.folder
Is .folder a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
Nobody has applied for .folder in its own right, as of 7 October 2026. Intercap named .folder as the replacement string of its .files application.
A cute label for file-sharing or storage links, but few serious projects would make .folder their main address.
file-sharing, cloud-storage and document-collaboration tools wanting a descriptive link suffix, plus hobbyists building personal archives or portfolio drops
No applications recorded for this TLD yet.
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 as .folder: a mundane, unowned noun from the desktop/filesystem metaphor, with no industry that owns it, where the value proposition is that a file or document product (or a general-purpose personal hub) puts its primary identity on the object users already name every day.
Also a one-word generic container noun repurposed from the physical world to digital storage, bought on near-universal recognition rather than a defined registrant pool — though 'box' carries competing everyday meanings that 'folder' does not.
Another plain storage-container word from the same consumer-cloud vocabulary, betting that a storage or file-sync product can claim the generic term for the place things are kept, with the same weakness that it is a utility word rather than a category anyone must register in.
What a .folder domain is
.folder is not a TLD yet. It is a string on our record of the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, filed under AI & tech. Nobody has applied for .folder in its own right. It is named on ICANN’s list as part of an application for another string.
Is the .folder domain extension real yet?
.folder is not yet a domain extension you can register: nothing resolves under it, and no registrar sells names in it. Nobody has applied for it on the public record; the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round is the process that would decide whether it becomes one.
When can you buy a .folder domain?
You can’t yet. ICANN publishes every applied-for string on Reveal Day, 7 October 2026 at 18:00 UTC. A .folder name can only be registered after that, once the string is delegated and its registry opens. Last round's closest parallel to .folder was .docs, delegated on 18 December 2014.
Is .folder a real TLD?
Not yet. .folder is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because ICANN’s list names .folder as part of an application for another string. Every entry on this page links to its source.
- Intercap · first recordedICANN
“IRI2679T-T20440 · Intercap Registry Inc. · replacement string of .files”ICANN
“EDI2665T-T28371 · Endpoint Domains, Inc. · primary IRI2679T-T96997 · Intercap Registry Inc. · replacement string of .wiz · Deactivated NA2626T-T63059 · ShortDot (Ireland) Limited · replacement string of .ask · Deactivated XL2625T-T48604 · XYZ.COM LLC · replacement string of .con · Deactivated”ICANN
- Band chosen: 10-29 (vanity/narrow). The string is a plain English noun tied to a computing concept, which gives it an obvious reading (share.folder, team.folder) but little identity value: a folder is a container inside a product, not a thing a company or project is named after. By analogy (flagged as analogy), the storage-flavoured strings from the 2012 round — .storage, .download, .cloud — split sharply: .cloud found a mid-sized market because 'cloud' names a whole industry, while .storage and similar single-object nouns stayed thin and sold mostly on price or in defensive bundles. .folder sits closer to the object-noun end than the industry-noun end, so I do not place it in 30-49, which would require registrations at real volume or a plausible category of businesses adopting it as primary identity; I see neither in the next five years. It is above 1-9 because the word is universally understood, pronounceable, and a storage or collaboration product could plausibly use it for shareable short links or a product-feature namespace, which is a real if event-driven demand pocket. The facts record it as a replacement string for a .files application by Intercap Registry Inc.; that it exists as the fallback to a stronger sibling string informs, neutrally, that it is unlikely to be the operator's flagship. Main market uncertainty: whether any large file-sharing or cloud-storage platform adopts a .folder namespace for user links, which would create usage without resale value.