.automation
Is .automation a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
.automation is not contested. One application for it is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list, as of 7 October 2026. It is XYZ. Radix named .automation as a backup string for its .bit application. ICANN deactivated it, because another applicant applied for the same string or named it as a backup.
A meaningful keyword for a booming field, but the long string means most automation companies will brand elsewhere and resale stays thin.
industrial and software automation vendors, RPA and AI-agent tool builders, smart-home and IoT integrators wanting a descriptive address, plus corporates registering defensively
In Journey To The West's published portfolio of 323 strings submitted in the ICANN 2026 round. Their catalog line: “Letting machines handle the repetitive work.”
Named on the ICANN gTLD application list, 7 October 2026 as a replacement (backup) string of the applicant's .bit 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 exactly: an abstract mass-noun naming a technical practice rather than a product, sold to B2B vendors and consultancies who would hang a descriptive corporate identity on it, and it works only if that industry treats the practice-word as a credible category badge.
Same buyer and same naming grammar — the integrator/industrial-vendor class that already calls itself 'Acme Systems' would call itself 'acme.automation' for identical reasons, both strings depending on B2B firms adopting an industry descriptor as their primary address.
Also a generic abstract industry noun aimed at tech-sector companies using it as a descriptor, but it is the umbrella term with far broader and vaguer registrant appeal, making it a mass-market keyword bet where .automation is a narrower vertical-practice bet.
What a .automation domain is
.automation is not a TLD yet. It is a string on our record of the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, filed under AI & tech. One application for it is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list.
Is the .automation domain extension real yet?
.automation 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 .automation domain?
You can’t yet. A .automation 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 .automation was .analytics, delegated on 21 December 2015.
Is .automation a real TLD?
Not yet. .automation is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because .automation is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list of applied-for strings. Every entry on this page links to its source.
- Radix · first recordedICANN
- Journey To The West · now abandonedICANN
- XYZ · first recordedICANN
- Journey To The West · first recordedJourney To The West Corporation
“RTIS2674T-T37415 · Radix Technologies Inc SEZC · replacement string of .bit · Deactivated XL2625T-T74498 · XYZ.COM LLC · primary”ICANN
“.automation · Energy & Mobility · “Letting machines handle the repetitive work.””Journey To The West Corporation
- I place .automation in the 30-49 band (usable but limited). The word itself is commercially hot — RPA, AI agents, industrial and home automation are all growing buyer pools — so registrations at volume or on price are plausible, which keeps it above the 10-29 vanity band. But by analogy with long descriptive keyword TLDs like .technology, .solutions, and .systems, which achieved volume without becoming primary-identity defaults or developing real aftermarkets, a ten-character suffix rarely wins as a serious brand's main address against shorter incumbents (.com, .ai, .io) — that keeps it below the 50-69 strong-niche band, which requires genuine sustained primary-identity use. The applicant is a portfolio filer (323 submitted strings, per the verified facts), stated neutrally: portfolio-scale operation gives no specific signal of category-focused marketing investment, so I assume standard open-registration dynamics. Main market uncertainty: whether the AI-agent wave pushes automation startups toward descriptive TLD identities at all, or whether that demand keeps consolidating on .ai — the former could lift this toward the top of its band.