.config
Is .config a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
.config is contested: 2 applications for it are on ICANN’s Reveal Day list, as of 7 October 2026. They are NextGEN TLDs GmbH and Config.
A developer-flavored name that reads like a file extension: handy for config tools and docs, rarely a company's main address.
developer-tool vendors, infrastructure and configuration-management projects, dotfiles and settings-sharing communities, and tech brands wanting a settings or documentation address
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 clipped piece of engineering vocabulary with no consumer meaning, sold as professional identity to software people and tooling vendors rather than to a consumer category.
Same bet again: a software-lifecycle insider term whose value depends entirely on developers putting their infrastructure and tooling identity on a word only they use.
Also a short technical-artifact noun doubling as a filesystem/path convention, but it carries a far broader office-document audience than a pure engineering-settings word.
What a .config domain is
.config is not a TLD yet. It is a string on our record of the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, filed under AI & tech. 2 applications for it are on ICANN’s Reveal Day list.
Is the .config domain extension real yet?
.config 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 .config domain?
You can’t yet. ICANN publishes every applied-for string on Reveal Day, 7 October 2026 at 18:00 UTC. A .config name can only be registered after that, once the string is delegated and its registry opens. Last round's closest parallel to .config was .dev, delegated on 18 December 2014.
Is .config a real TLD?
Not yet. .config is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because .config is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list of applied-for strings. Every entry on this page links to its source.
“CRL2688T-T52382 · Config Registry LLC · primary · contention set 2026-47 NTG2671T-T15041 · NextGEN TLDs GmbH · primary · contention set 2026-47”ICANN
“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 instantly legible to developers because 'config' is everyday vocabulary for settings files and directories, so there is a plausible niche of configuration-management, infrastructure-as-code, dotfiles and developer-tool projects that could use a name.config address, and a second applicant on the record (two confirmed applications, contention set 2026-47) suggests more than one registry sees a market. It is not in the 50-69 band because the word reads more like a file extension or a product feature than a brand: a serious project would more likely use name.config as a secondary product, docs or settings endpoint than as its primary identity, and the aftermarket for such functional-suffix strings is thin by analogy with .systems, .tools and .network, which (by analogy) register on volume and price with modest resale. It is not in the 10-29 band because the demand is not event-driven or joke-based; developer-targeted strings such as .dev and .app (by analogy) showed that technical audiences do adopt descriptive suffixes when the registry courts them, and .config sits inside that durable audience even if it is narrower. A qualitative concern, not asserted as fact: 'config' is also a common filename and directory token on developer machines, which could make some developers hesitant to treat it as a web address. Main market uncertainty: whether any meaningful share of developer tooling adopts name.config as a primary identity rather than treating the string as a utility suffix for settings or documentation pages.