.big
Is .big a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
.big is contested: 4 applications for it are on ICANN’s Reveal Day list, as of 7 October 2026. They are Intercap, ShortDot, Endpoint Domains and Link Freedom Group.
Who is applying, and what they run today
Two of the four already run TLDs, 4.56M names between them. Endpoint Domains and Link Freedom Group run none.
Will names sell?
A fun, boastful web address suited to playful brands and marketing pages; few serious projects would make it their main identity.
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. .big’s closest 2012 strings hold .best 54K, .top 7.43M and .hot 1K.
The nearest 2012 strings, and how many names each holds today
The closest 2012 string, .best, held 54,475 names, June 2026. .top held 7,433,320; .hot held 1,185. Chosen by AI from every string in the 2012 round, without being told what happened to any of them.
Same bet as .big: a bare English quality adjective with no category boundary, sold as an open mass-market suffix whose value depends entirely on registrants wanting a superlative modifier hanging off their brand rather than a defined vertical.
A three-letter, universally understood superlative adjective with no industry to anchor it — the identical wager that cheap, punchy, meaning-flexible descriptors will get adopted at volume rather than by any particular buyer segment.
Another short attitude adjective playing the same left-of-dot-completes-the-phrase game, though it leans connotative and adult-adjacent where .big leans toward scale and ambition, so the buyer mix differs somewhat.
Where they meet elsewhere
Link Freedom Group and Intercap face each other in 31 contests this round, .big included.
- Link Freedom Group × Intercap
- Link Freedom Group × ShortDot
- Intercap × ShortDot
- Link Freedom Group × Endpoint Domains
- ShortDot × Endpoint Domains
marketers, fitness, food, and entertainment brands wanting a boast built into the name, plus campaign and landing-page builders; bulk registrants if pricing is aggressive
What a .big domain is
.big is not a TLD yet. It is a string on our record of the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, in our Brand category. 4 applications for it are on ICANN’s Reveal Day list.
Is the .big domain extension real yet?
.big 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 .big domain?
You can’t yet. A .big 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 .big was .best, delegated on 27 February 2014.
Is .big a real TLD?
Not yet. .big is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because .big is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list of applied-for strings. Every entry on this page links to its source.
- Intercap · first recordedICANN
- 3 applicants · now confirmedICANN
- ShortDot · now announced
- ShortDot · first recordedShortDot (Ireland) Limited
- Endpoint Domains · first recordedDomain Name Wire (Andrew Allemann)
- Link Freedom Group · first recordedLink Freedom Group
The source’s 4 linesHide the lines
EDI2665T-T67966 · Endpoint Domains, Inc. · primary · contention set 2026-24 IRI2679T-T89574 · Intercap Registry Inc. · primary · contention set 2026-24 LFGL2683T-T47463 · Link Freedom Group Ltd · primary · contention set 2026-24 NA2626T-T98630 · ShortDot (Ireland) Limited · primary · contention set 2026-24
“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
“Each of these is a primary application. Plus additional applications to be revealed.”Endpoint Domains, Inc.
“The company says the applications are fully paid.”Domain Name Wire (Andrew Allemann)
“.big · Lifestyle · “Make your presence impossible to ignore.””Link Freedom Group
- Band chosen: 30-49 (usable but limited), at its floor. The string is a short, universally understood positive adjective, which supports two realistic demand modes over the next 5 years: price-driven volume registrations and occasional brand-suffix use (name.big as a punchy marketing identity). That puts it above the 10-29 vanity band, where demand is mostly event-driven or joke registrations; a generic superlative adjective has broader, steadier low-grade appeal than a pure novelty string. It stays below the 50-69 niche band because there is no category in which .big is the unexplained default: 'big' modifies rather than names a vertical, so adoption as a primary identity would need explaining in essentially every use case, and the aftermarket for adjective TLDs has, by analogy with comparable superlative/adjective strings, tended to be thin outside a handful of dictionary-word pairings. By analogy, adjective and superlative TLDs from the prior expansion round mostly settled into discount-volume or dormant patterns rather than sustained primary-identity use, while the rarer successes were driven by aggressive regional promotion rather than the string's own pull; whether .big gets that promotional push is unknown. Applicant facts are neutral context: the applicant filed a very large portfolio of strings, so per-string marketing investment is unknown and cannot be assumed either way. Main market uncertainty: whether registrars and the registry position .big as a deep-discount volume play or a boutique brand-suffix product; the string can plausibly support either, and the two paths land at very different points within this band.