.grow
Is .grow a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
.grow is contested: 2 applications for it are on ICANN’s Reveal Day list, as of 7 October 2026. They are GoDaddy Registry and Identity Digital. XYZ Registry named .grow as a backup string for its .bakery application. ICANN deactivated it, because another applicant applied for the same string or named it as a backup. Intercap named .grow as a backup string for its .well application. ICANN deactivated it, because another applicant applied for the same string or named it as a backup. Link Freedom Group named .grow as a backup string for its .brain application. ICANN deactivated it, because another applicant applied for the same string or named it as a backup.
Who is applying, and what they run today
Two of the two already run TLDs, 22.02M names between them. One runs one of .grow's closest 2012 strings: Identity Digital .live.
Will names sell?
A warm, aspirational word that suits gardening, wellness, and growth brands, but it is too broad to become the go-to address anywhere.
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. .grow’s closest 2012 strings hold .build 12K, .live 672K and .save 2.
The nearest 2012 strings, and how many names each holds today
The closest 2012 string, .build, held 11,620 names, June 2026. .live held 671,869; .save held 2. Chosen by AI from every string in the 2012 round, without being told what happened to any of them.
Same bet: a short imperative verb sold as an open generic that has to work twice over — as a literal trade vertical (construction/agriculture) and as a metaphor any business can adopt (build/grow a company) — with no single defined registrant class that owns it.
Same bet in that it is an aspirational verb rather than a category noun, monetized by selling a feeling to a diffuse mix of lifestyle, media and brand registrants, but it lacks the concrete industry anchor that gives a verb like grow its base demand.
Same bet as an outcome-promise verb — the string sells the result the registrant delivers rather than naming what they are — which pulls the same kind of marketing-led buyer but leaves the registry with no natural community to defend the string.
Where they meet elsewhere
Identity Digital and XYZ Registry face each other in 77 contests this round, .grow included.
- Identity Digital × XYZ Registry
- Identity Digital × Link Freedom Group
- Identity Digital × GoDaddy Registry
- Link Freedom Group × XYZ Registry
- Identity Digital × Intercap
lifestyle and wellness brands, gardening and home-cultivation businesses, coaches, agtech startups, and growth-focused companies that want an aspirational verb as their web identity
What a .grow domain is
.grow is not a TLD yet. It is a string on our record of the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, in our Culture category. 2 applications for it are on ICANN’s Reveal Day list.
Is the .grow domain extension real yet?
.grow 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 .grow domain?
You can’t yet. A .grow 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 .grow was .build, delegated on 18 January 2014.
Is .grow a real TLD?
Not yet. .grow is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because .grow is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list of applied-for strings. Every entry on this page links to its source.
“CD2694T-T10513 · Coffee Danger, LLC · primary · contention set 2026-103 NA2631T-T18807 · Registry Services, LLC · primary · contention set 2026-103”ICANN
The source’s 5 linesHide the lines
CD2694T-T10513 · Coffee Danger, LLC · primary · contention set 2026-103 IRI2679T-T81159 · Intercap Registry Inc. · replacement string of .well · Deactivated LFGL2683T-T87058 · Link Freedom Group Ltd · replacement string of .brain · Deactivated NA2631T-T18807 · Registry Services, LLC · primary · contention set 2026-103 XL2625T-T62309 · XYZ.COM LLC · replacement string of .bakery · Deactivated
“.grow · Lifestyle · “Grow beyond boundaries.””Link Freedom Group
- Band chosen: 30-49 (usable but limited). .grow is a common English verb with positive, aspirational connotations, which by analogy with other short dictionary-word gTLDs (flagged as analogy: strings like .life or .live) tends to produce meaningful registration volume, often price-driven, without producing a strong brand signal or deep aftermarket. It is not in the 50-69 band because no single category clearly concentrates demand around it: gardening, cannabis cultivation, wellness coaching, personal development, and growth-stage SaaS could each use it, but that very diffusion means adoption always needs explaining and no vertical treats it as a primary-identity default over the next 5 years. It is not in the 10-29 band because the word is broadly usable across real commercial segments rather than being a joke or event-driven string, and some serious lifestyle and agtech projects would plausibly use name.grow as a primary identity. Precise pricing, registration volumes, and comparable-TLD figures are unknown, so this reasoning is qualitative. The applicant, Link Freedom Group, filed more than 300 strings in the ICANN 2026 round and lists .grow under a Lifestyle category with the tagline 'Grow beyond boundaries.'; a large-portfolio applicant profile suggests a broad-catalog commercialization approach rather than a single-vertical push, which is neutral for the string itself but tempers expectations of concentrated category marketing. Main market uncertainty: whether one segment, most plausibly home cultivation and gardening or growth-oriented coaching and SaaS, concentrates enough demand to lift .grow from diffuse aspirational registrations into a genuine niche standard.