.api
Is .api a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
.api is contested: 2 applicants have said publicly that they applied to run it, as of 9 September 2026. They are ShortDot and Link Freedom Group.
A natural home for developer tools and API products; strong meaning for a technical crowd, but most companies keep APIs on their main domain.
developer-tool vendors, API-first startups, and platform teams who want a memorable address for docs, endpoints, or a developer-facing product identity
In LFG's published list of 300+ strings submitted before the ICANN window closed on 2026-08-12. Their catalog tagline: “Build, connect, and create more.”
One of the 80 strings ShortDot published for the ICANN 2026 round. ShortDot states it has submitted 40 applications, but publishes the 80 strings without revealing which 40 are applications and which 40 are designated replacements. The submission claim is therefore applicant-level, not string-level: nothing in the source says ShortDot applied for THIS string. Catalogued, not announced.
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: a piece of developer jargon shorthand that already lives as a hostname label, opened as a namespace on the wager that software builders will pay to put their engineering identity on the vocabulary of their own craft.
Same bet in a more consumer-facing register: a short generic noun for the thing software people ship, aimed at every company with a technical product rather than at any single industry or brand.
Also a generic infrastructure noun sold to the platform/vendor cohort, but it names a delivery model buyers market to customers rather than a technical artifact engineers point machines at, so the identity it carries is broader and softer.
What a .api domain is
.api is not a TLD yet. It is a string on our record of the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, filed under AI & tech. 2 applicants have said publicly that they applied for .api.
Is the .api domain extension real yet?
.api 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 .api domain?
You can’t yet. ICANN publishes every applied-for string on Reveal Day, 7 October 2026 at 18:00 UTC. A .api name can only be registered after that, once the string is delegated and its registry opens. Last round's closest parallel to .api was .dev, delegated on .
Is .api a real TLD?
Not yet. .api is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because an applicant said publicly that it applied for .api in the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round. Every claim on this page links to its source.
- ShortDot · now announced
- ShortDot · first recordedShortDot (Ireland) Limited
- Link Freedom Group · first recordedLink Freedom Group
“ShortDot (Ireland) Limited has submitted 40 applications to ICANN's 2026 New gTLD Program. The 80 strings shown include applied-for and designated replacement strings across ShortDot's 40 ICANN applications, presented without revealing their status or pairing.”ShortDot (Ireland) Limited
“.api · AI & Tech · “Build, connect, and create more.””Link Freedom Group
“The company just disclosed its 40 applications and 40 replacement strings.”Domain Name Wire
“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: strong niche (50-69). The string is one of the most load-bearing words in modern software: nearly every SaaS, AI, and infrastructure product exposes an API, and the api subdomain is already an entrenched convention on second-level domains, which means the semantic fit is immediate and needs no education inside the developer audience. By analogy (flagged as such), developer-oriented TLDs like .dev and .io show that a technical audience will adopt a well-matched string for primary identity, and .app shows a generic tech string can sustain broad registration demand; .api is narrower than any of those because it names a component of a product rather than the product itself, so its most natural use over the next 5 years is developer-portal, documentation, and endpoint addresses rather than the company's front door. It is not in the category-standard band (70-89) because no primary-identity default exists yet for this string and its aftermarket is unproven; the dominant convention it competes with (api.yourbrand on an existing domain) is free and already universal, so adoption needs explaining even to its best-fit buyer. It is above the usable-but-limited band (30-49) because demand would not be purely price-driven: the buyer pool of API-first companies is large, growing with the AI wave, and the string carries a genuine credibility signal to a technical audience, supporting real primary-identity use for developer tools and short, brandable name.api combinations. Main market uncertainty: whether API-first companies treat a .api address as a primary developer identity or merely as a redirect/vanity layer over their existing subdomain convention, which decides if an aftermarket forms.