.consult
Is .consult a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
.consult is contested: 2 applications for it are on ICANN’s Reveal Day list, as of 7 October 2026. They are Identity Digital and Intercap. Squarespace named .consult as a backup string for its .firm application. ICANN deactivated it, because another applicant applied for the same string or named it as a backup.
A clear, short word for advisors and consultancies, but an older sibling TLD already serves that niche with modest uptake.
independent consultants, boutique advisory firms and professional-services practices wanting a short descriptive web address, plus firms grabbing a brand-match defensively
Named on the ICANN gTLD application list, 7 October 2026 as a replacement (backup) string of the applicant's .firm application, shown as deactivated: another applicant applied for the same string or named it as a backup
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 in a longer form of the same word: an open generic for advisory firms and solo practitioners to put their primary identity on, where value depends on a fragmented profession with no single owner adopting a label it already uses about itself.
Also a self-applied professional-credibility noun sold to the same fragmented buyer of independent advisors, but it is a claim about the person rather than the name of the service being sold, so the registrant's identity sits one step further from the work.
The adjacent generic discipline noun bought by the same professional-services firms, but it is broad enough to also attract property, asset and IT-management operators, diluting the single-profession identity bet that .consult makes.
What a .consult domain is
.consult is not a TLD yet. It is a string on our record of the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, filed under Commerce. 2 applications for it are on ICANN’s Reveal Day list.
Is the .consult domain extension real yet?
.consult 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 .consult domain?
You can’t yet. ICANN publishes every applied-for string on Reveal Day, 7 October 2026 at 18:00 UTC. A .consult name can only be registered after that, once the string is delegated and its registry opens. Last round's closest parallel to .consult was .consulting, delegated on 1 April 2014.
Is .consult a real TLD?
Not yet. .consult is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because .consult is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list of applied-for strings. Every entry on this page links to its source.
“IRI2679T-T60293 · Intercap Registry Inc. · primary · contention set 2026-49 VSL2633T-T13908 · Vinyl Strings, LLC · primary · contention set 2026-49”ICANN
“IRI2679T-T60293 · Intercap Registry Inc. · primary · contention set 2026-49 SRL2616T-T94477 · Squarespace Registry LLC · replacement string of .firm · Deactivated VSL2633T-T13908 · Vinyl Strings, LLC · primary · contention set 2026-49”ICANN
- Band chosen: 30-49 (usable but limited). The string is a plain English verb/noun with an obvious meaning and a real, global buyer group (consultants and advisory practices), so names like firm.consult or yourname.consult read naturally as a primary identity; that keeps it above the 10-29 vanity band. It is not in the 50-69 band because, by analogy (flagged), the closest existing TLD, .consulting from the earlier new-gTLD round, has by my qualitative recollection remained a modest-volume, price-driven namespace rather than a category default, and consulting firms overwhelmingly keep .com or country-code identities; a shorter sibling string is unlikely to change that dynamic within 5 years and would split an already thin market. Aftermarket demand for such descriptive service TLDs has, by analogy, been thin and mostly end-user rather than investor driven. Two confirmed applicants (Intercap Registry Inc. and Vinyl Strings, LLC, per the verified record) indicate the string is seen as commercially viable by more than one party, which modestly supports adoption likelihood but does not change the market ceiling. Main market uncertainty: whether .consult differentiates enough from .consulting to attract genuine primary-identity use among solo consultants, or whether it mainly collects defensive and speculative registrations at promotional pricing.