.index
Is .index a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
.index is contested: 2 applications for it are on ICANN’s Reveal Day list, as of 7 October 2026. They are NextGEN TLDs and Link Freedom Group. Intercap named .index as a backup string for its .stats 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
None of the two runs a TLD today.
Will names sell?
A real word with meaning in data, docs, and finance, but few serious projects would make .index their main web address.
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. .index’s closest 2012 strings hold .directory 16K, .guide 21K and .search 1.
The nearest 2012 strings, and how many names each holds today
The closest 2012 string, .directory, held 16,309 names, June 2026. .guide held 21,059; .search held 1. Chosen by AI from every string in the 2012 round, without being told what happened to any of them.
Same bet exactly: an abstract generic noun for an organized listing, sold to aggregators and listing publishers who want the TLD itself to declare what the site is, and it only works if enough of those operators will re-root their primary identity on a descriptive suffix.
Also a generic reference-artifact noun bought by curators and compilers of information rather than by a company or community, though it leans editorial/human-written where index leans mechanical/comprehensive.
Same family of findability-infrastructure generics — a bare functional noun whose buyers are discovery and retrieval operators — but it names the act of looking rather than the compiled record, so the identity it confers is a service rather than a catalog.
Where they meet elsewhere
Link Freedom Group and Intercap face each other in 31 contests this round, .index included.
- Link Freedom Group × Intercap
- Link Freedom Group × NextGEN TLDs
- Intercap × NextGEN TLDs
developers and data/search infrastructure teams building index or catalog products, plus fintech projects themed around market or fund indexes and documentation or directory sites
What a .index domain is
.index is not a TLD yet. It is a string on our record of the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, in our Infrastructure category. 2 applications for it are on ICANN’s Reveal Day list.
Is the .index domain extension real yet?
.index 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 .index domain?
You can’t yet. A .index 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 .index was .directory, delegated on 19 November 2013.
Is .index a real TLD?
Not yet. .index is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because .index is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list of applied-for strings. Every entry on this page links to its source.
- Intercap · first recordedICANN
- NextGEN TLDs · first recordedICANN
- Link Freedom Group · now confirmedICANN
- Link Freedom Group · first recordedLink Freedom Group
“IRI2679T-T90957 · Intercap Registry Inc. · replacement string of .stats · Deactivated LFGL2683T-T63176 · Link Freedom Group Ltd · primary · contention set 2026-119 NTG2671T-T62555 · NextGEN TLDs GmbH · primary · contention set 2026-119”ICANN
“LFGL2683T-T63176 · Link Freedom Group Ltd · primary · contention set 2026-119 NTG2671T-T62555 · NextGEN TLDs GmbH · primary · contention set 2026-119”ICANN
“.index · Infra · “Everything in its right place.””Link Freedom Group
- Band: usable but limited (30-49). The string is a genuine dictionary word with plausible end-uses across several verticals over the next 5 years: search and database infrastructure (an 'index' is a core primitive), documentation and catalog sites (the index.html idiom gives it developer resonance), and finance (market and fund indexes). That semantic breadth keeps it out of the 10-29 vanity band: registrations at some volume are plausible and a handful of primary-identity uses by index-themed products are credible. It stays below the 50-69 strong-niche band because, by analogy (flagged as analogy) with other descriptive-noun infrastructure TLDs such as .systems, .network, .solutions and .directory, these strings tend to attract volume on price and defensive or secondary registrations rather than sustained primary-identity demand, and the word 'index' rarely names a business outright, so the brand signal is weak and the aftermarket is likely thin. The finance vertical, which has the deepest pockets, is conservative about namespaces and would need convincing to leave incumbent extensions for a novel one. Applicant context: the string is one entry in a very large portfolio filing (LFG, more than 300 strings in the 2026 round, catalog category 'Infra'), which is neutral for the string itself but suggests broad portfolio economics rather than a single-string category push; specific launch marketing plans are unknown. Main market uncertainty: whether the finance/index-fund vertical or the developer-tools vertical produces any cluster of primary-identity adopters, versus the TLD settling into low-price volume registrations; that split spans roughly the 30s versus the low 50s on this scale.