.factory
Is .factory a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
.factory is contested: 4 applications for it are on ICANN’s Reveal Day list, as of 7 October 2026. They are XYZ Registry, Identity Digital, USA Made in America and Link Freedom Group.
Who is applying, and what they run today
Two of the five already run TLDs, 26.76M names between them. Three run one of .factory's closest 2012 strings: Identity Digital .farm, Identity Digital .studio and Identity Digital .works. Journey To The West, Link Freedom Group and USA Made in America run none.
Will names sell?
A likable maker-and-studio word, but most serious brands would treat a .factory address as a side project name, not their main identity.
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. .factory’s closest 2012 strings hold .studio 197K, .farm 28K and .works 39K.
The nearest 2012 strings, and how many names each holds today
The closest 2012 string, .studio, held 196,756 names, June 2026. .farm held 27,960; .works held 38,635. Chosen by AI from every string in the 2012 round, without being told what happened to any of them.
Same bet: a singular, generic place-of-work noun that a business puts its whole identity on because it literally is one (recording/design studio) while also carrying a metaphorical maker-brand halo for everyone else.
Same bet: a singular physical site-of-production noun sold to the people who actually operate one, with a second life as a metaphor (server farm / idea factory) that widens the buyer pool beyond the literal trade.
Same industrial-premises concept aimed at makers and trades, but the bet leans on the verb-phrase wordplay ('it works') rather than purely on operators of a plant claiming their own building's name.
Where they meet elsewhere
Identity Digital and XYZ Registry face each other in 77 contests this round, .factory included.
- Identity Digital × XYZ Registry
- Identity Digital × Link Freedom Group
- XYZ Registry × Link Freedom Group
creative studios, maker brands, product design shops, and manufacturing or industrial-tech companies that want a workshop-flavored name; secondarily AI teams branding automated 'factories' for content or agents
What a .factory domain is
.factory is not a TLD yet. It is a string on our record of the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, in our Commerce category. 4 applications for it are on ICANN’s Reveal Day list.
Is the .factory domain extension real yet?
.factory 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 .factory domain?
You can’t yet. A .factory 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 .factory was .studio, delegated on 8 July 2015.
Is .factory a real TLD?
Not yet. .factory is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because .factory 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
- 2 applicants · now confirmedICANN
- Journey To The West · first recordedJourney To The West Corporation
- USA Made in America · first recordedGlobeNewswire (USA Made in America Inc.)
- Link Freedom Group · first recordedLink Freedom Group
The source’s 4 linesHide the lines
LFGL2683T-T97114 · Link Freedom Group Ltd · primary · contention set 2026-79 PB2674T-T51491 · Paws Button, LLC · primary · contention set 2026-79 UMIA2681T-T53765 · USA MADE IN AMERICA INC. · primary · contention set 2026-79 XL2625T-T92094 · XYZ.COM LLC · primary · contention set 2026-79
“.factory · Trade & Logistics · “Where ideas become products, at scale.””Journey To The West Corporation
“Yup we filed with the SEC on Friday. We absolutely love the name.”Domain Name Wire (Andrew Allemann)
“After selling .CLUB to GoDaddy in 2021 Colin started his new quest by teaming up with long-time colleague Michele Van Tilborg to create a new company - USA Made in America Inc.”NamePros (via DNJournal, Ron Jackson)
“.factory · Commerce · “Where ideas become tangible.””Link Freedom Group
- Band chosen: 30-49, usable but limited. The string is a common, concrete English word with genuine brand currency: many studios, agencies, and product shops style themselves as a 'factory', and the maker/industrial aesthetic gives it more brand warmth than a dry trade term. By analogy (flagged as analogy) to creative-workshop TLDs like .studio and to building-trade strings like .build or .construction, the realistic outcome over the next 5 years is steady but modest registration demand, occasional real primary-identity use by design-forward brands, and a thin aftermarket concentrated in a handful of dictionary-word pairings. It is not in the 50-69 band because sustained primary-identity adoption is speculative rather than demonstrated: 'factory' reads as a descriptor of a place, and most manufacturers and studios already anchor identity on .com or a country code, so choosing .factory would still need explaining to customers. It is not in the 10-29 band because the word is broad, positive, and category-spanning rather than a joke or event-driven novelty, and the fact that two applicants announced competing bids for this string in the 2026 round, one led by a team whose founder previously built and sold the .CLUB registry, signals that experienced operators see a marketable namespace, which modestly raises expected go-to-market energy behind it. Main market uncertainty: whether the creative-studio and AI-automation crowd embraces 'factory' as an identity suffix the way comparable groups embraced workshop-style TLDs (analogy), or whether the word stays literal-industrial and sells mainly at discount volume.