.cert
Is .cert a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
.cert is not contested. One application for it is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list, as of 7 October 2026. It is NextGEN TLDs GmbH.
A clear, short word for certification and security teams, but most likely used for verification pages and defensive names, not main brands.
certification bodies, training providers and credential-verification services, plus security response teams and TLS/PKI vendors who want a short address for a verify-or-status page
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 bare generic noun for a credential itself, wagering that the bodies which issue credentials and the people who hold them will put their primary identity on the proof rather than on their own name.
Also a credential word owned by no single issuer, but it names one fixed attainment held by individuals, so the registrant base is holders displaying a qualification rather than the open issuer-and-holder market a generic attestation noun implies.
The adjacent bet on an abstract assurance noun that only pays off if a visitor reads the string itself as a guarantee about the site, the same mechanism a certification word depends on, except it vouches for the registrant's character instead of a specific verified claim.
What a .cert domain is
.cert 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 .cert domain extension real yet?
.cert 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 .cert domain?
You can’t yet. ICANN publishes every applied-for string on Reveal Day, 7 October 2026 at 18:00 UTC. A .cert name can only be registered after that, once the string is delegated and its registry opens. Last round's closest parallel to .cert was .degree, delegated on 30 May 2014.
Is .cert a real TLD?
Not yet. .cert is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because .cert is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list of applied-for strings. Every entry on this page links to its source.
- NextGEN TLDs GmbH · first recordedICANN
“GEL2647T-T15541 · Glass Emotion, LLC · primary · contention set 2026-116 NSL2674T-T66583 · NAME SPACE LLC · primary · contention set 2026-116 NTG2671T-T35907 · NextGEN TLDs GmbH · replacement string of .tkns · Deactivated XL2625T-T36661 · XYZ.COM LLC · replacement string of .dao · Deactivated”ICANN
- Band chosen: 30-49 (usable but limited). The string is a short, unambiguous English abbreviation with two real meanings: professional certification/credentials and the security sense (computer emergency response teams, TLS certificates). That gives genuine end-use for verification portals (a credential-check page, a certificate-status page) and for training or exam providers, which keeps it above the 10-29 band: it is not a joke or event-driven string, and some serious organisations would plausibly run a secondary identity on it. It is not in the 50-69 band because the best-fit buyers already have strong identities elsewhere: certification bodies and government security teams tend to keep their primary address on an established namespace and would treat a .cert name as a companion or defensive registration, so sustained primary-identity use is unlikely over the next 5 years. By analogy (flagged as analogy), existing professional and education strings such as .training, .academy, .expert and .education have found steady but modest registration bases and thin aftermarkets, and a narrower abbreviation like .cert should land at or below that pattern. Operator fact from the record, stated neutrally: one confirmed application by NextGEN TLDs GmbH, with .trail recorded as a replacement string naming .cert as primary; a single applicant with no recorded category tag suggests adoption will depend on how actively the string is marketed to certification and security buyers. Main market uncertainty: whether verification-page use ("verify your credential at name.cert") becomes a recognisable convention, which would lift utility toward the upper end of the band, or whether the string is read mainly as the security-team sense and sees only defensive demand. Registration volume, pricing and launch dates are unknown.