, where the namespace is a single owner's identity play and the word's generic meaning attracts no natural third-party registrants.
Same bet: a concrete object-noun used metaphorically as a finance firm's brand, wagering that an evocative old-world word confers institutional solidity on one organization's namespace.
What a .abacus domain is
.abacus is not a TLD yet. It is a string on our record of the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, filed under Culture. Nobody is chasing .abacus today. The applicants that claimed it are out.
Is the .abacus domain extension real yet?
.abacus is not yet a domain extension you can register: nothing resolves under it, and no registrar sells names in it. Nobody has applied for it on the public record; the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round is the process that would decide whether it becomes one.
When can you buy a .abacus domain?
You can’t yet. A .abacus name can only be registered once the string is delegated (added to the DNS root) and its registry opens. Last round's closest parallel to .abacus was .mint, delegated on 12 July 2016.
Is .abacus a real TLD?
Not yet. .abacus is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because an applicant claimed .abacus and is no longer in it. We keep the entry, and every entry on this page links to its source.
- Journey To The West · now abandonedICANN
- Journey To The West · first recordedJourney To The West Corporation
“.abacus · Invention & Heritage · “The ancient calculator, still faster than you'd think.””Journey To The West Corporation
- Band 10-29 (vanity/narrow). The string names a single artifact rather than a category of activity, so it functions as a themed suffix, not an identity people search for; by analogy with narrow dictionary-object gTLDs from the 2012 round (e.g. single-noun strings like .guitars or .flowers), such TLDs have tended toward small registration bases and thin aftermarkets. It is not band 30-49 because there is no visible volume or price-driven registration engine for the word; it is above band 1-9 because 'abacus' carries real brand resonance — accounting/fintech firms and soroban/mental-math schools use the name — giving a small but genuine buyer pool. The applicant is a Beijing-based portfolio applicant with a published catalog of 323 submitted strings (verified), which by analogy with large portfolio plays suggests limited per-string marketing push, tempering adoption expectations. Main market uncertainty: whether Abacus-named software and finance brands would adopt a full-word TLD as a primary identity rather than a defensive or redirect registration, and whether Asian abacus-education demand translates into Latin-script domain purchases.