.acc
Is .acc a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
.acc is not contested. One applicant has said publicly that it applied to run it, and nobody else has, as of 15 August 2026. It is Link Freedom Group.
A vague shorthand: some appeal to 'accelerate'-branded AI startups and accounting wordplay, but rarely a serious main web address.
AI startups and communities that brand around 'acc' as shorthand for acceleration, plus a smaller pool of accounting or account-management tools wanting a compact suffix; mostly a secondary or vanity registration rather than a primary identity.
In LFG's published list of 300+ strings submitted before the ICANN window closed on 2026-08-12. Their catalog tagline: “Move faster, leave limits behind.”
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 on a short, unowned trade abbreviation in the accounting/finance orbit that practitioners already use as shorthand identity, so the registry's value rests on professional recognition of three letters rather than on a self-explaining word.
Same structural bet: an ownerless three-letter abbreviation sold as an open namespace whose entire worth depends on the audience silently expanding the acronym correctly, with no brand owner underwriting the meaning.
Same wager that a habitual business contraction can carry a company's primary identity, where the registry sells familiarity with an abbreviation rather than a category noun buyers would actually search for.
What a .acc domain is
.acc is not a TLD yet. It is a string on our record of the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, filed under AI & tech. One applicant has said publicly that it applied for .acc.
Is the .acc domain extension real yet?
.acc is not yet a domain extension you can register: nothing resolves under it, and no registrar sells names in it. It is a string applicants have put forward in the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, the process that decides whether it becomes one.
When can you buy a .acc domain?
You can’t yet. ICANN publishes every applied-for string on Reveal Day, 7 October 2026 at 18:00 UTC. A .acc name can only be registered after that, once the string is delegated and its registry opens. Last round's closest parallel to .acc was .cpa, delegated on .
Is .acc a real TLD?
Not yet. .acc is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because an applicant said publicly that it applied for .acc in the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round. Every claim on this page links to its source.
- Link Freedom Group · first recordedLink Freedom Group
“.acc · AI & Tech · “Move faster, leave limits behind.””Link Freedom Group
“LFG voluntarily published its full list of submissions ahead of ICANN’s official Reveal Day.”PR Newswire (Link Freedom Group)
“Top level domain registry Link Freedom Group (LFG) has disclosed more than 300 strings submitted as part of the ICANN new top level domain name program.”Domain Name Wire (Andrew Allemann)
- Band 10-29 (vanity/narrow). The string has no single dominant meaning: it can read as 'accelerate' (the accelerationist 'acc' idiom in AI circles), 'account', 'accounting', or a sports-conference abbreviation, and that ambiguity dilutes the brand signal a TLD needs to become a default. By analogy, longer accounting-targeted TLDs have seen registrations without meaningful primary-identity adoption, and short abbreviation TLDs without an obvious expansion have tended to fill with speculative or defensive registrations rather than serious end-use; that is an inference from analogy, not a measured fact (specific volumes unknown). The accelerationist reading gives it a real but culture-driven pocket of demand among AI-adjacent projects over the next 5 years, which is why it clears the 1-9 band, but that demand is meme-adjacent and could fade with the idiom. It does not reach 30-49 because there is no credible path to volume or price-driven registration at scale nor a clear buyer group that would treat it as a natural home; the applicant's own 'AI & Tech' framing and 'move faster' tagline lean on the accelerationist reading, which supports intent but not demonstrated demand. Main market uncertainty: whether the 'acc' acceleration idiom persists as a naming convention among funded AI companies over the next 5 years or decays as slang, which would collapse the best-fit buyer group.