.development
Is .development a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
.development is not contested. One application for it is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list, as of 7 October 2026. It is Identity Digital. XYZ named .development as a backup string for its .mad application. ICANN deactivated it, because another applicant applied for the same string or named it as a backup.
Long and generic, and .dev already owns the software meaning; some real-estate and NGO use, little brand lift or resale value.
real-estate and property developers, international-development organizations, and software shops wanting a descriptive secondary or redirect domain rather than a primary brand
Named on the ICANN gTLD application list, 7 October 2026 as a replacement (backup) string of the applicant's .mad 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.
It is the same word in short form making the identical bet — that a work-activity label used by the software trade becomes the primary address of the people who do that work rather than a brand or a place.
Same bet shape: a long abstract discipline noun that practices and firms adopt as their own identity because the word names what they do, with no owner able to claim it.
Also a generic multi-industry activity noun sold to service firms as a self-description, so it depends on the same thing being true — that professionals prefer naming their function over naming themselves — though it carries none of the technical-audience pull.
What a .development domain is
.development is not a TLD yet. It is a string on our record of the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, filed under AI & tech. One application for it is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list.
Is the .development domain extension real yet?
.development 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 .development domain?
You can’t yet. ICANN publishes every applied-for string on Reveal Day, 7 October 2026 at 18:00 UTC. A .development name can only be registered after that, once the string is delegated and its registry opens. Last round's closest parallel to .development was .dev, delegated on 18 December 2014.
Is .development a real TLD?
Not yet. .development is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because .development is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list of applied-for strings. Every entry on this page links to its source.
- Band chosen: 10-29 (vanity/narrow), near its top. The string is a long dictionary word with split meanings (software, real estate, international/economic development, personal growth), and the dominant software sense is already served by the shorter .dev, which by analogy captures most developer-identity demand; a long synonym of an established short TLD tends to collect redirect and defensive registrations rather than primary identities (inference from analogy). Analogous long descriptive strings such as .technology, .engineering, .construction and .software show, by analogy, real but modest registration bases driven largely by promotional pricing, weak brand signal, and thin aftermarkets. It is not in the 30-49 band because volume-on-price registrations are unlikely to be sustained for a string this long with a direct short substitute, and primary-identity use would need explaining in every sector it touches; it is not below 10-29 because the word has genuine multi-sector meaning, so a small set of property developers, NGOs and agencies could plausibly use it as a real address. Applicant on the record: Vinyl Strings, LLC, single confirmed application, no contention recorded; that is a neutral fact and does not change the market judgment. Main market uncertainty: whether real-estate and international-development buyers, who have no short alternative like .dev, adopt it as a primary identity at any meaningful scale, or whether they stay on .com and country codes. Registration volumes, pricing, and comparable TLD figures are unknown from the facts block and are reasoned only by analogy.