.aio
Is .aio a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
.aio is contested: 2 applications for it are on ICANN’s Reveal Day list, as of 7 October 2026. They are Te Kāhui Raraunga Charitable Trust and Cam Connecting SARL. Nepal Internet Foundation named .aio as a backup string for its .dns application. ICANN deactivated it, because another applicant applied for the same string or named it as a backup.
A short string that echoes .ai and .io and reads as "all-in-one", but it has no clear category of its own and a weak brand signal.
ai and software startups priced out of .ai and .io, "all-in-one" product and tool brands, and speculators chasing short three-letter strings
Named on the ICANN gTLD application list, 7 October 2026 as a replacement (backup) string of the applicant's .dns application, shown as deactivated: another applicant applied for the same string or named it as a backup
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 as .aio: a three-letter tech-industry initialism with no dictionary meaning, wagering that a fast-moving category's insiders will adopt the acronym itself as their primary identity before the acronym goes out of fashion.
Same bet in its registry economics rather than its semantics: a meaning-free three-character string whose entire value proposition is brevity and open supply, with the meaning supplied by whoever registers rather than by the word.
Also a short pronounceable non-word that only works if registrants decode it as shorthand for something, but it carries no sector claim at all, so it is the generic-shortness half of the .aio bet without the emerging-technology half.
What a .aio domain is
.aio is not a TLD yet. It is a string on our record of the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, filed under AI & tech. 2 applications for it are on ICANN’s Reveal Day list.
Is the .aio domain extension real yet?
.aio 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 .aio domain?
You can’t yet. ICANN publishes every applied-for string on Reveal Day, 7 October 2026 at 18:00 UTC. A .aio name can only be registered after that, once the string is delegated and its registry opens. Last round's closest parallel to .aio was .ott, delegated on 27 May 2016.
Is .aio a real TLD?
Not yet. .aio is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because .aio is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list of applied-for strings. Every entry on this page links to its source.
“CCS2640T-T19940 · Cam Connecting SARL · primary · contention set 2026-9 TKRC2583-T68712 · Te Kāhui Raraunga Charitable Trust · primary · contention set 2026-9”ICANN
“CCS2640T-T19940 · Cam Connecting SARL · primary · contention set 2026-9 NIF2590-T63192 · Nepal Internet Foundation · replacement string of .dns · Deactivated TKRC2583-T68712 · Te Kāhui Raraunga Charitable Trust · primary · contention set 2026-9”ICANN
- Band chosen: 30-49, usable but limited. The string's appeal is derivative: it visually combines .ai and .io, the two TLDs that have become identity defaults for AI and developer projects, and it carries the generic tech reading "all-in-one" (as in all-in-one coolers, printers and platforms). That gives it a plausible registration story for AI-adjacent startups that cannot get a short name on .ai or .io, and for product brands that want the all-in-one connotation. It is not in the 50-69 band because .aio names no category a serious project would use as its primary identity without explanation; by analogy (flagged as analogy) short abstract strings such as .xyz, .one and .ooo gained volume on price and promotion rather than on brand credibility, and their aftermarkets stayed thin outside a handful of names. It is not in the 10-29 band because, unlike a pure joke or event string, it has two sustained demand sources (AI spillover and the all-in-one product idiom), three-letter brevity, and a record of two confirmed applicants (Cam Connecting SARL and Te Kāhui Raraunga Charitable Trust, both in ICANN contention set 2026-9 per the ICANN Reveal Day list of 7 October 2026), which suggests more than one party sees commercial or community use for it. Registration counts, pricing and comparable sales for this string are unknown. Main market uncertainty: whether .aio inherits any of the price premium and seriousness of .ai, or whether users and search engines treat it as a typo of .ai or .io, which would cap it at defensive and speculative registrations over the next 5 years.