.association
Is .association a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
Nobody has applied for .association in its own right, as of 7 October 2026. XYZ named .association as the replacement string of its .war application.
A clear word for trade and professional groups, but .org already owns that identity, so expect modest, explain-it-first adoption.
trade, professional and member associations (and the agencies that build their sites) wanting a descriptive address when the matching .org is taken
No applications recorded for this TLD yet.
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 generic legal/organizational-form noun sold to the entity itself, where the buyer's institutional identity (not a product or topic) sits on the right of the dot, and the registry's value depends on member bodies treating the form-word as more authoritative than .org.
Same bet in its purest form — a word that names a category of member/mission organization and is claimed as primary identity by the sector it names, with credibility resting on who is allowed to register rather than on how many names exist.
Also an institution-type noun bought by the organization it describes, but it is pulled toward research bodies and for-profit training brands, so the buyer pool is less exclusively the membership-body one that .association addresses.
What a .association domain is
.association is not a TLD yet. It is a string on our record of the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, filed under Other. Nobody has applied for .association in its own right. It is named on ICANN’s list as part of an application for another string.
Is the .association domain extension real yet?
.association 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 .association domain?
You can’t yet. ICANN publishes every applied-for string on Reveal Day, 7 October 2026 at 18:00 UTC. A .association name can only be registered after that, once the string is delegated and its registry opens. Last round's closest parallel to .association was .foundation, delegated on 11 February 2014.
Is .association a real TLD?
Not yet. .association is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because ICANN’s list names .association as part of an application for another string. Every entry on this page links to its source.
- XYZ · first recordedICANN
- Band chosen: 30-49, usable but limited. The string is a real, serious category descriptor with a large global buyer pool (trade bodies, professional societies, member clubs) and partial cross-language recognition, so some genuine primary-identity use is plausible; that keeps it out of the 10-29 vanity band. It does not reach 50-69 because the category already has an entrenched default (.org, plus .ngo-style strings) that associations choose without explanation, and the string is long to type and say, which by analogy with other long descriptive generics (.foundation, .international, .community) tends to produce low-volume, price-driven registrations and a thin aftermarket rather than sustained demand. The record shows one applicant, XYZ.COM LLC, filed as a replacement for .war (the applicant's other recorded strings are stated neutrally and not used to score the string); by analogy with that operator's portfolio approach, distribution through broad registrar channels is likely, which supports volume on price more than brand strength. Contention count on the record is 0, so no demand signal from competing applicants. Main market uncertainty: whether any meaningful share of associations will adopt a new descriptive TLD as primary identity rather than keep or acquire a .org, and whether registrar pricing lands low enough to drive defensive and secondary-site registrations at volume.