.drone
Is .drone a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
.drone is contested: 3 applications for it are on ICANN’s Reveal Day list, as of 7 October 2026. They are GoDaddy Registry, Identity Digital and Link Freedom Group.
Who is applying, and what they run today
Two of the four already run TLDs, 22.02M names between them. Two run one of .drone's closest 2012 strings: Identity Digital .bike and Identity Digital .camera. Journey To The West and Link Freedom Group run none.
Will names sell?
A clear label for drone companies and hobbyists, but most serious drone businesses will likely keep .com as their front door.
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. .drone’s closest 2012 strings hold .camera 3K, .bike 17K and .motorcycles 17K.
The nearest 2012 strings, and how many names each holds today
The closest 2012 string, .camera, held 3,478 names, June 2026. .bike held 17,140; .motorcycles held 17,283. Chosen by AI from every string in the 2012 round, without being told what happened to any of them.
Same bet: an unowned singular device-category noun whose registrant base is manufacturers, retailers, repair/rental shops and enthusiasts, and which only works if people in a hardware category prefer category identity over a .com.
Same three-legged category play — makers, dealers/service operators, and a hobbyist community all putting primary identity on the machine's generic name — though bikes were a mature, already-crowded namespace where drones are a category still forming.
Also a generic vehicle-class noun sold to dealers, commercial operators and clubs, betting that the machine category itself is a strong enough identity anchor; it differs mainly in being plural and in having no commercial-services or regulated-operator wing the way a drone string does.
Where they meet elsewhere
Identity Digital and Link Freedom Group face each other in 68 contests this round, .drone included.
- Identity Digital × Link Freedom Group
- Identity Digital × GoDaddy Registry
- Link Freedom Group × GoDaddy Registry
drone service operators, UAV hardware and software startups, aerial photography and inspection firms, plus hobbyist communities and retailers wanting a self-describing address.
What a .drone domain is
.drone is not a TLD yet. It is a string on our record of the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, in our AI & tech category. 3 applications for it are on ICANN’s Reveal Day list.
Is the .drone domain extension real yet?
.drone 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 .drone domain?
You can’t yet. A .drone 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 .drone was .camera, delegated on 6 November 2013.
Is .drone a real TLD?
Not yet. .drone is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because .drone is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list of applied-for strings. Every entry on this page links to its source.
- Journey To The West · now abandonedICANN
- 2 applicants · first recordedICANN
- Link Freedom Group · now confirmedICANN
- Journey To The West · first recordedJourney To The West Corporation
- Link Freedom Group · first recordedLink Freedom Group
“AM2619T-T43322 · Acid Medal, LLC · primary · contention set 2026-71 LFGL2683T-T41681 · Link Freedom Group Ltd · primary · contention set 2026-71 NA2631T-T83421 · Registry Services, LLC · primary · contention set 2026-71”ICANN
“.drone · Energy & Mobility · “Eyes in the sky, guided from the ground.””Journey To The West Corporation
“.drone · AI & Tech · “Above it all, always moving.””Link Freedom Group
- Band chosen: 30-49, usable but limited. The string names a real, growing hardware-and-services industry (delivery, inspection, agriculture, defense-adjacent, hobbyist), so genuine registrations at volume are plausible, which keeps it above the 10-29 vanity band; demand here is industry-anchored, not event-driven. But by analogy (flagged as such) product-noun TLDs such as .bike, .camera, and .auto have tended to see modest registration bases, weak primary-identity adoption, and thin aftermarkets, because established firms in equipment categories default to .com and treat the noun TLD as defensive or secondary. That analogy is why .drone does not reach the 50-69 strong-niche band: there is little sign that a drone startup gains credibility from the suffix the way a crypto project does from .io-style namespaces, and the best commercial names (delivery.drone, survey.drone) invite brand-confusion fights with incumbents rather than clean primary identities. Regulatory framing of the industry varies by country, and specific market-size or registration figures are unknown. The applicant, Link Freedom Group, filed more than 300 strings in the ICANN 2026 round, the largest applicant of the round, and lists this string under 'AI & Tech' with the tagline 'Above it all, always moving.'; a broad-portfolio applicant suggests a volume registry model rather than an industry-partnership launch, which tempers adoption expectations. Main market uncertainty: whether autonomous-drone services scale into a consumer-facing category within 5 years, which would create branding demand the product-noun analogy underweights.