.ask
Is .ask a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
.ask is contested: 7 applications for it are on ICANN’s Reveal Day list, as of 7 October 2026. They are Suffix, GoDaddy Registry, Intercap, EchoStar, Google Registry, Aruba and ShortDot.
Who is applying, and what they run today
Seven of the eight already run TLDs, 14.72M names between them. Two run one of .ask's closest 2012 strings: Google Registry .how and Google Registry .search. Suffix runs none.
Will names sell?
A catchy question-and-answer ending for AI helpers and advice sites, but similar word endings have stayed small, so value is speculative.
Last round the AI scored the 2012 strings blind to their fate. Strings it scored 60 or more hold a median 27,168 names today; those under 30, a median of 30. .ask’s closest 2012 strings hold .search 1, .help 225K and .how 4K.
The nearest 2012 strings, and how many names each holds today
The closest 2012 string, .search, held 1 names, June 2026. .help held 225,417; .how held 3,596. Chosen by AI from every string in the 2012 round, without being told what happened to any of them.
Same bet: a single generic query-intent verb/noun that only pays off if a query-answering service can claim the whole act of asking as its identity, with the risk that the word is too universal for any one operator to own.
Same bet in usage shape: a plain service verb bought so any brand can hang a support/answers endpoint on it (acme.help / acme.ask), monetized as an open utility suffix rather than a category directory.
Same bet on an interrogative English function word whose value comes from framing a question-and-answer destination, betting that a non-noun grammatical fragment can carry a consumer-facing identity.
Where they meet elsewhere
GoDaddy Registry and Intercap face each other in 19 contests this round, .ask included.
- GoDaddy Registry × Intercap
- GoDaddy Registry × ShortDot
- Intercap × ShortDot
- ShortDot × Aruba
- Intercap × Google Registry
builders of AI assistants, Q&A products, and expert-advice brands who want a name that reads as a command, like doctor.ask; secondarily domain investors betting on an agent-era naming convention.
What a .ask domain is
.ask is not a TLD yet. It is a string on our record of the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, in our AI & tech category. 7 applications for it are on ICANN’s Reveal Day list.
Is the .ask domain extension real yet?
.ask 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 .ask domain?
You can’t yet. A .ask 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 .ask was .search, delegated on 29 June 2017.
Is .ask a real TLD?
Not yet. .ask is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because .ask is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list of applied-for strings. Every entry on this page links to its source.
- BestTLD Pty Ltd · now abandonedICANN
- 5 applicants · first recordedICANN
- 2 applicants · now confirmedICANN
- ShortDot · now announced
- Aruba · first recordedDomain Name Wire (Andrew Allemann), quoting Aruba S.p.A.
- ShortDot · first recordedShortDot (Ireland) Limited
- BestTLD Pty Ltd · first recordedDNForum
The source’s 7 linesHide the lines
APEC2611T-T29488 · Aruba PEC S.P.A. · primary · contention set 2026-17 CRRI2564-T61043 · Charleston Road Registry Inc. · primary · contention set 2026-17 EDCL2689T-T29879 · ECHO Domain Co L.L.C. · primary · contention set 2026-17 IRI2679T-T73736 · Intercap Registry Inc. · primary · contention set 2026-17 NA2626T-T63059 · ShortDot (Ireland) Limited · primary · contention set 2026-17 NA2631T-T95989 · Registry Services, LLC · primary · contention set 2026-17 SI2639T-T44584 · Suffix Inc. · primary · contention set 2026-17
“Aruba S.p.A., which operates the .cloud top level domain, is expanding its domain portfolio. The company told Domain Name Wire that it applied for 39 top level domains in this year's new TLD round. That number includes replacement strings. [...] The company applied for the following strings as primary or replacement: aid, all, ask, beta, bit, bnb, cart, ciao, daily, demo, easy, fix, gaming, gen, genius, gym, happy, hello, hola, human, kit, lab, mars, max, moon, omg, pec, pop, rem, roma, sign, sito, super, tag, tex, vps, yes, zen, zzz”Domain Name Wire (Andrew Allemann), quoting Aruba S.p.A.
“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
“Cyril Frémont, CEO at web.best and .Best, has publicly revealed 10 proposed top-level domain applications for ICANN's 2026 new gTLD round.”DNForum
- Band chosen: 30-49, usable but limited. The string is a common English verb with a clean semantic hook: the announced example, doctor.ask, shows the intended verb-object hack where the second level names the expert and the TLD names the action. That pattern is legible and pairs naturally with the AI-assistant wave, which is why this sits in the applicant's AI cluster. It is not in the 50-69 band because there is no observed sustained demand for the string yet, and the closest live analogies (question/answer and instructional word endings such as .how, .help, .wiki, and .quest, judged qualitatively from analogy since registration figures are unknown here) have broadly failed to become primary identities; serious Q&A and assistant products have tended to brand on .com or .ai instead. It is above the 10-29 band because the string is a genuine dictionary verb with a concrete, demonstrable use pattern rather than a joke or event-driven novelty, and an AI-agent boom over the next 5 years could plausibly generate steady low-volume registrations from assistant builders. Applicant context, stated neutrally from the verified facts: the applicant is BestTLD Pty Ltd, which has operated .best (IANA-delegated 2014, run as a live namespace per the operator since 2018), with CentralNic as technical backend; an experienced operator and established backend modestly raise the odds of competent go-to-market, informing adoption likelihood only. Main market uncertainty: whether AI-agent addressing ever converges on human-readable verb domains at all, or whether discovery stays inside app stores, model providers, and chat platforms, leaving no naming layer for .ask to occupy.