.collective
Is .collective a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
.collective is contested: 2 applicants have said publicly that they applied to run it, as of 27 August 2026. They are Radix and Link Freedom Group.
A warm word for groups and co-ops, but most will still explain the address; expect steady small demand, not a standard.
artist collectives, worker co-ops, creative studios, community groups, and web3/DAO projects that brand around shared ownership and want the group idea in the name itself
In LFG's published list of 300+ strings submitted before the ICANN window closed on 2026-08-12. Their catalog tagline: “Strength in numbers.”
One of 46 ICANN 2026-round applications Radix announced on its own applications page. Radix states it intends to build and operate each TLD it wins.
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 soft collective-noun for a self-organized body of people, sold as the primary identity of the group itself rather than of a company or a topic.
Same bet: an entity-form noun that a set of people or businesses adopts as its own name suffix, monetizing the desire to look like one organization made of many.
Same bet of a collective noun standing in for a company name, but skews toward sports squads and internal work units rather than the co-owned creative or member-run organization .collective implies.
What a .collective domain is
.collective is not a TLD yet. It is a string on our record of the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, filed under Culture. 2 applicants have said publicly that they applied for .collective.
Is the .collective domain extension real yet?
.collective 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 .collective domain?
You can’t yet. ICANN publishes every applied-for string on Reveal Day, 7 October 2026 at 18:00 UTC. A .collective name can only be registered after that, once the string is delegated and its registry opens. Last round's closest parallel to .collective was .community, delegated on .
Is .collective a real TLD?
Not yet. .collective is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because an applicant said publicly that it applied for .collective in the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round. Every claim on this page links to its source.
- Radix · first recordedRadix
- Link Freedom Group · first recordedLink Freedom Group
“Radix has applied for these TLDs; we do not own or operate them today.”Radix
“.collective · Lifestyle · “Strength in numbers.””Link Freedom Group
“LFG voluntarily published its full list of submissions ahead of ICANN’s official Reveal Day.”PR Newswire (Link Freedom Group)
“Top level domain registry Link Freedom Group (LFG) has disclosed more than 300 strings submitted as part of the ICANN new top level domain name program.”Domain Name Wire (Andrew Allemann)
- Band chosen: 30-49 (usable but limited). The string is a real, positively-coded English word with a clear semantic fit for co-ops, artist groups, unions, mutual-aid orgs, and DAO-style projects, so genuine primary-identity registrations are plausible over the next 5 years. But it is a long string (ten letters right of the dot), the buyer pool is diffuse and mostly low-budget, and by analogy with descriptive community-flavored TLDs such as .community, .group, and .team (analogy, exact volumes unknown), such strings tend to see modest registration bases, heavy defensive/hobby use, and thin aftermarkets rather than category-standard status. It is not in the 50-69 band because there is no single major vertical where a .collective address is the expected default that sustains resale demand; it is above the 10-29 band because the word carries real brand warmth and identity-fit for its buyers, so registrations are more than vanity or event-driven. Applicant context: the string was announced by Link Freedom Group, which filed more than 300 strings in the ICANN 2026 round, categorized as Lifestyle with the tagline 'Strength in numbers.'; a large-portfolio applicant suggests broad-availability retail positioning rather than a restricted community registry, which is neutral-to-mildly-positive for volume but does not by itself create category-standard demand. Main market uncertainty: whether the co-op/DAO/creator-collective wave produces enough well-funded projects that choose a descriptive TLD as primary identity, versus defaulting to .com, .xyz, or .org as similar groups often have (analogy).