.compass
Is .compass a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
Nobody is chasing .compass, as of 7 October 2026. One applicant claimed it and is out. We keep the entry on the record either way.
- Journey To The West
A pleasant guidance metaphor, but few serious projects would make .compass their main address; expect vanity and side-project use.
coaching, advisory, navigation and outdoor brands that use "compass" as a guidance metaphor, plus companies already named Compass wanting a name-matching vanity address
In Journey To The West's published portfolio of 323 strings submitted in the ICANN 2026 round. Their catalog line: “The invention that pointed the world toward exploration.”
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: an everyday English noun whose value is figurative orientation rather than a trade category, so it has no natural registrant community and must be sold as an aspirational identity space to anyone signaling "we help you find your way."
Also a single generic navigation-instrument noun bought as a wayfinding metaphor, with the same problem that the literal object supports almost no commerce, though "map" has a live software meaning giving it a concrete registrant base .compass lacks.
Same hybrid bet: a short abstract metaphor noun with no owning industry that is simultaneously the primary identity of several large unrelated companies, so it must work either as an open aspirational namespace or as a contested corporate claim.
What a .compass domain is
.compass is not a TLD yet. It is a string on our record of the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, filed under Brand. Nobody is chasing .compass today. The applicants that claimed it are out.
Is the .compass domain extension real yet?
.compass 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 .compass domain?
You can’t yet. A .compass 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 .compass was .guide, delegated on 15 May 2014.
Is .compass a real TLD?
Not yet. .compass is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because an applicant claimed .compass and is no longer in it. We keep the entry, and every entry on this page links to its source.
- Journey To The West · now abandonedICANN
- Journey To The West · first recordedJourney To The West Corporation
“.compass · Invention & Heritage · “The invention that pointed the world toward exploration.””Journey To The West Corporation
- I place .compass in the 10-29 vanity/narrow band, at its top. The word carries genuine positive resonance (direction, guidance, exploration, and the heritage framing in the applicant's catalog), and many real businesses use Compass in their names, which keeps it out of the 1-9 no-market band. But by analogy with metaphorical single-word gTLDs like .guru and .coach — which drew early curiosity registrations yet little sustained primary-identity use or aftermarket depth — .compass lacks any category where it would be the expected choice, so it does not reach the 30-49 usable-at-volume band; most name-matched companies would treat it as a defensive or vanity add-on to a .com. The applicant is one of 323 strings in a published portfolio, a fact that suggests per-TLD marketing attention will be spread thin, which informs adoption likelihood neutrally. Main market uncertainty: whether companies actually branded Compass adopt exact-brand addresses on it as primary identities, which would pull it toward the band above.