.faq
Is .faq a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
.faq is not contested. One application for it is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list, as of 7 October 2026. It is Innovation Service Limited. Identity Digital named .faq as a backup string for its .node application. ICANN deactivated it, because another applicant applied for the same string or named it as a backup. CyberPeace named .faq as a backup string for its .aid application. ICANN deactivated it, because another applicant applied for the same string or named it as a backup.
A handy redirect for a help page, not a home: few serious projects would make a .faq address their main identity.
brands and software products that want a short, self-explanatory address for their help centre or support pages, plus a few knowledge-base and documentation sites
Named on the ICANN gTLD application list, 7 October 2026 as a replacement (backup) string of the applicant's .aid application, shown as deactivated: another applicant applied for the same string or named it as a backup
Named on the ICANN gTLD application list, 7 October 2026 as a replacement (backup) string of the applicant's .node 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 exactly: a generic service-utility label nobody makes their primary identity, sold to companies as a second, purpose-built address for their customer-answer layer, so the registry's revenue depends on brands bothering to run a separate support hostname.
Also a functional noun for the post-sale answer desk rather than a category anyone trades as a destination brand, with the same dependency on corporate adoption of a dedicated help namespace plus a thin long tail of IT-services firms.
Another short content-type label for a body of informational pages that sits beside a company's real brand rather than replacing it, though it skews to technical documentation owners (software, products) instead of the broader consumer-question use that an answer-page string serves.
What a .faq domain is
.faq 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 .faq domain extension real yet?
.faq 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 .faq domain?
You can’t yet. ICANN publishes every applied-for string on Reveal Day, 7 October 2026 at 18:00 UTC. A .faq name can only be registered after that, once the string is delegated and its registry opens. Last round's closest parallel to .faq was .help, delegated on 16 August 2014.
Is .faq a real TLD?
Not yet. .faq is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because .faq is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list of applied-for strings. Every entry on this page links to its source.
“ISL2626T-T43193 · Innovation Service Limited · primary”ICANN
“C2595-T79030 · CyberPeace · replacement string of .aid · Deactivated ISL2626T-T43193 · Innovation Service Limited · primary TT2652T-T75877 · Toddler Logic, LLC · replacement string of .node · Deactivated”ICANN
- Band chosen: 10-29 (vanity/narrow). The string reads instantly as 'frequently asked questions', which gives it one obvious use: a secondary address pointing at an existing site's help section (brand.faq). That is a redirect job, not a primary identity, so it does not reach the 30-49 band, which needs volume or price-driven registrations and at least occasional serious primary use; by analogy (flagged as analogy) the utility strings closest to it — .help, .support, .guide, .how, .wiki — have in my understanding stayed small, with little aftermarket and few sites using them as the main address, and .faq is narrower than any of those because it names a page type rather than a site type. It sits above the 1-9 band because the meaning is universal, the word is short, and some brands and SaaS products plausibly register their own name for a support redirect, which is a real if shallow market over the next 5 years. Whether the record's applicant will position it with low pricing and wide registrar distribution — the one lever that could lift it toward the 30-49 band as a cheap defensive/redirect string — is unknown. Main market uncertainty: whether help-centre tooling or a large brand ever treats brand.faq as the canonical support address rather than one more redirect, which would be the only route to sustained demand.