.links
Is .links a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
.links is not contested. One application for it is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list, as of 7 October 2026. It is Link Freedom Group.
Who is applying, and what they run today
Link Freedom Group filed 158 applications across the round.
Will names sell?
A generic plural for link tools and golf sites; workable and easy to grasp, but the singular .link likely soaks up most serious demand.
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. .links’s closest 2012 strings hold .link 310K, .click 873K and .site 2.10M.
The nearest 2012 strings, and how many names each holds today
The closest 2012 string, .link, held 310,085 names, June 2026. .click held 873,213; .site held 2,103,869. Chosen by AI from every string in the 2012 round, without being told what happened to any of them.
The identical bet one letter shorter: a bare web-primitive noun sold as generic connective infrastructure to redirect/short-link services and anyone who wants the URL itself to describe the act of pointing somewhere, not a business category.
Same class of bet — a web-native action word with no industry vertical behind it, monetized as cheap utility real estate for redirects, campaign links and disposable short URLs rather than as a company's primary identity.
Another generic noun for a web object itself, betting that people will pay for a self-describing internet-plumbing word, though it aims at hosting/presence identity while .links aims at the pointer rather than the destination.
link-in-bio and URL-shortener startups, creator-tool builders, plus golf courses and clubs (where 'links' is the native word); secondarily, directory and curation projects wanting a literal label.
What a .links domain is
.links is not a TLD yet. It is a string on our record of the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, in our AI & tech category. One application for it is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list.
Is the .links domain extension real yet?
.links 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 .links domain?
You can’t yet. A .links 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 .links was .link, delegated on 18 January 2014.
Is .links a real TLD?
Not yet. .links is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because .links is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list of applied-for strings. Every entry on this page links to its source.
- Link Freedom Group · now confirmedICANN
- Link Freedom Group · first recordedLink Freedom Group
“LFGL2683T-T60285 · Link Freedom Group Ltd · primary”ICANN
“.links · AI & Tech · “Ties that bind, connections that last.””Link Freedom Group
- Band chosen: 30-49 (usable but limited). It is not in the 50-69 band because plural dictionary strings sitting next to an established singular sibling tend to become the second-choice namespace: by analogy, plural/singular TLD pairs (e.g. .photo vs .photos, .review vs .reviews, .deal vs .deals) have historically split thin demand rather than doubling it, and .link already occupies the shortener/redirect mind-space, so a serious project reaching for a link-product identity would more naturally take the singular (analogy-based inference; specific registration figures for these TLDs are unknown). It is not in the 10-29 band because 'links' is a genuinely useful generic word with at least two real buyer pools: the link-in-bio/creator-tooling category, which is an active product space where a name like brand.links reads naturally as a product URL, and golf, where 'links' is the native term for a course, giving a small but durable end-use niche. The applicant's own catalog files it under AI & Tech, which fits the tooling use case, though the string itself carries no AI signal. Over the next 5 years I expect volume-and-price registrations with scattered genuine primary-identity use and a thin aftermarket. Main market uncertainty: whether the link-in-bio/creator-tools category keeps growing and standardizes on domain-based identities at all, versus staying inside platform handles, since that category is the only path to demand above hobby level.