.assist
Is .assist a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
Nobody has applied for .assist in its own right, as of 7 October 2026. Starlight (Namecheap) named .assist as a backup string for its .kit application. ICANN deactivated it, because another applicant applied for the same string or named it as a backup. Starlight (Namecheap) named .assist as a backup string for its .aid application. ICANN deactivated it, because another applicant applied for the same string or named it as a backup.
A plain English word that fits help desks and AI assistants, but it reads awkwardly as an address and .ai already owns that space.
builders of AI assistant and agent products, customer-support and help-desk vendors, and service businesses that want a help-flavoured address
No applications recorded for this TLD yet.
Named on the ICANN gTLD application list, 7 October 2026 as a replacement (backup) string of the applicant's .aid application, shown as deactivated: another applicant applied for the same string or named it as a backup
Named on the ICANN gTLD application list, 7 October 2026 as a replacement (backup) string of the applicant's .kit 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.
Identical bet: a bare English service verb/noun that nobody owns, sold on the premise that any company's customer-service or self-help destination wants to live on the word for what it does rather than under its own brand.
Same bet in the same semantic slot — an abstract assistance noun whose buyers are help-desk, warranty and service operations putting a functional subdomain (not their primary identity) on the word, so value depends on enterprises adopting a second namespace alongside their .com.
Also a short, unowned abstract service noun bought by providers of help to people, but it carries a strong healthcare pull that narrows and anchors the buyer pool, where "assist" stays sector-neutral.
What a .assist domain is
.assist is not a TLD yet. It is a string on our record of the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, filed under AI & tech. Nobody has applied for .assist in its own right. It is named on ICANN’s list as part of an application for another string.
Is the .assist domain extension real yet?
.assist 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 .assist domain?
You can’t yet. ICANN publishes every applied-for string on Reveal Day, 7 October 2026 at 18:00 UTC. A .assist name can only be registered after that, once the string is delegated and its registry opens. Last round's closest parallel to .assist was .help, delegated on 16 August 2014.
Is .assist a real TLD?
Not yet. .assist is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because ICANN’s list names .assist as part of an application for another string. Every entry on this page links to its source.
“AEI2688T-T61051 · Adhara Exploration, Inc. · replacement string of .aid · Deactivated GEI2639T-T18440 · Gacrux Exploration, Inc · replacement string of .kit · Deactivated”ICANN
- Band chosen: 30-49, usable but limited, at the low end. The string is a common English word with two live meanings: human help (support desks, concierge, care services) and the current wave of AI assistants and agents, so there is a plausible buyer group and registrations could come at volume if the wholesale price is low. It is not in the 50-69 band because 'assist' is a verb or noun that does not pair naturally with a left-of-dot brand ('acme.assist' reads like a sentence fragment rather than an identity), the AI-assistant buyer already treats .ai as the recognised default and would need to explain a .assist choice, and the support-desk buyer typically lives on a subdomain of the parent brand rather than on a separate TLD. It is not in the 10-29 band because the word is serious, non-joke and category-relevant to a growing product class, and comparable help-flavoured strings have sustained real, if modest, registration bases. By analogy (flagged as analogy, no figures asserted): .help and .support launched in the 2012 round as generic help-themed strings and settled into low-volume, price-sensitive use with thin aftermarkets and few primary identities; .assist most resembles those outcomes, with a possible modest uplift from AI-agent naming over the next five years. On the record, both applications for the string came from Namecheap entities as replacement strings for .aid and .kit and are now deactivated; assuming the TLD is delegated and generally available, that history only tells us that no committed operator-specific adoption plan is recorded. Main market uncertainty: whether 'assist' becomes a common product-naming suffix for AI agents over the next five years (which would lift it toward the strong-niche band) or whether .ai and brand subdomains absorb essentially all of that demand (which would leave it near vanity levels).