.con
Is .con a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
.con is contested: 4 applications for it are on ICANN’s Reveal Day list, as of 7 October 2026. They are XYZ Registry, iRegistry, .top (Zhongze) and Link Freedom Group.
Who is applying, and what they run today
Three of the four already run TLDs, 19.39M names between them. Link Freedom Group runs none.
Will names sell?
Reads as a .com typo and as slang for a scam; fan conventions are the one real use, so most demand stays defensive or novelty.
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. .con’s closest 2012 strings hold .xn--j1aef 2 and .sucks 9K.
The nearest 2012 strings, and how many names each holds today
The closest 2012 string, .ком, held 2 names, June 2026. .sucks held 9,055. Chosen by AI from every string in the 2012 round, without being told what happened to any of them.
Same bet as .con's dominant one — a string with almost no independent meaning of its own whose entire demand comes from being read as "com," sold as a mass-market general-purpose registry riding borrowed .com recognition rather than anything a registrant would choose for its own sense.
- .ecom
A Latin-script one-syllable derivative of "com" whose value proposition is proximity to the incumbent plus a vague commerce reading, aimed at the same undifferentiated open-registration buyer .con would chase, though "ecom" at least carries a real meaning "con" does not.
Captures the other half of .con's economics — a short English word with a pejorative meaning that nobody puts a primary identity on, so the revenue model is defensive/blocking registration by brands rather than genuine end-user adoption; the mechanism (bad meaning vs. lookalike confusion) differs, which is why it is only a partial parallel.
Where they meet elsewhere
XYZ Registry and Link Freedom Group face each other in 49 contests this round, .con included.
- Link Freedom Group × XYZ Registry
- Link Freedom Group × .top (Zhongze)
- XYZ Registry × .top (Zhongze)
convention and conference organizers (fan cons, expos, meetups) wanting a name-dot-con identity, plus brand owners registering defensively against .com typos
What a .con domain is
.con is not a TLD yet. It is a string on our record of the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, in our Culture category. 4 applications for it are on ICANN’s Reveal Day list.
Is the .con domain extension real yet?
.con 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 .con domain?
You can’t yet. A .con 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 .con was .ком, delegated on 28 July 2015.
Is .con a real TLD?
Not yet. .con is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because .con is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list of applied-for strings. Every entry on this page links to its source.
- 3 applicants · first recordedICANN
- Link Freedom Group · now confirmedICANN
- Link Freedom Group · first recordedLink Freedom Group
The source’s 4 linesHide the lines
IG2663T-T46205 · iRegistry GmbH · primary · contention set 2026-46 LFGL2683T-T50858 · Link Freedom Group Ltd · primary · contention set 2026-46 NPL2622T-T30875 · NETDREAM PTE. LTD. · primary · contention set 2026-46 XL2625T-T48604 · XYZ.COM LLC · primary · contention set 2026-46
“.con · Lifestyle · “The hub for big thinkers.””Link Freedom Group
- Band 10-29 (vanity/narrow). The string carries two structural handicaps over the next 5 years: it is a single-letter neighbor of .com, so any serious project using it as a primary identity leaks traffic and invites phishing suspicion, and in English 'con' is common slang for a swindle, which is close to the worst possible trust signal for a web address. The one genuine positive is the convention/fandom naming pattern, where 'con' is an established suffix for events, giving a plausible pocket of real, if event-driven, use. It is not in the 30-49 band because the brand signal is actively negative rather than merely weak, and spam filters, security tooling, and user instinct are likely to treat .con links with suspicion, suppressing sustained volume beyond defensive and novelty registrations. It is not in the 1-9 band because the convention niche plus typo-defensive demand from .com holders is a realistic, nonzero market. LFG's stated positioning ('Lifestyle', 'The hub for big thinkers') suggests a general-lifestyle framing rather than the convention angle; whether the operator leans into events is unknown. Main market uncertainty: whether major convention brands would adopt name.con as a primary identity at all, or treat it as a redirect gimmick while keeping .com as canonical, and how aggressively security vendors and mail filters penalize the extension once phishing use appears.