.key
Is .key a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
.key is contested: 7 applications for it are on ICANN’s Reveal Day list, as of 7 October 2026. They are XServer, XYZ Registry, GoDaddy Registry, .top (Zhongze), Identity Digital, ShortDot and Link Freedom Group. Radix named .key as a backup string for its .pharma application. ICANN deactivated it, because another applicant applied for the same string or named it as a backup. Intercap named .key as a backup string for its .wallet 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
Five of the seven already run TLDs, 45.96M names between them. Link Freedom Group and XServer run none.
Will names sell?
A catchy word for security and access, but most serious projects will keep their main name elsewhere; expect niche use over volume.
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. .key’s closest 2012 strings hold .pin 2, .link 310K and .safe 2.
The nearest 2012 strings, and how many names each holds today
The closest 2012 string, .pin, held 2 names, June 2026. .link held 310,085; .safe held 2. Chosen by AI from every string in the 2012 round, without being told what happened to any of them.
Same bet: a one-syllable everyday object-noun that doubles as a security credential, with no industry that would claim it as a category, so the registry is selling the metaphor and the memorability rather than a defined registrant base.
Same bet on a short, function-flavored common noun that nobody puts their primary identity on but everybody can borrow for a phrase or a product name, monetized as a broad open string rather than a vertical.
Same bet that the connotation of security and trust is the product — a plain English word bought for what it implies about the registrant, not because a locksmith or a security vendor needs it as a category home.
Where they meet elsewhere
Identity Digital and XYZ Registry face each other in 77 contests this round, .key included.
- Identity Digital × XYZ Registry
- Identity Digital × Link Freedom Group
- Identity Digital × GoDaddy Registry
- Link Freedom Group × XYZ Registry
- Identity Digital × Radix
security and identity startups (passkeys, API keys, encryption, password tools), crypto-wallet projects, plus locksmiths, real-estate and access-control businesses wanting a literal, memorable label
What a .key domain is
.key is not a TLD yet. It is a string on our record of the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, in our AI & tech category. 7 applications for it are on ICANN’s Reveal Day list.
Is the .key domain extension real yet?
.key 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 .key domain?
You can’t yet. A .key 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 .key was .pin, delegated on 5 December 2015.
Is .key a real TLD?
Not yet. .key is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because .key is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list of applied-for strings. Every entry on this page links to its source.
- 2 applicants · first recordedICANN
- 5 applicants · first recordedICANN
- 2 applicants · now confirmedICANN
- ShortDot · now announced
- ShortDot · first recordedShortDot (Ireland) Limited
- Link Freedom Group · first recordedLink Freedom Group
The source’s 7 linesHide the lines
HS2699T-T48600 · Heir Superiority, LLC · primary · contention set 2026-127 LFGL2683T-T28609 · Link Freedom Group Ltd · primary · contention set 2026-127 LL2624T-T70470 · LeapSense Limited · primary · contention set 2026-127 NA2626T-T31004 · ShortDot (Ireland) Limited · primary · contention set 2026-127 NA2631T-T58531 · Registry Services, LLC · primary · contention set 2026-127 XI2694T-T18057 · XRegistry Incorporated · primary · contention set 2026-127 XL2625T-T48854 · XYZ.COM LLC · primary · contention set 2026-127
The source’s 9 linesHide the lines
HS2699T-T48600 · Heir Superiority, LLC · primary · contention set 2026-127 IRI2679T-T48471 · Intercap Registry Inc. · replacement string of .wallet · Deactivated LFGL2683T-T28609 · Link Freedom Group Ltd · primary · contention set 2026-127 LL2624T-T70470 · LeapSense Limited · primary · contention set 2026-127 NA2626T-T31004 · ShortDot (Ireland) Limited · primary · contention set 2026-127 NA2631T-T58531 · Registry Services, LLC · primary · contention set 2026-127 RTIS2674T-T66200 · Radix Technologies Inc SEZC · replacement string of .pharma · Deactivated XI2694T-T18057 · XRegistry Incorporated · primary · contention set 2026-127 XL2625T-T48854 · XYZ.COM LLC · primary · contention set 2026-127
“ShortDot (Ireland) Limited has submitted 40 applications to ICANN's 2026 New gTLD Program. The 80 strings shown include applied-for and designated replacement strings across ShortDot's 40 ICANN applications, presented without revealing their status or pairing.”ShortDot (Ireland) Limited
“.key · AI & Tech · “Open doors, new possibilities.””Link Freedom Group
- Band chosen: 30-49, usable but limited. The string is a short, concrete English word with several honest semantic hooks: cryptographic keys, API keys, passkeys, and the physical keys of real estate and access control. That gives it real registration surface and some clever left-of-dot potential (an API or wallet endpoint reading as a natural phrase), which keeps it out of the 10-29 vanity band; this is more than a joke string. It does not reach 50-69 because there is no sign, judged qualitatively, of a coherent buyer community treating a word like this as primary identity: security vendors are conservative brands that concentrate on incumbent namespaces, and by analogy (flagged as analogy) semantically adjacent security-themed generics have historically leaned on defensive or low-price registrations rather than flagship use, while broad-meaning single nouns without a community anchor tend to underperform focused developer strings. The meaning is also split across unrelated markets (crypto, physical locks, real estate, music), which dilutes any single category standard from forming. Applicant context: the string was announced by Link Freedom Group, which filed more than 300 strings in the ICANN 2026 round and published its list ahead of Reveal Day; a portfolio applicant of that breadth suggests marketing attention per string may be spread thin, tempering adoption likelihood, stated neutrally. Main market uncertainty over the next 5 years: whether the passkey and machine-identity wave produces developer-facing naming conventions where a .key address is functionally attractive, or whether that traffic stays on established developer TLDs and subdomains.